SENTENCE STRESS & WEAK FORM

I> Weak forms

II> Sentence stress

I> Weak formsCertain English words can be pronounced

in two different ways: strong forms and weak forms.

Weak forms are function words (do not have a dictionary meaning in the way that we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to have). auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions,

pronouns, determiners. They are more frequently pronounced in their

weak forms.

*They are STRONG in the following cases: At the end of a sentence E.g.: I come from Paris. /ai ‘kʌm frǝm ‘pæris/

Where are you from?/’weǝ ǝ j ‘fr℧ 4m/ When being contrasted with another wordE.g.: The letter’s from him, not to him/ðǝ ‘letǝz ‘fr4m im not ‘tu:

im/ A co-ordinated use of prepositionsE.g.: I travel to and from London a lot/ai ‘trævl ‘tu: ǝn ‘fr4m

‘lʌndǝn ǝ ‘l4t/ For the purpose of emphasisE.g.: You must give me more money/ju ‘mʌst ‘giv mi ‘m0: ‘mʌni/ Being “cited” or “quoted”E.g.: You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence/jʊ ‘ʃʊdnt

pʊt ‘ænd ǝt ði ‘end ǝv ǝ ‘sentǝns/ In negative formE.g.: I can’t play tennis/ai ‘kænt plei ‘tenis/

Grammatical category

Function word

Weak form Strong form

Example of weak form

Articles

the ðǝ(before consonants)ði(before vowels)

ði: She’s the person I told you about

a, an ǝ(before consonants)ǝn(before vowels)

ei,æn He’s a doctorShe’s an architect

Conjunc-tions

and ǝn(d)(n after t,d,s,z, ʃ)

ænd She’s tall and fair

but bǝt bʌt She’s here, but Juan isn’t

that ðǝt (as a rel pron & conj)

ðæt (aa a demonst)

She’s the person that I like.That car belongs to me.

than ðǝn ðæn She’s older than you

Personal pronouns

his iz(hiz at the beginning of a sentence)

hi:z This is his bookHis book is here

her ǝ(before consonants)ǝr(before vowels)hǝ(r)when sentence-initial)

hɜ: I’ll give it to her later

your jǝ(before consonants)jǝr(before vowels)

j0:(r) What does your boss think?

she ʃi ʃi: She’s leaving tomorrow

he i(hi at the beginning of a sentence)

hi: Where does he work?

we wi wi: We’ re going to do it later

you ju ju: I love you

him im him I’ll give it to him later

them ðǝm ðem I’ll give it to them later

us ǝs ʌs They’ll give it to us later

Pre-positions

at ǝt æt He’s at work

for fǝ(before consonants)fǝr(before vowels)

f0 (r) He’s gone for two weeks

from frǝm fr4m She comes from England

of ǝv ɒv That’s the picture of my sister

to tǝ(before consonants)tu(before vowels)

tu: She’s already gone to work

as ǝz æz As she’s small, she can’t attend

Indefinite adjectives

some sǝm sʌm There’s some butter in the fridge

any ǝni:/ni: eni: Have you got any biscuits?

such sǝʧ sʌʧ It’s not such a big deal, really.

Verbs

can,could kǝn, kǝd kæn,kʊd Can you lend me some money?Well, what could I say?

shall ʃǝl (ʃl) ʃæl Shall I do it for you?

should ʃǝd (ʃd) ʃʊd Well, what should I have said?

must mǝs(before consonants)mǝst(before vowels)

mʌst I must admit that I love you so much.You must do it.

would ǝd (wǝd at the beginning of a sentence)

w℧d Would you like a coffee?I’d like an ice cream.

will ǝl wil I’ll do it.

am ǝm, m æm That’s what I’m trying to say.

is ǝz, z, s iz Where’s he from?

are ǝ(before consonants),ǝr (before vowels)

a: (r) Where are you from?

was wǝz wɒz That’s where he was born.

were wǝ(before consonants), wǝr (before vowels)

wɜ: ( r) That’s where my children were born.

do dǝ(before consonants)du(beforevowels)

du: Where do you live?

does dǝz dʌz Where does she live?

have hǝv, ǝv, v hæv Have you been to the bank?He will have left by now.They’ve gone.

has hǝz, ǝz, z, s

hæz Has she been away?The baby has swallowed a stone.He’s gone

had hǝd, ǝd, d hæd Had he done it?He had already gone.He’d already gone.

Adverb

there ðǝ(before consonants, final position)ðǝr(before vowels)

ðeǝ(before consonants)ðeǝr(before vowels)

There’s a restaurant around the corner.It’s over there.

