Suprasegmental

Phonology

Compiled By
Dr. Amaal Tayea
English Department
Ain Shams University

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 Table of Contents

1. A summary of consonants and vowels 3

2. The Basics of Syllable structure 17

3. Word Stress 28

4. Exceptions to the Compounds 52

5. Word stress and the metrical foot 54

6. Tone Unit 70 68

7. The Rules of Intonation in English 79

8. Bibliography 93

1
 Preface

This course of lectures focuses on various problems pertaining to

the domain of suprasegmental phonology. The course is meant to
add to the information our students have already acquired in the
first year and second year when studying mainly the segmental
phonology of the English language. The first part of the course
deals with stress placement in morphologically simple English
words. It also analyzes the rules for stress placement in
compounds and phrases. Vowel reduction is discussed as a result
of stress placement. A distinction is made between stress at word
level and stress at phrase and sentence level. The second part of
the course analyzes the rhythm of English. The last part of the
course focuses on intonation and its pragmatic role. Various
intonational contours are discussed in the context

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 Consonant and Vowel Sounds
of English
The consonant phonemes of Received
Pronunciation
Table 1 presents the IPA symbols for the 24 consonant phonemes
of RP.
TABLE 1: THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET
SYMBOLS FOR THE 24 CONSONANT PHONEMES OF THE
RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION ACCENT OF ENGLISH
Consonant phonemes with doubled spellings* which are rare in one-syllable words

/b/ as in the first sound of by /baɪ/

/d/ as in the first sound of dye /daɪ/

/g/ as in the first sound of goo /guː/

/m/ as in the first sound of my /maɪ/

/n/ as in the first sound of nigh /naɪ/

/p/ as in the first sound of pie /paɪ/ voiceless

/t/ as in the first sound of tie /taɪ/ voiceless

/r/ as in the first sound of rye /raɪ/

Consonant phonemes with doubled spellings* which are regular at the end of one-syllable words
after a short vowel phoneme spelt with one letter

/k/ as in the first sound of coo /kuː/ voiceless

/ʧ/ as in the first sound of chew /ʧuː/ voiceless

/f/ as in the first sound of few /fjuː/

/ʤ/ as in the first sound of jaw /ʤɔː/

/l/ as in the first sound of law /lɔː/

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/s/ as in the first sound of sue /suː/ voiceless

/v/ as in the first sound of view /vjuː/

/z/ as in the first sound of zoo /zuː/

Consonant phonemes without doubled spellings

/h/ as in the first sound of who /huː/

/ŋ/ as in the last sound of ring /rɪŋ/

/∫/ as in the third sound of fission /ˈfɪ∫ən/ voiceless

/ʒ/ as in the third sound of vision /ˈvɪʒən/

/θ/ as in the first sound of thigh /θaɪ/ voiceless

/ð/ as in the first sound of thy /ðaɪ/

/w/ as in the first sound of well /wel/

/j/ as in the first sound of yell, union /jel, ˈjuːnjən/

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The Vowel Phonemes

There are four things to know about any vowel:

1. Tongue height: is the main part of the tongue high in the

mouth or low? Three positions are recognised:
i. High: at the top of the mouth in vowels such as /iː/ and
/uː/ in beat and boot respectively.
ii. Mid: in an intermediate position in vowels such as /e/
and /ɔː/ in bet and bought respectively.
iii. Low: lying flat on the bottom of the mouth in vowels such
as /æ/ and /ɒ/ in pat and pot respectively.
2. Tongue position: where is the main part of the
tongue? Three more positions are recognised:
i. Front: with the tongue towards the front of the mouth as
in the vowels /e/ and /iː/ in bed and bead.
ii. Central: with the tongue central in the mouth in vowels
such as /ə/ and /ɜː/ in about and verse.
iii. Back: with the tongue at the back of the mouth as in the
vowels /ɒ/ and /ɑː/ as in hot and heart.

The diagram above does not concern what are known as

cardinal vowels. Cardinal vowels are a standard set of sounds
against which the vowels of any human language can be
measured and described.
The diagram here concerns the major vowels in English but

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 individual speakers will differ in their production.
Individual authorities will also differ slightly in exactly where
all the vowels are positioned on the grid. In the diagram, for
the sake of clarity, we have not allowed the sounds to overlap
but /i/ and /iː/ are formed in the same way and are
differentiated only by length and the same can be said for /ə/
and /ɜː/.

If you try saying beat, bit, bet, boot, verse, cup, cap, the, noose,
foot, hot, fought, bark you will feel the tongue position change
from left to right, top to bottom of the grid. It'll also move up and
down and forward and back depending on the vowel. Try it.
The vowels in those words are:

Word Vowel Word Vowel Word Vowel

beat iː bit ɪ bet e

boot uː verse ɜː cup ʌ

cap Æ the ə foot ʊ

hot ɒ fought ɔː bark ɑː

In that list is one vowel, /ə/ which is the first vowel sound in the
word about and the last in the word father. The example above
is the vowel sound in an unstressed version of the which occurs
before a consonant as in, e.g., the man. As you can see, it lies in
the centre of the diagram. It is the most common vowel in
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English.
We can also add a 13th vowel, /i/, which is the sound of the letter
'y' at the end of party. It is a shortened version of /iː/. Some will
not recognise this sound as a distinct vowel, conflating it with /iː/
and it is true that speakers differ in how long they make the
sound and it is also true that both sounds are high, front vowels
formed with the tongue in an identical position.

1. Length: some vowels are represented with a colon following

them. This is the length mark. Compare the sounds of /ə/
and /ɜː/, for example, in Herbert. The first is longer and the
transcription is
/ˈhɜː.bət/
Length is, of course, relative and vowels can be made longer
or shorter by any speaker of English.
There is a significant tendency in English to make vowels
slightly longer when they occur before a voiced (lenis)
consonant so before /b/, /dʒ/, /v/, /z/, /ɡ/, /d/, /ð/ and/ʒ/ the
vowels will be slightly longer than they are before /p/, /tʃ/,
/f/, /s/, /k/, /t/, /θ/ and /ʃ/. For example, the vowels in the
words on the right are longer than those on the left:

Short Long

Cap cab

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 catch cadge

Safe save

mace maze

Lock log

Cart card

2. In a broad, phonemic rather than phonetic transcription, such

as we are using here, no marking of the vowel is made to
represent this change in length.
a. Short vowels
Conventionally, there are, in English the following eight
short vowels (although the last of these is often
conflated with the first long vowel):
i. /ɪ/ as in kid or blip. To make this sound, the lips
are only slightly spread. Spreading them further
produces the longer sound /iː/ and that is a
common error for speakers whose languages do not
have the short vowel.
ii. /e/ as in dead or said.
iii. /æ/ as in hat or ban.
iv. /ʌ/ as in cup or luck.
v. /ɒ/ as in got or pot.
vi. /ʊ/ as in foot or put.

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 vii. /ə/ as in the first syllable of about and the last
of father.
viii. /i/ as at the end of happy or savvy
b. Long vowels
The following are the long vowels which are all marked
to show length with the length mark: 'ː'. The length
mark is actually only for convenience in terms of
remembering that the vowel is long. The symbols are,
with one exception, different from the short vowels even
without the length mark. The following five are the long
vowels:
i. /iː/ as in sheep or neat. It is the lengthened
version of /i/ and /ɪ/.
ii. /ɜː/ as in verse or nurse. It is the lengthened
version of /ə/ and is sometimes transcribed as /əː/.
iii. /ɑː/ as in car or bar.
iv. /ɔː/ as in taught or bought. It is the lengthened
form of /ɒ/ and that vowel is sometimes transcribed
as /ɔ/.
v. /uː/ as in moose or shoe. It is the lengthened form
of /ʊ/ and that vowel is sometimes transcribed as
/u/.
3. Lip rounding: some vowels are formed in English with
rounded lips. These are /ʊ/, /uː/, /ɔː/ and /əʊ/. Try looking
in a mirror and saying, foot, loose, caught, load. You can see

9
 the lips rounding. The amount of rounding varies and this
affects the sound. Other vowels, such as /e/ and /iː/ are not
rounded but the latter requires lateral stretching of the mouth
– say cheese.
There are three alternatives, although there is a cline from
fully rounded to fully stretched via the neutral position. If you
look at yourself in a mirror while pronouncing the vowels in
the table above, you will be able to see how your lips are
positioned for each sound:
a. rounding as in /ʊ/ or /ɔː/ etc.
b. stretching as in /iː/ or /e/ etc.
c. neutral as in /ə/ or /ɜː/ etc.

