11 Complex word stress
11.1 Complex words
In Chapter 10 the nature of stress was explained and some broad general rules were
given for deciding which syllable in a word should receive primary stress. The words that
were described were called "simple" words; "simple" in this context means "not composed
of more than one grammatical unit", so that, for example, the word'care' is simple while
'careful' and'careless' (beirrg composed oí two grammatical units each) are complex; 'care-
fully' arrd 'carelessness' are also complex, and are composed of three grammatical units
each. Unfortunately, as was suggested in Cl-rapter 10, it is often difficult to decide whether
a word should be treated as complex or simple. The majority of English words of more
than one syllable (polysyllabic words) have come fronr other languages whose way of
constructing words is easily recognisable; for example, we can see how combining 'mit'
with the prefixes 'per-','sub-', 'cotn-' produced'permit','submit','comrnit'- words which
have come into English from Latin. Similarly, Greek has giverr us'catalogue','analogue',
'dialogue','monologue', irr rvhich tlre prefixes 'cata-','ana-','dia-','mono-' are recognisable.
But we cannot automaticaliy treat the separate grammatical units of other languages as
if they were separate grammatical urrits of English. If we did, we would not be able to
study English morphology rr,ithout first studying the morphology of five or six other
languages, and we would be forced into ridiculous analyses such as that the English word
'parallelepiped'is composed of four or five gramrnatical units (which is the case in Ancient
Greek). We must accept, then, that the distinction between "simple" and "complex" words
is difficult to draw,
Complex rvords are of two major types:
i) words made from a basic word form (which we will call the stem), witlr the
addition of an affix; and
ii) compound words, which are made of two (or occasionally more) independent
English words (e.g.'ice cream','armchair').
We will look first at the words made with affixes, Affixes are of two sorts in English:
prefixes, rvhich come before the stem (e.g. prefix'un-' + stem'pleasant' -+ 'unpleas-
ant') and suffixes, which come after the stem (e.g, stem 'good' + suffix '-ness' -+
'goodness').
Affixes have one of three possible effects on word stress:
82
Complex word stress 83
i) The affix itself receives the primary stress (e.g. 'semi-' + 'circle' sslk| -+
'semicircle'' semrsslk|;'-ality' +'person''pslsq -)'personality' psls4'releti).
ii) The word is stressed as if the affix were not there (e.g. 'pleasant' 'plez1t,
'unpleasant' rrn'plez4t;'market''molkIt,'marketing''molkIt11).
iii) The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but is shifted to a different
syllable (e.g.'magnet''m&gnet,'magnetic' maeg'netIk).
11.2 Suffixes
There are so many suffixes that it will only be possible here to examine a small
proportion of them: we will concentrate on those which are common and productive - that
is, are applied to a considerable number of stems and could be applied to more to make
new English words. In the case of the others, foreign learners would probably be better
advised to learn the'stem + affix'combination as an individual item.
One of the problems that we encounter is that we find words which are obviously
complex but which, when we try to divide them into stem + affix, turn out to have a stem
that is difficult to imagine as an English word. For example, the word'audacity' seems to
be a complex word - but what is its stem? Another problem is that it is difficult in some
cases to know whether a word has one, or more than one, suffix for example, should we
analyse 'personality' from the point of view of stress assignment, as p3ls4 + releti or as
p3ls4 + el + eti? In the study of English word formation at a deeper level than we can
go into here, it is necessary for such reasons to distinguish between a stem (which is what
remains when affixes are removed), and a root, which is the smallest piece of lexical mate-
rial that a stem can be reduced to. So, in'personality', we could say that the suffix'-ity' is
attached to the stem'person;Ll' which contains the root 'persoď and the suffix'a1'. We will
not spend more time here on looking at these problems, but go on to look at some gen-
eralisations about suffixes and stress, using only the term 'sterď for the sake of simplicity.
The suffixes are referred to in their spelling form.
5uffixes carrying primary stress themselves Oaur1, Ex 1
In the examples given, which seem to be the most common, the primary stress
is on the first syllable of the suffix. If the stem consists of more than one syllable there
will be a secondary stress on one of the syllables of the stem. This cannot fall on the last
syllable of the stem and is, if necessary, moved to an earlier syllable. For example, in '}apan'
d3e'pren the primary stress is on the last syllable, but when we add the stress-carrying
suffix'-ese' the primary stress is on the suffix and the secondary stress is placed not on the
second syllable but on the first: '}apanese' ,d3repe'nilz.