* Note:

That: -used as a relative pronoun and conjunction weak formE.g.: ‘The price is the thing that annoys me’ ðǝ ‘prais iz ðǝ ‘θiŋ ðǝt

ǝ’n0iz mi-used as a demonstrative strong formE.g.: ‘That girl is mine’ ðæt ‘gɜ:l iz ‘main Some: - used before uncountable nouns (“an unspecified amount

of”) and before countable plural nouns (“an unspecified number of”) à weak form

E.g.: ‘Have some more tea’ ‘hæv sǝm ‘m0: ‘ti: ‘I have some dogs’ ai ‘hæv sǝm ‘dɒgz - used before a countable singular noun (“unknown individual”) and

in final position. strong form

E.g.: ‘I think some boy broke the window’ ai ‘θiŋk sʌm ’b0i ‘brǝʊk it

‘I’ve got some’ aiv ‘g4t sʌm

There: - used as the formal subject weak form E.g.: ‘There should be a rule’ ðǝ ‘ʃ d bi ǝ ‘ru:l℧

‘There is…’ ðǝr ‘iz - used as an adverb (demonstrative function) and in final

position E.g.: ‘There it is’ ðeǝr it ‘iz ‘Put it there” ‘p t it ‘ðeǝ℧ Must: - used in the meaning of obligation or duty:E.g.: ‘You must try harder’ j mǝs℧ ‘trai ‘ha:dǝ

‘He must eat more’ hi mǝst ‘i:t ‘m0: - used with the sense of forming a conclusion or

deduction, and in final position E.g.: ‘She left at 9:00, so she must have arrived here by

now’ ʃi ‘left ǝt 9:00, sǝʊ ʃi ‘mʌst hæv ǝ’raid hiǝ bai nau ‘She certainly must’ ʃi ‘sɜ:tntli ‘mʌst

II> Sentence stress English is stressed-timed, or isochronous stresses occur at regular intervals within connected

speech, and the duration of an utterance (the amount of time it takes to say a sentence) is more dependent upon the number of syllables that receive stress, either major or minor (primary and secondary) than the total number of syllables.

To achieve the regular stress intervals, unstressed syllables are made shorter, and the vowels often lose their ‘pure’ quality, with many tending towards /ǝ/, and others towards /i/ and /ʊ/

Isochronicity might be shown as in the following example. We start with a simple sentence ; we add syllables to it on each line, but the time it takes to say the utterance remains the same.

they LIVE in an OLD HOUSE

they LIVE in a NICE OLD HOUSE

they LIVE in a LOVEly OLD HOUSE

they’ve been LIVing in a deLIGHTful OLD HOUSE

they’ve been LIVing in a deLIGHTful OLD COTTage

they’ve been LIVing in a deLIGHTful vicTORian COTTage

The occurrence of stresses remains regular, and unstressed syllables are squashed in between the stressed ones, being shorter and losing some purity of the vowel sound.

There is also a strong contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables

Placement of stress in sentences 1. Content vs. function words

English words can be divided into 2 groups: content words and function words.

Content words are those words that express independent meaning. Included in this group are:

1 nouns2 main verbs3 adverbs (always, very, almost,…)4 adjectives5 question words or interrogatives (why, when, what,…)6 demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)7 possessive pronouns (mine, yours, hers,…)8 not/negative contractions (can’t, isn’t,…)9 adverbial particles following phrasal verbs (take off, do away with,

…) Content words are usually stressed

Function words are words that have little or no meaning in themselves, but which express grammatical relationships. Function words include:

1 articles (a, an, the)2 prepositions (at, to, of, …)3 auxiliaries (will, have, forms of the verb be,…)4 personal pronouns (she, he, her, him, it, them, …)5 possessive adjectives (my, her, his,…)6 demonstrative adjectives (this book, those chairs,…)7 conjunctions (and, or, as, that, …)8 relative pronouns (that, which, who,…) Function words are usually unstressed, unless they

are to be given special attention or in final position.

2. Placement of main stress in sentences- While all content words receive major word stress, one

content word within a particular sentence will receive greater stress than all the others major sentence stress.

- In most cases the major sentence stress falls on the last content word within a sentence.

E.g.: 0 o 0 o 0 0 o o O Susan bought a new sweater at Creeds. o 0 0 o o O 0 I walked home in the rainstorm. 0 o 0 o o O o Peter likes your suggestion.

four levels of stress: major sentence stress, major word stress, minor word stress, and unstressed

I walked home in the rainstorm.Unstressed unstressed

major word stress

major sentence stress

minor word stress

‘Rain’ is also called the tonic syllable which is the most stressed syllable in an utterance.

Emphatic stress:

E.g.: 0 o o 0 o O

-What did you buy at Creeds?

o 0 o 0 O o o 0

-I bought a new sweater at Creeds

0 0 o o O o 0 o o 0 o o

-John lives in the block of flats on the corner, doesn’t he?

O o 0 o o O o o 0 o

- No, he lives in the house on the corner

Contrasted stress

E.g.: A: I heard you bought a new car.

B: No, I bought a SECOND-HAND one. choice between alternatives, for example:

E.g.: A: do you want the red one or the blue one?

B: I take the BLUE one.