Now it's possible for you to classify thirteen vowels in English by

type, like this. It also provides a handy reference for any minimal
pair work you may like to do in the classroom to get learners to
hear and produce the differences.
A productive exercise is to take vowels which differ in only one
characteristic and use them for practice. That way, learners can
focus only on height, position, length or roundedness and are not
distracted by having to make multiple changes to distinguish the
sounds when they speak.

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 minim
Vow heig positi leng roundedne
al
el ht on th ss
pairs

/iː/ high front long stretched bit /

beat
shor
/ɪ/ high front stretched happy
t
/
shor carefr
/i/ high front stretched
t ee

shor
/ʊ/ high back rounded full /
t
fool
/uː/ high back long rounded

shor errand
/e/ mid front neutral
t /

centra shor aroun

/ə/ mid neutral d
l t

centra
/ɜː/ mid long neutral
l hurt /

shor hot
/ɒ/ mid back rounded
t

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 centra shor
/ʌ/ low neutral
l t cup /

shor cap
/æ/ low front neutral
t

/ɔː/ low back long rounded caugh

t/
/ɑː/ low back long neutral cart

The /i/ sound appears in this table but does not form part of a
minimal pair except when it is contrasted with /ɪ/ or /iː/.

For more ideas for teaching, see the guide to teaching

troublesome sounds (new tab).

Diphthongs

As we said, these are sounds made by starting with one pure vowel
and gliding towards another. There are eight of these in
English. The easiest way to remember them is to see where they
are going. There are three sorts:

1. Ending in /ə/. Because the /ə/ is the archetypal central vowel

in English, these are called the centring diphthongs and there
are three of them:

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 i. /ɪə/ as in here or beer. The sound starts with the short
vowel /ɪ/ and glides at the end to the /ə/ sound.
ii. /eə/ as in lair or pair. Start with /e/ and move to the
/ə/.
iii. /ʊə/ as the first vowel in during or (in some people's
production) pour. Start with /ʊ/ and move to /ə/.
This sound is now becoming quite rare, being confined
mostly to dialect or very careful RP speech. These days,
the vowel on words such as sure and poor is usually
transcribable as /ɔː/. It is more often present in longer
words such as individual (/ˌɪn.dɪ.ˈvɪ.dʒʊəl/).
2. Ending in /ɪ/. These are described as closing diphthongs
because the tongue moves towards the roof of the mouth,
closing off the airflow. There are also three of these:
i. /eɪ/ as in day or hay. Start with /e/ and move to /ɪ/.
ii. /aɪ/ as in price or nice. Start with a shortened /aː/ and
move to /ɪ/.
iii. /ɔɪ/ as in boy or coy. Start with /ɔ/ and move to /ɪ/. In
this diphthong, the first sound is a little more open and
shorter than the sound /ɔː/ in bought or caught.
3. Ending in /ʊ/. These are also closing diphthongs because the
tongue moves towards the roof of the mouth. There are only
two (in English):
i. /əʊ/ as in boat or vote. Start with /ə/ and move to /ʊ/.

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 ii. /aʊ/ as in south or louse. Start with a shortened /aː/
and move to /ʊ/.

The most important thing to know about diphthongs (apart from

how to produce, recognise and transcribe them) is that the initial
sound is the most recognisable with the second vowel usually being
much shorter and less distinct.

Diphthongs are a combination of two different vowel

sounds, one vowel sounds turns into another sound as you
say them. If you pronounce the words below slowly, you can
hear the two vowel sounds of the diphthongs.

Common diphthongs in English include:

• /eɪ/ as in ate, reign, vain, flavor, slay, and convey

• /əʊ/ as in toe, row, go, boat, mode, and chateau
• /aɪ/ as
in eye, I, pie, cry, cypher, climb, lime, light, kayak, Thai,
and height
• /aʊ/ as in loud, house, cow, about, Daoism, and Macau
• /ɔɪ/ as in boy, moist, and Freud

Like other languages, there are many dialects of English,

and different dialects often use different vowel sounds. But
the IPA symbols can tell us which vowel sound a dialects
uses. For example, some American English speakers
differentiate between the vowels in the

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words cot and caught, while in other dialects these words
are homophones. People who study the differences between
the dialects of English often study the different way vowel
sounds are pronounced.

The difference between the way English is spelled and the

way the words are pronounced came about because all
languages change, so spoken English changes, but the
spelling system does not.

The study of speech sounds is called phonetics.

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16
 EThe Basics on Syllabic Structure
A syllable (σ) is a phonological unit of sonority. Sonority can be
described by the degree of airflow obstruction and voicing that
occurs during phonation. Sonority is inversely correlated with
constriction of the articulators in the oral cavity. Sonorous sounds
have a more ‘sing-able’ quality, that is they are more prominent in
amplitude and length than less sonorous sounds. Sonority shows
the resonance of one sound segment in relation to another.

The structure of a syllable represents sonority peaks and optional

edges, and is made up of three elements: the onset, the nucleus,
and the coda. This can be seen in (1).
(1) Q

Rime

Onset Nucleus Coda

The Sonority Sequencing Principle and the Sonority

Hierarchy
In an ‘optimal syllable,’ sonority increases towards the nucleus,
forming a peak in sonority, and then decreases away from the
nucleus towards the coda. This is known as the Sonority
Sequencing Principle (SSP).
In binary terms, sounds can be classified as either sonorants

17
[+son] or obstruents [-son].
(2)

However, within these binary groupings, there exists a hierarchy

of sonority. Take obstruents for example. Both stops and fricatives
are [-son], however, stops are less sonorous than fricatives, as we
see in (3). Remember that sonority is inversely correlated with
constriction of the articulators in the oral cavity. Therefore, stops
are less sonorous than the latter because airflow is completely
occluded during production of the former, whereas there is less
occlusion in the production of latter, where air has more space to
flow between articulators.

(3) ‘The Sonority Hierarchy’ ranks sounds from most to least

sonorous.
Most
sonorous
Least sonorous
low Vs – mid Vs – hi Vs and
glides– liquids – nasals – fricatives – stops/affricates

Note that:
1. Voiced obstruents rank higher in sonority than their voiceless
counterparts.
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2. Round vowels are ranked higher in sonority than their
unrounded counterparts.

Syllable Structure
When we represent syllable structure as in (1), the nucleus and
coda are right-branching forming the ‘rime.’ This type of
branching is the most common across languages. However, there
are some languages, such as Japanese and Korean, for which a
case has been made for a left-branching structure (4) in which
the onset and nucleus would form a ‘body.’

(4) Alternate view

Q

Body

Onset Nucleus Coda

Despite the differences in branching, both of these syllable

structures account for onsets, nuclei, and codas. Not all of these
elements are required in every syllable.

All languages require syllable nuclei. In fact, the nucleus is the only
universally obligatory component of a syllable. In most languages
onsets are preferred yet optional – although they are required in
some languages. No language requires codas. In most languages

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codas are optional, and they are restricted or even prohibited in
others.

According to the SSP, the nucleus is the peak of sonority. The

nucleus is usually filled with a vowel (V), because vowels are the
most sonorous sounds. To then allow the nucleus to be the peak of
sonority, Consonants (Cs), being less sonorant, flank the nucleus
in the onset and coda positions. There are exceptions, which will
be discussed later. However, this is why we represent syllables as
V, CV, CVC, etc.

The most common structure across languages consists of an onset

and a nucleus (CV). CV is known as canonical structure because
it is universally the most prevalent structure, and the first to be
acquired by children. Although syllabic structure is language-
specific in terms of form and the types of phonemes that are
permitted in any of the three positions, the canonical structure
exists in all languages and is preferred in most.

Onset
CVC
The onset is the beginning of a syllable boundary, and is the
strongest consonantal position. The onset is required in many
languages and is optional or restricted in others. Onsets are almost
always preferred to codas; when a C is found intervocalically it will
be parsed to the subsequent onset rather than the previous coda.

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For instance, a CVCV structure would be syllabified as CV.CV, and
not as CVC.V.

Nucleus
CVC
Nuclei are generally filled by vowels.
A vowel cannot fill any position of a syllable besides the nucleus. If
a vowel were to be in either the onset or coda position, the nucleus
would be required to contain a sound more sonorous than a vowel
in order to not violate the SSP. However, there are no sounds more
sonorous than vowels. If a vowel is present, it must be in the
nucleus of the syllable.