o'-ee':'refugee',refju'd3i:;'evacuee' t,vrekju'i:
o'-eer':'mountaineer',mauntI'nre;'volunteer',VDl3n'tIe
o'-ese':'Portuguese',pc:tJe'gilz;'journalese',d3sln|'ilz
84 English Phonetics and Phonology
o'-ette']'cigarette' ISIg|'et;'launderette',lclndl'et
o'esque':'picturesque',pIktJl'esk
Suffixes that do not affect stress placement Oaurl,Ex2
.'-able':'comfort''klmfst;'comfortable''krrmfateb|
. '-age': 'anchor' 'aelke; 'anchorage' 'aelklrd3
o'-al':'refuse' (verb) rt'fjulz;'refusal' rr'fjulz|
o '-en':'wide' 'ward; 'widen' 'waId4
o'-ful':'wonder''wnnde;'wonderful''w,tndef|
o'-ing':'amaze' a' melz''amazing' e'metzItj
.'-like':'bird''bsld;'birdlike''bsldlark
o'-less':'power''paue;'powerless''pauelas
.'-lť:'hurried''h,nrtd;'hurriedly''hnrldli
o'-ment' (noun):'punish'pnntJ;'punishment''pnnlJment
.'-ness']'yellow''jeleu;'yellowness''jelaunes
o '-ous': 'poison" pclz4; 'poisonous' 'pctz4es
. '-ý', 'glory' 'glclri;'glorifr' 'glc:rrfaI
o '-Wise': 'other' 'nóa1 'otherwise' 'nóewarz
. '-y' (adjective or noun):'fun' 'fln; 'funny' 'frrni
o ('-ish' in the case of adjectives does not affect stress placement: 'devil' 'dev|;
'devilish' dev|IJ; however, verbs with stems of more than one syllable always
have the stress on the syllable immediately preceding'ish'- for example,
'replenish' rt'plenIJ,'demolish' dI'mnlrJ')
Suffixes that influence stress in the stem Oaurl,Ex3
In these examples primary stress is on the last syllable of the stem.
o'-eous':'advantage' ed'volntId3;'advantageous',aedven'teId3as
r'-graphy':'photo''feuteu;'photography' fe'tngrefi
o'-ial':'proverb''provslb;'proverbial' pre'vs:biel
o'-ic':'climate''klalmet;'climatic' klaI'maetlk
.'-ion':'perfect''pslfrkt;'perfectioď pe'fekJ4
o'-ious':'injure''rnd3e;'injurious' In'd3ueries
.'- ty':'tranquil''trrerjkwrl;'tranquillity' trel'kwIlati
o'-ive':'reflex''ri:fleks;'reflexive' rt'fleksrv
Finally, when the suffixes'-ance','-ant' and '-aíy' are attached to single-syllable
stems, the stress is almost always placed on the stem (e.g.'guidance','sealant','dietary').
When the stem has more than one syllable, the stress is on one of the syllables in the
stem. To explain this we need to use a rule based on syllable structure, as was done for
simple words in the previous chapter. If the final syllable of the stem is strong, that
syllable receives the stress. For example: 'importance' rm'pcltr,ts, 'centenary' sen'tilnli.
fl Complex word 5tře5s 85
otherwise the syllable before the last one receives the stress: 'inheritance' In'herltens,
'military' 'mrlttri.
11.3 Prefixes
We will look only briefly at prefixes. Their effect on stress does not have the cqm-
parative regularity, independence and predictability of suffixes, and there is no Prefix
of
orr" o, two syllables that always carries primary stress. Consequently, the best treatment
as those
seems to be to say that stress in words with pre{ixes is governed by the same rules
for polysyllabic words without prefixes.