Every vowel will fill a nucleus, but not every nucleus will be filled
by a vowel. Some languages do not require a vowel in the nucleus
and instead permit certain consonants (C). Languages have
different rules for determining what is allowed to occupy the
nucleus position. In English, in addition to vowels, syllabic liquids
and nasals are permitted to fill the nucleus. Other languages that
permit non-vocalic content in their nuclei have far more complex
syllabification processes. In languages such as Nuxálk (Bella Coola)
(5a) and Berber (5b) there exist entire words and phrases without
vowels. They require much more complex algorithms to become
syllabified.

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(5a) Nuxálk
[sxs] ‘seal blubber’
[xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ] ‘He had in his possession a bunchberry plant’

(5b) Berber
[tftktst tfktstt] ‘you sprained it and then gave it‘
[rkkm] ‘rot’ (imperf.)

Nevertheless, when we are discussing syllable structure, we will

assume that the nucleus of the syllable is a vowel unless otherwise
indicated.

Coda
CVC
The coda is optional in most languages. In some languages, it is
restricted or even prohibited. Old Bulgarian does not permit codas,
and will therefore syllabify (parse) a structure such as CVCCCV to
CV.CCCV. On the other hand, some languages such as Persian do
not permit complex onsets but do allow complex codas. Persian
speakers would most likely syllabify CVCCCV as CVCC.CV.

Syllables without codas are referred to as open syllables, and

syllables with codas are referred to as closed syllables. Many
languages permit both of these, and in those that do, a difference
in syllabification can sometimes change the meaning. This
phenomenon is found in English (6).

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(6) English
[aj.skɹim] ‘I scream’
VG.CCVC

Q Q
/ \ / \
onset rime onset rime
/ / \
nucleus nucleus coda
[ aj skɹ i m ]

[ajs.kɹim] ‘ice cream’

VCC.CCVC
σ σ
/ \ / \
onset rime onset rime
/ \ / \
nucleus coda nucleus coda
[ aj s kɹ i m ]

The structure of the ONSET - the maximum number of

consonants within the onset is three: the first consonant in the
onset is called pre-initial; if present it is always represented by
/s/.

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• The second consonant in the onset is called initial; this can
basically be any English consonant, especially if the onset only
consists of this initial consonant
• The third consonant in the onset is called post-initial; this is
exclusively represented by /l/, /r/, /w/ and /j/;
• ONSET: (pre-initial) - (initial) - (post-initial)
• The onset without consonant is called zero onset; obviously,
some combinations are preferable, some combinations of
consonants are impossible in English: *s3w *mr *hl (NB: /
/∫w/ is only present in the vowel name ‘schwa’ and the
brandname of the soft drinks, Schweppes: /∫w ə / , /∫weps/.)
The structure of the CODA: o the maximum number of the
consonants within the coda part is four; o the individual ‘slots’
bear the following names: pre-final consonants (only a small
set: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /s/); final consonants (basically any
English consonant – but combinations within consonant
clusters are limited); post-final consonants – again a small set
/s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/. More examples:
• fifths /fІfθ/ - 2 post-final consonants.
• next /nekst/ - 2 post-final consonants
• twelfths /twelfθs/ - 2 post-final consonants
• sixths /sІkθs/ - 3 post-final consonants.
• texts /teksts/ - 3 post-final consonants

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 • NOTE: if the peak (centre) of the syllable is not carried by a
vowel we need to consider a syllabic consonant /l/, /m/, /n/,
/ŋ/, /r/, eg. middle /midl/
• BECOME A MEMBER
Both /m/ and /ŋ/ can occur as syllabic, but only as a result
of processes such as assimilation and elision that are
introduced later. We find them sometimes in words like
‘happen’, which can be pronounced hæpm, though hæpn and
hæpən are equally acceptable, and ‘uppermost’, which could
be pronounced as ʌpməust, though ʌpməust, would be more
usual. Examples of possible syllabic velar nasals would be
‘broken key’ braukəŋ ki:, where the nasal consonant occurs
between velar consonants .

Ambisyllabicity
Sometimes breaking a consonant cluster will result in lexical
contrast, but other times it won’t. In the instances that lexical
contrast is not created, it can be difficult to decide where to parse
a syllable. In cases where parsing is not clear, medial Cs are
referred to as ambisyllabic. In (7), the [s]s would be considered
ambisyllabic.

(7) English
[æs.prin] vs. [æ.sprin] ‘aspirin’
[sis.təɹn] vs. [si.stərn] ‘cistern’

25
These different syllabifications and parsings can be considered
correct as they meet the constraints of their language, but the
differences in syllabification will affect the weights of the syllables.

Syllable Weight
Syllable weight is measured in ‘moras.’ A mora is a phonological
unit used to distinguish various syllable structures from one
another. Syllable weight is important because it can clarify issues
pertaining to language-specific constraints on syllable structure.

Languages differ in terms of how moras are measured. In most

languages, each element of the rime (the nucleus and coda) counts
as a single mora. However, as always, there are exceptions. For
example, Ponapean (the major language of the Federated States
of Micronesia) does not permit final consonants in coda position to
be moraic.

All syllables have at least one mora, which comes from the nucleus
of the syllable. In English all of the sound segments in the rime
contribute toward syllable weight. Therefore, CV and a CCCV
syllables have the same weight as well as number of moras
because the complexity of the onset has no bearing on how the
weight of the syllable is measured. When syllables are identified by
their weight, they are classified as light, heavy, or superheavy.

Light syllables have only one mora (i.e. a short vowel and no coda).
One example would be ‘me’ [mi] or CV.

26
Heavy syllables have two moras. The two moras could both be
found in the nucleus in the form of a long vowel or diphthong as in
‘my’ [maj], CVV or one mora could be found in the nucleus and the
other in the coda as in ‘mean’ [min], CVC.

Superheavy syllables have three or more moras, which can consist

of a short vowel with a complex coda as in ‘meets’ [mits], CVCC, or
a long vowel or diphthong with either a simple or complex coda as
in ‘mine’ [majn], CVVC, or ‘mines’ [majnz], CVVCC.

27
 Word Stress

Stress in simple words

The nature of stress is simple enough: practically everyone would

agree that the first syllable of words like ‘father’, ‘open’, ‘camera’
is stressed, that the middle syllable is stressed in ‘potato’,
‘apartment’, ‘relation’, and that the final syllable is stressed in
‘about’, ‘receive’, ‘perhaps’. Also, most people feel they have some
sort of idea of what the difference is between stressed and
unstressed syllables, although they might explain it in different
ways. We will mark a stressed syllable in transcription by placing a
small vertical line (') high up, just before the syllable it relates to;
the words quoted above will thus be transcribed as follows:

'fa:ðə pə'teitəu ə'baut 'əupən ə'pa:tment

ri'si:v 'k æmrə ri'leiʃn pə'hæps

What are the characteristics of stressed syllables that enable us to

identify them? It is important to understand that there are two
different ways of approaching this question. One is to consider
what the speaker does in producing stressed syllables and the
other is to consider what characteristics of sound make a syllable
seem to a listener to be stressed. In other words, we can study
stress from the points of view of production and of perception; the
two are obviously closely related, but are not identical. The
production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker
using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables.
28
Measuring muscular effort is difficult, but it seems possible,
according to experimental studies, that when we produce stressed
syllables, the muscles that we use to expel air from the lungs are
often more active, producing higher subglottal pressure. It seems
probable that similar things happen with muscles in other parts of
our vocal apparatus. Many experiments have been carried out on
the perception of stress, and it is clear that many different sound
characteristics are important in making a syllable recognisably
stressed. From the perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables
have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence.
Stressed syllables are recognised as stressed because they are
more prominent than unstressed syllables. What makes a syllable
prominent? At least four different factors are important:

i) Loudness
Most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder
than unstressed syllables; in other words, loudness is a
component of prominence. In a sequence of identical
syllables (e.g. ba:ba:ba:ba:), if one syllable is made louder
than the others, it will be heard as stressed. However, it is
important to realise that it is very difficult for a speaker to
make a syllable louder without changing other characteristics
of the syllable such as those explained below (ii-iv); if one
literally changes only the loudness, the perceptual effect is
not very strong.

29
ii) The length of syllables has an important part to play in
prominence. If one of the syllables in our “nonsense word”
ba:ba:ba:ba: is made longer than the others, there is quite
a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed.
iii) Pitch is a very important part of perceptual characteristic of
speech sound. Each syllable of the word is produced either
as low or high pitched. Stressed syllable is resulted as higher
pitch which makes it prominent. Every voiced syllable is said
on some pitch; pitch in speech is closely related to the
frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical
notion of low- and Sigh-pitched notes. It is essentially a
perceptual characteristic of speech. If one syllable of our
“nonsense word” is said with a pitch that is noticeably
different from that of the others, this will have a strong
tendency to produce the effect of prominence. For example,
if all syllables are said with low pitch except for one said with
high pitch, then the high-pitched syllable will be heard as
stressed and the others as unstressed. To place some
movement of pitch (e.g. rising or falling) on a syllable is even
more effective in making it sound prominent.
iv) Vowel quality
A syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that
is different in quality from neighbouring vowels. If we change
one of the vowels in our “nonsense word” (e.g. ba:bi:ba:bai)
the “odd” syllable bi: will tend to be heard as stressed. This

30
 effect is not very powerful, but there is one particular way in
which it is relevant in English: the previous chapter explained
how the most frequently encountered vowels in weak
syllables are i, ə , u (syllabic consonants are also common).
We can look on stressed syllables as occurring against a
“background” of these weak syllables, so that their
prominence is increased by contrast with these background
qualities. Prominence, then, is produced by four main
factors: (i) loudness, (ii) length, (iii) pitch and (iv) quality.
Generally these four factors work together in combination,
although syllables may sometimes be made prominent by
means of only one or two of them. Experimental work has
shown that these factors are not equally important; the
strongest effect is produced by pitch, and length is also a
powerful factor. Loudness and quality have much less effect.

Levels of stress

Up to this point we have talked about stress as though there were

a simple distinction between “stressed” and “unstressed” syllables
with no intermediate levels; such a treatment would be a two-level
analysis of stress. Usually, however, we have to recognise one or
more intermediate levels. It should be remembered that in this
chapter we are dealing only with stress within the word. This

means that we are looking at words as they are said in isolation,

which is a rathe r artificial situation: we do not often say word s in

31
isolation, except for a few such as ‘yes’, ‘no ’, ‘possibly ’, ‘please’ a
and interrogative word s such as ‘what’, ‘who ’, etc. However,
looking at word s in isolation does help us to see stress placement
and stress levels more clearly than studying them in the context of
continuous speech.

Primary Stress When we pronounce certain words, we put stress

on certain syllables. There are some syllables which are very
prominent and strong due to the effect of stress. Primary stress
represents the maximal prominence of the syllable in a word

. Roach (2009:75) mentions that primary stress is on the strongest

syllable in a word which appears to be more prominent than other
syllables. Primary stress can be marked with a vertical mark [ ' ]
placed above and in front of the syllable.

Examples : Father / ˈfɑːðə / About / əˈbaʊt / Receive / rɪˈsiːv /

Camera / ˈkæmərə /

Secondary Stress In long words of more than one syllable, a type

of stress can be observed, that is weaker than primary stress
(strong). Gussenhoven and Jacobs (2011:32) state that IPA
marking for secondary stress is [,] to be placed before the syllable
concerned. Examples: Photography / fəˈtɒgrəfi / Anthropology /
ˌænθrəˈpɒləʤi / Organization / ˌɔːgənaɪˈzeɪʃən / Activation /
ˌæktɪˈveɪʃən /

32
Unstressed

This involves a non-prominent syllable. This level of stress is often

the weaker syllable in a word in that it contains the short vowel
/ə/. Unlike primary and secondary stress, unstressed level is left
unmarked. Examples: Open / 'əʋpən / Announcer / ə'naʋnsər /
Programmer / 'prəʋgræmər /

Placement of stress

Roach divides the languages of the world into two groups on the
basis of placement of the stress. The first group contains languages
which have fixed place for the stress in words like, French language
in which the last syllable is usually stressed. The second group
contains languages in which there is no fixed place for stress in
words. For example, in English language there is a difficulty to
predict the placement of word stress (2009:76).

Simple words

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have
two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words.
Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can
be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary
stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and
is only used in long words.)

2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you
understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too

33
much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to
"feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

The Learners of English language must use the correct placement

of stress. For example, the shift of stress in words such as (desert)
/ ˈdezət / and (desert) / dɪˈzɜːt / may make confusion if they are
not pronounced with proper stress. Kenworthy (1987:28) points
out this problem and states: If a non-native speaker produces a
word with wrong pattern, an English listener may have great
difficulty in understanding the word, even if most of the individual
sounds have been well pronounced. In listening, if learners of
English expect a word to have a particular stress pattern, they may
not recognize it when a native speaker says it. In other words, what
they hear doesn't match what they have in their mental dictionary.
According to the above quotation, it is concluded that there is a
strong relationship between stress and the class of the word.
English language has pairs of two-syllable words in which the
placement of stress play main role in determining their syntactic
category ( noun, adjective or verb) Examples: words nouns verbs
conflict 'kɒnflıkt kən'flıkt import 'ımpɔ:t ım'pɔ:t insult 'ınsəlt ın'sʌlt
abstract 'æbstrækt æb'strækt digest 'daıdʒest dı'dʒest transfer
'trænsfə træns'fɜ: torment 'tɔ:ment tɔ:'ment reject 'ri:dʒekt
rı'dʒekt subject 'sʌbdʒıkt səb'dʒekt insert 'ınsɜ:t ın'sɜ:t 3.2

34
Two-syllable words

In the case of simple two-syllable words, either the first or the

second syllable will be stressed - not both. There is a general
tendency for verbs to be stressed nearer the end of a word and for
nouns to be stressed nearer the beginning. We will look first at
verbs. If the final syllable is weak, then the first syllable is stressed.
Thus:

‘enter’ 'entə ‘open’ 'əupan ‘envy’ 'envi ‘equal’ 'i:kwal

A final syllable is also unstressed if it contains au (e.g. ‘follow’ 'fɒləu, ‘borrow’

'bɒrəu). If the final syllable is strong, then that syllable is stressed even if the first

syllable is also strong. Thus: ‘apply’ ə'plai ‘attract’ ə'trækt ‘rotate’

rəu'teit ‘arrive’ ə'raiv ‘assist’ 'əsist ‘maintain’ mein'tein

Two-syllable simple adjectives are stressed according to the same

rule, giving: ‘lovely’ 'lʌvli ‘divine’ di'vain ‘even’ 'i:vn ‘correct’ kə'rekt
‘hollow’ 'h ɒ ləu ‘alive’ ə'laiv

As with most stress rules, there are exceptions; for example:

‘honest’ 'ɒnist, ‘perfect’ 'p3:fikt, both of which end with strong
syllables but are stressed on the first syllable.

Nouns require a different rule: stress will fall on the first syllable
unless the first syllable is weak and the second syllable is strong.

35
Thus: ‘money’ 'mʌni ‘divan’ di'vn ‘product’ 'prɒdʌkt ‘balloon’ bə'lu:n
‘larynx’ 'læriŋks ‘design’ di'zain Other two-syllable words such as
adverbs seem to behave like verbs and adjectives

Three-syllable words

Here we find a more complicated picture. One problem is the

difficulty of identifying three-syllable words which are indisputably
simple. In simple verbs, if the final syllable is strong, then it will
receive primary stress. Thus: ‘entertain’ .entə'tein ‘resurrect’
.rezə'rekt . If the last syllable is weak, then it will be unstressed,
and stress will be placed on the preceding (penultimate) syllable if
that syllable is strong. Thus: ‘encounter’ iŋ'kauntə ‘determine’
di't3:min If both the second and third syllables are weak, then the
stress falls on the initial syllable: ‘parody’ 'pærədi ‘monitor’ 'mɒnitə.
Nouns require a slightly different rule. The general tendency is for
stress to fall on the first syllable unless it is weak. Thus: ‘quantity’
'kwɒntəti ‘emperor’ 'empərə ‘custody’ 'kʌstədi ‘enmity’ 'enməti.
However, in words with a weak first syllable the stress comes on
the next syllable: ‘mimosa’ mi'məuzə ‘disaster’ di'za:stə ‘potato’
pə'teitəu ‘synopsis’ si'nɒpsis. When a three-syllable noun has a
strong final syllable, that syllable will not usually receive the main
stress: ‘intellect’ 'intəlekt ‘marigold’ 'maerigəuld ‘alkali’ 'ælkəlai
‘stalactite’ 'stælətktait Adjectives seem to need the same rule, to