11.4 comPound Words O eur1, Ex 4
The words discussed so far in this chapter have all consistecl of a stem Plus ar-r affix,
We now pass on to another type of word. This is called compound, ancl its main
charac_
teristic is that it can be analysed into two rvords, both of which can exist independently
as English worcls, Some compounds are made of more than two rvorcls, but we
will not
consider these. As lvith many of the distinctions being made in connection with stress,
may be
there are areas of uncertainty. For example, it could be argued that'photograph'
divided into two independent words,'photo' and'graph'; yet we usually do not regard
it trs a compouncl, but as a simple word. Il however, someone drew a graph displaying
numerical information about photos, this would perhaps be called a'photo-graph' and
the
rvord would then be regarded as a compouncl. Conrpounds are written in different waYs:
sonletimes they are written as one word (e.g. 'arnrchair','sunflor,ver'); sometimes with
the
words separated by a hyphen (e.g. 'open_minded', 'cost_eíTective'); and sometimes with
two words separated by a space (e.g. 'desk lamp','battery charger'). In this last case there
would be no indication to the foreign ]earner that the pair of words was to be treated
as
a compound. There is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and
pairs of
words that sirnply happen to occur together quite frequently,
As far as stress is concerned, the question is quite simple. When is primary stress
placed on the first constituent word of the compound and when on the second? Both
patterns are found. A few rules can be given, although these are not completely reliable,
P..hup, the most familiar type of compound is the one which combines two nouns and
which normally has the stress on the first element, as in:
'typervriter'
'car ferry'
'Sunrise'
'suitcase'
'teacup'
will normally fall in this way on other compounds;
It is probably safest to assume that stress
horvever, a number of compounds receive stress insteacl on the second element,
The first
86 English Phonetics and Phonology
words in such compounds often have secondary stress. For example, compounds with
an adjectival first element and the -ed morpheme at the end have this pattern (given in
spelling orrly):
bad- tempered
half- timbered
healy- handed
Compounds in which the first element is a number in some form also tend to have fina1
stress:
three- wheeler
second- class
five- firrger
Compounds functioning as adverbs are usually final-stressed:
head first
North- East
down stream
Finally, compounds which function as verbs and have an adverbial first element take final
StreSS:
down grade
back- pedal
ill- treat
1,1.5 Variable stress
It would be wrong to imagine that the stress pattern is always fixed and unchanging
in English words. Stress position may vary for one of t\,vo reasons: either as a result of the
stress on other words occurring next to the word in question, or because not all speakers
agree on the placernent of stress in some words. The former case is an aspect of connected
speech that will be encountered again in Chapter 14: the main effect is that the stress on
a f]nal-stressed compourrd tends to move to a preceding syllable and change to secondary
stress if the following word begins with a strongly stressed syllable. Thus (using some
examples from the previous section):
bad- tenrpered but a,bad-tempered'teacher
timbered
htrlf- btlt a,half-timbered'house
heavy- handed llttt a,hear,7-handed'sentence
The seconcl is not a serious problem, but is one tl-rat foreign learners should be ar,vare
oť. A well-known exanple is 'controversy', which is pronounced by some speakers as
and by others as ; it r.votrld be quite wrong to say that one version
was correct and one incorrect. Other examples of different possibilities are 'ice cream'
L
fi Complex word stress 87
(either,ars krilm or'als krilm)"kilometre'(eitherkr'lomtte or'kIlemilte) and'formidable'
('fc:mrdeb| or fcl'mrdeb|).
11.6 Word-class pairs O eurl, Ex 5
One aspect of word stress is best treated as a separate issue. There are several dozen
pairs of two-syllable words with identical spelling which differ from each other in stress
placement, apparently according to word class (noun, verb or adjective), All apptar to
consist of prefix + stem. We shall treat them as a special type of word and give them
the following rule: if a pair of prefix-plus-stem words exists, both members of which are
spelt identically, one of which is a verb and the other of which is either a noun or an
adjective, then the stress is placed on the second syllable of the verb but on the first syllable
of the noun or adjective. Some common examples are given below (V = verb, A : adjective,
N = noun):
abstract 'ebstrrekt (A) reb'strekt (V)
conduct 'kondnkt (N) ken'dnkt (V)
contract 'kontrrekt (N) ken'trakt (V)
contrast 'kontrolst (N) ken'tro:st (V)
desert 'dezet (N) dr'zs:t (V)
escort 'eskc:t (N) r'skc:t (V)
export 'ekspc:t (N) lk'spc:t (V)
import 'rmpclt (N) rm'pc:t (V)
insult 'Insnlt (N) rn's,rlt (V)
object 'nbd5ekt (N) eb'd3ekt (V)
perfect 'pslfrkt (A) pe'fekt (V)
permit 'pslmIt (N) pe'mrt (V)
present 'prezqt (N, A) prr'zent (V)
produce 'prodjuls (N) pre'djuls (V)
protest 'preutest (N) pre'test (V)
rebel 'rebl (N) rI'bel (V)
record 'rekcld (N, A) rI'kcld (V)
subject 's,rbd3ekt (N) seb'dsekt (V)
Notes on problems and furtheí řeading
Most of the reading recommended in the notes for the previous chapter is relevant
for this one too. Looking specifically at compounds, it is worth reading Fudge (1984:
Chapter 5). See also Cruttenden (2008: 242-5). If you wish to go more deeply into
compound-word stress, you should first study English word formation. Recommended
reading for this is Bauer ( 1983). On the distinction between stem and root, see Radford
et al. (1999:67-8).
88 English Phonetics and Phonology
written exeíGi§es
1 Put stress marks on the following words (try to put
secondary stress marks on as
well).
a) shopkeeper f) confirmation
b) open-ended g) eight-sided
c) }avanese h) fruitcake l
d) birthmark i) defective
e) anti-clockwise j) rooftimber
2 write the words in phonemic transcription, including
the stress marks. t
t
r
í,
r
t
l
I
í
í
t