36
produce stress patterns such as: ‘opportune’ 'opɒtju:n ‘insolent’
'insələnt ‘derelict’ 'derəlikt ‘anthropoid’ 'ænθrəpɔɪd

Written exercises

Mark the stress on the following words:

1 Verbs

a) protect

b) clamber

c) festoon

d) detest

e) bellow

f) menace

g) disconnect

h) enter

2 Nouns a) language b) captain c) career d) paper e) event f)

jonquil g) injury h) connection

37
Complex words

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’ (being composed of two grammatical
units each) are complex; ‘carefully’ and ‘carelessness’ are also
complex, and are composed of three grammatical units each.
Unfortunately, as was suggested in Chapter 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 from other languages whose way
of constructing words is easily recognisable; for example, we can
see how combining ‘mit’ with the prefixes ‘per-’, ‘sub-’, ‘com-’
produced ‘permit’, ‘submit’, ‘commit’ - words which have come into
English from Latin. Similarly, Greek has given us ‘catalogue’,
‘analogue’, ‘dialogue’, ‘monologue’, in which the prefixes ‘cata-’,
‘ana-’, ‘dia-’, ‘mono-’ are recognisable. But we cannot automatically
treat the separate grammatical units of other languages as if they
were separate grammatical units of English. If we did, we would
not be able to study English morphology without 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 grammatical units
(which is the case in Ancient Greek). We must accept, then, that

38
the distinction between “simple” and “complex” words is difficult to
draw. Complex words are of two major types:

i) words made from a basic word form (which we will call the
stem), with 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, which come before the stem (e.g. prefix ‘un-’ + stem
‘pleasant’ —> ‘unpleasant’) and suffixes, which come after the
stem (e.g. stem ‘good’ + suffix ‘-ness’ —> ‘goodness’). Affixes
have one of three possible effects on word stress:

The affix itself receives the primary stress (e.g. ‘semi-’ + ‘circle’
S3:kl —> ‘semicircle’ 'serms3:kl; ‘-ality’ + ‘person’ 'p3:sn —>
‘personality’ p3:sn'ael3ti). ii) The word is stressed as if the affix
were not there (e.g. ‘pleasant’ 'pleznt, ‘unpleasant’
An'pleznt;‘market’ 'm aikit,‘marketing’ 'maikitirj). iii) The stress
remains on the stem, not the affix, but is shifted to a different
syllable (e.g. ‘magnet’ 'masgnat, ‘magnetic’ maeg'netik).

Suffixes

Suffixes carrying primary stress themselves, Ex 1 In the

examples given, which seem to be the most common, the

39
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 ‘Japan’ d33'paen 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: ‘Japanese’
,dʒæpə'ni:z.

‘-ee’: ‘refugee’ ,ref ju'd3i:; ‘evacuee’ i.vækju'i:

• ‘-eer’: ‘mountaineer’ .maunti'niə;‘volunteer’ .vɒlən'tiə

• ‘-ese’: ‘Portuguese’ .pɔ:tə'gi:z; ‘journalese’ ,dʒ3:nli:z

• ‘-ette’: ‘cigarette’ ,sigr'et; ‘launderette’ ,lɔ:ndr'et

• ‘esque’: ‘picturesque’ .piktʃ r'esk

Suffixes that do not affect stress placement

-able’: ‘comfort’ ‘kʌmfət ‘comfortable’ 'kʌmfətəbl

-age’: ‘anchor’ 'æŋkə; ‘anchorage’ æŋkəkrid3

-al’: ‘refuse’ (verb) ri'fju:z; ‘refusal’ ri'fju:zl –

en’: ‘wide’ 'waid; ‘widen’ 'waidn

-fill’: ‘wonder’ wʌndə; ‘wonderful’ ' ‘wʌndəfl

-ing’: ‘amaze’ 'əmeiz; ‘amazing’ ə'meiziŋ)

40
-like’: ‘bird’ 'b3:d; ‘birdlike’ 'b3:dlaik

-less’: ‘power’ 'pauə; ‘powerless’ 'pauəles -ly’: ‘hurried’ 'hʌrid;

‘hurriedly’ 'hʌridli

-ment’ (noun): ‘punish’ 'pʌni.ʃ; ‘punishment’'pʌni.ʃmʌnt '

-ness’: ‘yellow’ 'jeləu; ‘yellowness’ jeləunəs

-ous’: ‘poison’ 'pɔɪzn; ‘poisonous’ 'pɔɪiznəs –

-fy’: ‘glory’ 'glɔ:ri; ‘glorify’ 'glɔ:rifai

-wise’: ‘other’ʌðə '; ‘otherwise’ ' ʌðəwaiz

-y’ (adjective or noun): ‘fun’ 'fʌn; ‘funny’ 'fʌni '‘

-ish’ in the case of adjectives does not affect stress placement:

‘devil’ 'devl; devilish’ 'devliʃ; however, verbs with stems of more
than one syllable always have the stress on the syllable
immediately preceding ‘ish’ - for example, replenish’ ri'pleniʃ,
‘demolish’ di'moliʃ')

Suffixes that influence stress in the stem

In these examples primary stress is on the last syllable of the

stem.

‘-eous’: ‘advantage’ əd'va:ntid3; ‘advantageous’ , æ

dvnə'teid3əs

‘-graphy’: ‘photo’ 'fəutəu; ‘photography’ fə'tɒgrəfi

41
‘-ial’: ‘proverb’ 'prɒv3:b; ‘proverbial’ prə'v3:biəl

‘-ic’: ‘climate’ 'klaimət; ‘climatic’ klai'mætik

‘-ion’: ‘perfect’ 'p3:fikt; ‘perfection’ pə'fek ʃ n

‘-ious’: ‘injure’ 'ind3ə; ‘injurious’ in'd3uəriəs

‘- ty’: ‘tranquil’ 'træŋkwil; ‘tranquillity’ trærŋ'kwiləti

‘-ive’: ‘reflex’ 'ri:fleks; ‘reflexive’ ri'fleksiv

Finally, when the suffixes ‘-ance’, ‘-ant’ and ‘-ary’ 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’ im'pɔ:tns,
‘centenary’ sen'tinri. Otherwise the syllable before the last one
receives the stress: ‘inheritance’ in'heritəns, ‘military’ 'militri
Prefixes We will look only briefly at prefixes. Their effect on
stress does not have the comparative regularity, independence
and predictability of suffixes, and there is no prefix of one or two
syllables that always carries primary stress. Consequently, the
best treatment seems to be to say that stress in words with
prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for polysyllabic
words without prefixes.

42
So 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. Perhaps 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: ‘typewriter’ 'taipraitə ‘car ferry’ 'ka:feri
‘sunrise’ 'sʌnraiz ‘suitcase’ 'su:tkeis ‘teacup’ 'ti:kʌp It is probably
safest to assume that stress will normally fall in this way on other
compounds; however, a number of compounds receive stress
instead 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 only): .bad- 'tempered .half- 'timbered .heavy- 'handed
Compounds in which the first element is a number in some form
also tend to have final stress: .three- 'wheeler .second-'class
.five-'finger 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

43
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 two 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 placement of stress in some words. The
former case is an aspect of connected speech: the main effect is
that the stress on a final-stressed compound 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-
'tempered but a .bad-tempered 'teacher .half-'timbered but a
.half-timbered 'house .heavy-'handed but a .heavy-handed
'sentence The second is not a serious problem, but is one that
foreign learners should be aware of. A well-known example is
‘controversy’, which is pronounced by some speakers as
'kɒntrəv3:si and by others as kɒn'trɒv3:si; it would be quite
wrong to say that one version was correct and one incorrect.
Other examples of different possibilities are ‘ice cream’

(either ,ais kri:m or 'ais kriəm ),‘kilometre’ (either ki'lɒmitə or 'k

iləmi:itə ) and ‘formidable’ ('fɔ:midəbl or fɔ də'bl).

44
Word-class pairs

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 appear 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 'æbstrækt (A) æb'strækt (V)

conduct 'kɒndʌkt(N) kәn'dʌkt (V)

contract 'kɒntrækt (N) kәn'trækt (V)

contrast 'kɒntra:st (N) kәn'tra:st (V)

desert 'dezәt (N) di'z3:t (V)

escort 'eskɔ:t (N) i'skɔ:t (V)

export 'ekspɔ:t (N) ik'spɔ:t (V)

import 'impɔ:t (N) im'pɔ:t (V)

insult 'insʌlt (N) in'sʌlt (V)

45
 object 'ɒbd3ekt (N) әb'd3ekt (V)

perfect 'p3:fikt (A) pә'fekt (V)

permit 'p3:mit (N) pә'mit (V)

present 'preznt (N, A) pri'zent (V)

produce 'prɒdju:s (N) prә'dju:s (V)

protest 'prәutest (N) prә'test (V)

rebel 'rebl (N) ri'bel (V)

record 'rekɔ:d (N, A) ri'kɔ:d (V)

subject 'sAbd3ekt (N) sab'd3ekt (V)

Compound words

Roach (2009:85) suggests that compound words consist of two

independent words. As far as stress placement in compounds is
concerned, Gimson (1989:231) mentions that one word of the
compound has primary stress, while the other word(s) normally
carries (carry) the secondary stress. With reference to the
placement of stress in compound words , Susan (2010) gives some
stress patterns for compound words : compound nouns have a
primary stress on the first element as in (bedroom) / ˈbedruːm / ;
compound verbs have a primary stress on the second word of the
compound as in (outsmart) / aʊtˈsmɑːt / ; finally in the compound
adjectives the stress is on the second word as in(bed-termpered)

46
/ bed-ˈtempəd /. Roach (2009:86) also suggests another rules for
compound stress. These rules are : compound words have primary
stress on the second word if the first word is number as in (second
class) / sekənd 'klɑːs / ; compound words have a primary stress on
the second word if the compounds function as adverbs as in (north-
East)/ nɔːθ 'iːst / ; finally, when compounds function as verb and
has an adverb, then stress is on the second word as in the example
(downgrade) / daʊn'greɪd /. It is good to note that Collins and Mess
( 2013:132-133) mentions other rules concerning this point. They
are : the stress is on the second element when the compound
words refer to name of towns as seen in (New York) / njuː jɔːk / ;
the stress is on the second word when the compounds refer to the
part of building as in (back door) / bæk dɔː / ; finally, the names of
magazines and newspapers have a primary stress on the second
word as in ( Daily post) / deɪli 'pəʊst /. 3.3 Sentence stress Unlike
word stress, sentence stress has flexibility in the placement of
stress. Kenworthy ( 1987:32) concludes that there are several
ways in which the speaker is capable of sending ideas or important
information by focusing the main stress of the sentence on specific
words. However, the placement of sentence stress is affected by
the classes of the word. In this regard, Collins and Mess
(2013:135) list two type of words: function words and content
words. Function words include ( articles, prepositions, pronouns,
conjunctions and auxiliary verbs). They are normally unstressed.
Content words are those which carry the meaning of the sentence

47
such as (nouns, main verbs, adjective and adverbs). Those content
words are normally stressed. Example: I've 'heard that 'Jack and
'Jane 'spent their 'holidays in 'Jamaica (Collins and Mess, ibid) In
the sentence above, the content words heard, Jack, Jane, spent,
holidays, and Jamaica) are stressed (strong) whereas the function
words ( I, have, that, and, their and in) are normally unstressed
(weak). However, there are exceptions to the rules mentioned
above specially what is concerned with the stress of function words.
Roach ( 2009:90-91) indicates that those function words are
normally stressed in certain circumstances. They are : 1. Many
function words are stressed when they occur at the end of the
sentence : Chips are what I'm fond of. / 'ʧɪps ə 'wɒt aɪm 'fᴐnd 'ɒv /
2. When function words show a contrast : The letters from him not
to him. / ðə ˈlɛtəz frəm ɪm nɒt 'tə ɪm / 3. When function words are
emphasized : You must give me more money. / jʊ 'mʌst gɪv mi mɔː
ˈmʌni / 4. When the function word is being "cited" or " quoted":
You shouldn't put "and" at the end of a sentence. / jʊ 'ʃʊdnt 'pʊt
'ænd ət ði 'end əv ə ˈsentəns / 4. Stress and Meaning There is a
strong relationship between the placement of stress and the
meaning. However, Gill (n. d) mentions that there are words of
twosyllable in which the placement of stress does not only affect
their syntactic category, but their meaning as well, for example,
there is a huge difference in meaning between ('address vs.
add'ress ) and ('content vs. con'tent ). The difference of meaning
can appear when these words are put in the sentences as below :

48
One of the important functions of stress is to distinguish between
compounds and phrases (McMahon, 2002 :123) and (Ladefoged &
Johnson, 2011 :112 ). Compounds generally have a primary stress
on the first word while phrases have a primary stress on the second
word. The difference in stress placement gives a clear indication of
the meaning changes. Kushinka ( 2016 ) presents more than one
example to emphsize this fact. For the first example, there is a
semantic difference between 'greenhouse / 'gri:nhaʋs /, a
compound ( a building used to growing plants ) vs. green'house /
gri:n'haʋs / a phrase ( a house that its color is green ). The second
example includes 'Whitehouse / 'waıthaʋs/, a compound noun
which means ( the house where the U.S president lives ) which has
a different meaning from white'house / waıt'haʋs /, a phrase which
means ( the house that its color is green ). The last one is 'blackbird
/ 'blækbɜ:rd /, a compound ( a type of bird ) which has a different
meaning from black'bird / blæk'bɜ:rd / a phrase ( a bird that its
color is black ). Concerning sentence stress , some words seem to
be more prominent than others depending on the information the
speaker wants to convey. One Address / 'ædres /(n.) Do you know
Ali’s address? ( The name of the place ) / ə'dres / (v.) You are not
allowed to address the president. ( to direct speech to someone )
Content / 'kɒntent /(n.) The content of your essay is fine. ( what it
contains ) / kən'tent /(adj.) She was sitting reading a book , looking
very content. ( relaxed , peaceful ) of the difficult things to control
when learning English language is stress. Stressing different word

49
in the same sentence each time can completely change the
meaning of it. Commenting on the fact above, Reed & and Levis
(2015:178) argue that sentence stress is “ manipulated by the
speaker, and is strongly related to the structuring of information in
discourse ʼʼ . The information that is indented to be conveyed by
the speaker must match with what the listener has in his mind.
This view is supported by Reed & Levis (2015:178) who state that
“ the placement of sentence stress reflects what a speaker assumes
is in the consciousness of the hearer at the same time… ʼʼ. For
instance , Roach (2009:261) presents a sentence ( you didn’t say
anything about rates. ). Mustafa & faris explain this sentence in
four ways: 1. You didn’t say anything about rates. 2. You didn’t say
anything about rates. 3. You didn’t say anything about rates. 4.
You didn’t say anything about rates. The first utterance where the
main sentence stress is placed on ( you ) is not you but maybe
somebody else. The second utterance means that you didn’t want
to say. The third one refers that you didn’t say ( say ) not ( see or
hear ). The last one means that you didn’t say anything about (
rates ) not about models or colors ( 2011:805). Beare ( 2018 ) also
presents a sentence ( I don’t think he should get that job ) and he
explains it in seven ways:

1. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning not ( I ) but maybe
Ali or Nada thinks about this idea.

2. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning there is no proof

that I think he should get that job.
50
3. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning I don’t think but
maybe I hear that he should get that job.

4. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning I think about

another person not he.

5. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning he must work hard
to get that job.

6. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning I think about

another job to get it not that one.

7. I don’t think he should get that job. Meaning maybe he should

get high salary or something else.

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 Exceptions to the Compounds

Stress Rule
(a) two-part place-names, such as Botany Bay, Buckingham
Palace, East Anglia, Los Angeles, Mount
Everest, New York, Niagara Falls, San Francisco. These include
street names, e.g. Blackberry Way, Fifth Avenue, London Road,
Mornington Crescent, Mulholland Drive, Penny Lane, Peyton Place,
Trafalgar Square. The only exception to this are large numbers of
street names ending in the word street: in my home town of
Edinburgh, London Road (where Road is most prominent) is not far
from London Street (where London is most prominent).
There are sets of compounds which systematically violate the
Compound Stress Rule. We now list these.
(b) compounds with a participial second element, ending in -ed, -
en or -ing. The -ed compounds are more common than the latter.
Many of these are based on parts of the body, and some of these
are more metaphorical than others. Examples are: ˌbare-ˈfaced,
ˌbig-ˈeared, ˌbig- ˈheaded, ˌbroken-ˈhearted, ˌcack-ˈhanded, ˌdim-
ˈwitted, ˌdouble-ˈjointed, ˌempty-ˈheaded, ˌeven-ˈhanded, ˌeven-
ˈtempered, ˌfaint-ˈhearted, ˌfair-ˈhaired, ˌfar-ˈsighted, ˌflat-
ˈchested, ˌflat-ˈfooted, ˌfleet-ˈfooted, ˌfoul-ˈmouthed, ˌgood-
ˈnatured, ˌhard-ˈnosed, ˌhigh-ˈpitched, ˌhot- ˈheaded, ˌill-
diˈsposed, ˌill-ˈtempered, ˌkind-ˈhearted,
ˌleft-ˈhanded, ˌlevel-ˈheaded, ˌlily-ˈlivered, ˌlimp- ˈwristed, ˌlong-
ˈhaired, ˌlong-ˈlegged, ˌlong-ˈwinded,
ˌnarrow-ˈshouldered, ˌold-ˈfashioned, ˌone-ˈeyed, ˌone- ˈlegged,
ˌpig-ˈheaded, ˌred-ˈhanded, ˌred-ˈheaded, ˌsqueaky-ˈvoiced,
ˌstrong-ˈminded, ˌstrong-ˈwilled, ˌthin- ˈlipped, ˌweak-ˈkneed,
ˌweak-ˈwilled, ˌwrong-ˈfooted, ˌwrong-ˈheaded, ˌclean-ˈshaven,

52
ˌlong-ˈproven, ˌsoft- ˈspoken, ˌclear-ˈthinking, ˌfar-ˈreaching,
ˌgood-ˈlooking.
(c) compounds in which the first part expresses what the object is
made from. Examples are: apple pie, brick wall, cotton socks, ham
sandwich, iron filings, paper napkin, pork pie, olive oil. Notice that
these are distinct from similar compounds in which the first part
does not express what the object is made from, as in paper clip,
which is not made from paper, cotton reel, which is not made from
cotton, and olive tree, which is not made of olives. Note that, in
American English, the first element can be the most prominent in
such compounds.
(d) compounds in which some kind of concrete or abstract
positioning is involved. Examples are: April showers, Christmas
break, evening meal, middle-class, second- rate, winter holiday.
(e) compounds which are two-part colour words.
Examples are: dark-green, deep-yellow, light-green, pale- blue.
(f) compounds derived from phrasal verbs. Examples are
compound nouns derived from phrasal verbs: chucker-out (from
chuck out), hanger-on (from hang on), passer-by (from pass by),
washing-up (from wash up); and compound adjectives derived
from phrasal verbs: finished- off (from finish-off), knocked-out,
pared-down (from pare down), rolled-up (from roll up), tired-out,
wiped-out, wrapped-up (from wrap up)

53
 Word stress and the metrical foot

Words are made up of rhythmic units called feet and these

comprise one or more syllables. Feet represent the rhythmic
structure of the word and are the units that allow us to describe
stress patterns.

In each foot, one of the syllables is more prominent or stronger

than the other syllable(s) and it is called the strong syllable. It is
the head of the syllable. The other syllables in the foot are the
weak syllables. In "party", the first syllable is strong and the
second syllable is weak.

There are two kinds of feet; left-dominant and right-dominant.

Languages use either one or the other type.

• Left-dominant feet have a strong first syllable with the

following syllables weak.
• Right-dominant feet have a strong final syllable with
preceding syllables weak.
English is a left-dominant language. For example, "consultation"
has two feet, /kɔn.səl/ and /tæɪ.ʃən/. In each of these feet, the
first or left-most syllable is strong and the second is weak, that
is, left-dominant.

In each word, one of the feet is stronger than the other feet. Its
head is more prominent because it is assigned intonational tone

54
or extra length. This strong syllable has primary word stress and
the heads of the other feet have secondary stress.

In "escalator" /eskəlæɪtə/, there are two left-dominant feet and

the first has primary stress. The first syllable of the second foot
carries secondary stress. The weak syllables are unstressed.

In English there is a tendency for the first syllable of words to be

strong and for words not to have adjacent strong syllables. For
example, words like "lantern" (s w) and "halogen" (s w w) are far
more common than "arise" (w s) or "apex" (s s).

So within feet we can identify a distinction between strong and

weak syllables, and within a word across feet we can identify primary,
secondary stress and unstressed syllables.

Metrical theory is principally concerned with the parameters that

determine the position of stressed syllables in words. Stress is seen as a
strength relationship between different syllables.

Building feet into words

English Words are built from three types of feet.

a. binary (trochaic) containing a strong then a weak syllable,

eg "elbow"
b. ternary containing a strong followed by two weak syllables,
eg "oxygen"
c. non-branching containing a single strong syllable, eg "cat"

55
Most words in English have one foot. Obviously all monosyllables
are one-footed, but so are also the large majority of two syllable
('pattern') and three-syllable ('Pamela') and even many four-
syllable words ('America'). However, many words also have two
feet: for example, 'imagination', 'orthodox', 'altitude'. One of
these feet is always stronger relative to the other and is
marked Fs (strong foot) as opposed to Fw (weak foot). The
strong foot always includes the primary stressed syllable while
the other weak foot (or feet) includes the syllable(s) with
secondary stress. In bipedal words, the order of the feet can be
either Fs Fw (i.e., with the strong foot first): these include e.g.
'altitude' and 'orthodox') or they can be Fw Fs (e.g.,
'chimpanzee', 'imagination'). There are a few long words with
three or more feet: these always have the strongest foot as the
last foot (e.g., 'reconciliation' which is Fw ('recon'), followed by
Fw ('cili') followed by Fs ('ation').

There are more than a few words in English that begin with a
weak syllable. Since feet are left-dominant, and since every foot
has to begin with a strong syllable, this will mean that a word-

56
initial weak syllable is unfooted (not associated with a foot).
Examples of such initial weak syllables occur in e.g. the first
syllable of 'America', 'medicinal', 'pedestrian'.

Words can be built by combining sequentially the above feet, or

indeed the feet with themselves. For example, we can have two
binary feet ('imagination'), a ternary foot followed by a binary
foot ('abracadabra'), a binary foot followed by a non-branching
foot ('lemonade'), two non-branching feet ('latex') and so on.

For example (where "(a)" = binary, "(b)" = ternary, and "(c)" =

non-branching):-

(a) + (a) "economics"

(b) + (a) "abracadabra"

(a) + (c) "matador"

(c) + (a) rare, but possible: "Nintendo"

(c) + (b) very rare

(c) + (c) + (c) impossible

Because of these constraints and the preference for (a)+(a),

strong and weak syllables tend to nearly alternate in English.

57
This near-alternation of s and w is the basis for our perception of
rhythm in English.

Natural speech is highly rhythmic, it tends to have a regular beat.

But different languages have different rhythms. In English all feet
tend to be of roughly the same length so that feet with more
syllables will have relatively shorter syllables than those with
fewer syllables. eg abracadabra 2 feet, 1 with three syllables and
1 with 2 but approximately equal duration.

antidisestablishmentarianism

5 feet, 12 syllables

an-ti dis-est ab-lish-ment a-ri-an is-m

s w s w s w w sww s w

Having said this, it is important to note that the stress pattern of

natural spoken English is not based on words at all. Phrases like
"my dog, the chair, love it", pattern like single words with just
one prominent syllable. There is no difference in stress between
pairs of words like "arise, a rise" or "ago, a go". Words that begin
with unstressed syllables like "above" may have initial unstressed
syllable allocated to a preceding foot. eg /IT was a /SIGN from
a/BOVE

58
Stress patterns associated with the foot determine the
characteristic rhythm of spoken English. A foot can comprise just
a single word or a group of words. In English there are some
words that are generally unstressed. They are high frequency,
usually monosyllabic function words like "the, a, is, to, and, that".
These words can in exceptional circumstances be stressed for
particular semantic intent but generally speaking they remain
unstressed.

The foot is analogous to the bar in music and spoken utterances

consist of a succession of feet in the same way that music
consists of a succession of bars. The first syllable of each foot is
always strong.

Click here to see an example of the complex relationship between

word boundaries, foot boundaries and prosodic phrase
boundaries.

Quantity-sensitive feet

In some languages, the choice of primary stress is related to the

number and type of segments in the syllable rhyme and this is
called quantity-sensitivity. Syllables are considered to be either
heavy or light depending on the segmental constituents of the
rhyme.

59
Heavy and light syllables

A light syllable is defined as any (C)V syllable where (C) is zero or

more consonants, and where the V is one of /ɪ e æ ɐ ʊ ɔ/ (as in
'hid', 'head', 'had', 'hud', 'hood', 'hod') or /ə/. (The simplest way
to remember these vowels is to ask yourself whether there are
any open monosyllables with such vowels in English - they are
also phonetically quite short). A light syllable also includes (C)VC
syllables in word-final position - so the last syllable of 'imagine' is
light.

All other types of syllables - that is (C)VC syllables which are not
word-final, (C)VCC syllables, (C)V: syllables where V: is any other
vowel or diphthong not listed above, or (C)V:C syllables all count
as heavy.

What kinds of syllables are metrically weak?

In order to be able to work out the prosodic tree structure for any
word, it's obviously important to be able to identify which
syllables are strong and weak. This is fact quite easy because,
apart from all weak syllables necessarily being Light (see above),
the very large majority of weak syllables have a /ə/ vowel, or a
vowel that can reduce to schwa (for example, the second syllable
of 'minimum' which can be either /ɪ/ or /ə/). There are a few
other kinds of weak syllables that don't have a /ə/ as their vowel.
These are listed below:

60
• /iː/ in 'city', 'happy', 'very'. These are metrically weak
because in many accents (not Australian) they can be
reduced to quite a central vowel. But a clearer indication is
given by the realisation of /t/ in words like 'city': certainly in
American English, and increasingly in Australian English, it
can be produced as an alveolar flap which is voiced and
unaspirated (and weakly contacted with the roof of the
mouth). And since alveolar flaps can only ever occur in
unstressed syllables in English, the syllable in these words is
likely to be metrically weak.
• /əʉ/ in words like 'rainbow', 'shadow', 'window'. Word-final
/əʉ/ is metrically weak for the same reason as the /iː/ in
words like 'city' and 'happy' above. /əʉ/ is often reduced to a
centralised monophthong and /t/ can be produced as a flap
preceding word final /əʉ/ in words like 'ditto' and 'potato' in
some accents.
• /iː/ or /ɪ/ when it precedes /ə/ in words like 'Daniel',
'pedestrian'. This is certainly metrically weak both because it
is quite short in duration, and because it can often be
produced as a glide /j/, thus, /dænjəl/ is certainly a possible
two-syllable production of this word.
• /ʉː/ or /ʊ/ when it precedes /ə/ in words like 'annual' and for
the same reason as above: these vowels are very short in
duration and can even be deleted resulting in a range of

61
 productions from three-syllable /ænjʉːəl/ to two syllable
/ænjəl/.
English words of Latin origin (and Latin and Germanic languages)
have quantity-sensitive feet. i.e. The phonemic structure of the
rhyme contributes to the determination of stress.

For English, non-final syllables with heavy rhymes prefer to be

strong.

• Non-final: the syllable is not at the end of the word

• Heavy rhyme: a VC (short vowel + consonant) or V: (long
vowel) rhyme
• Light rhyme: a V (short vowel)

These (H) are non-final heavy rhymes and they

are strong
Morphology and word stress
English word stress is dependent on:

• origin (Latin and Greek origin have different stress patterns)

62
 • rhythmic factors (as we have seen: In Latin base words non-
final heavy syllables like to be strong)
Morphological factors

The position of lexical stress serves to distinguish noun from verb

in words like conduct, insert, reject, abstract, convict, object,
subject. Stress is on the first syllable of the noun and the second
of the verb. For some words stress can also be said to fall on the
root word despite the addition of suffixes and prefixes. Board,
aboard, boarder; rise, arise, arisen.

However, some suffixes shift stress. Consider:

The suffixes -ion, -ity, -ic, -ify, -ible, -igible, -ish, require stress
to be on the preceding syllable

• 'edit, e'dition ('nation, 'ration, ma'gician)

• 'quality, natio'nality
• 'drama, dra'matic, (em'phatic, pho'netic)
• 'terrify, 'justify, i'dentify
• in'credible, 'terrible
• 'negligible, in'telligible
• 'publish, 'finish,'flourish
Words of three or more syllables ending in -ate throw the main
accent back 2 syllables eg negotiate, indicate dedicate, whereas

63
words of two syllables ending in ate place the accent on -ate eg
translate, dictate, debate.

English word stress parameters: summary

Adequate accounts of English word stress must recognise three

relevant factors:

a. is largely trochaic (left-dominant) feet

b. is quantity-sensitive ie is influenced by the phonemic
structure of the rhyme
c. is influenced by morphology
There can also be:

a. Languages with iambic (right-dominant) feet. The w syllable

leads: e.g. an American Indian language Seminole = w s w
s, two iambic feet
b. Many quantity-insensitive languages. E.g., Warlpiri, an
indigenous Australian language, takes no account of whether
the rhyme is heavy or light in assigning stress
c. Languages like French in which morphology does not
influence stress.
Building a prosodic word tree
Here are two examples of how to build a prosodic word for the
words 'Turramurra' and 'pedestrian'.

Example 1: "Turramurra"
(1) Begin by identifying whether there are any syllables that are
schwa vowels, or which can reduce to schwa, because these have
64
to be metrically weak: for this word, this applies to the second
and fourth syllables. Confirm that the other syllables cannot
reduce to schwa. If this is the case, they are likely to be
metrically strong. We therefore have four syllables which are s w
s w.

(2) Join a foot node to each strong syllable. This gives:

(3) Associate any weak syllables with the foot that precedes
them. As a result of this, we get two binary feet:

(4) If there is more than one syllable, one of the feet has to
marked strong, and the other(s) as weak. The foot that is marked
strong is the one that dominates the primary stressed syllable
(the third syllable in this example). So the first foot is weak. We
therefore arrive at:

65
(5) Join up the feet to form word tree. If there is an initial weak syllable
(doesn't apply in this case, but it would in e.g. 'asparagus') join that to the
word level. We therefore have the following with the transcription included:

Example 2: "pedestrian"
Draw a prosodic word tree for 'pedestrian'. Following through the above
five steps.

(1) 'pedestrian' = w s w w

(2)

66
(3)
(i.e. a ternary foot)

(4) This won't apply because there's only one foot.

67
 Tone Unit

Sometimes there is even a “tail”, that is, some syllables following the
tonic syllable up to the end of the tone-unit. So, the structure of a tone-
unit is (pre-head) (head) tonic syllable (tail). Intonation is very
important for communication, as it helps the addressee interpret the
message

What is a tonal unit?

/ˈtəʊn juːnɪt/ (also tone group) (phonetics) the basic unit
of intonation in a language which consists of one or more
syllables with a complete pitch movement.

Suprasegmental phonology
 Stress : applied to units larger than phonemes (segmental
phonology), i.e. syllables
 Intonation : pitch of voice plays an important part; it is
constantly changing during speech; analysing intonation refers to
listening to the speaker´s pitch and recognising what it is doing
Pitch
 Defined in terms of high and low (arbitrary choices for end-
points of the pitch scale)
 Auditory sensation experienced by the hearer
 We are not interested in all aspects of a speaker´s pitch, but in
those that carry some linguistic information
 Speakers have control over their own pitch of voice, and the
possibility of choice (this may have linguistic significance)
Fundamental frequency of voiced sounds ;should not be called
͞pitch

68
  The rate of vibration of the vocal folds, physically measureable
and related to speaker´s activity
 The distinction must be made between the two
 As long as the distinction is made it is of minor importance if
we informally use the same term pitch for both
Necessary conditions for pitch differences to be
linguistically relevant
 Being under speaker´s control
 Pitch differences must be perceptible (great enough to be heard
by a listener as differences in pitch)
 Significance in linguistics lies in contrasts (a set of items a unit
contrasts with) Form and function of intonation
 In the shortest piece of speech – single syllable
 A continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a
pause – utterance
 One syllable utterances like ‘yes’ and ‘no’
 Even in one syllable words we can either remain at a constant
pitch level or change it

Tone
 Is the term used for the overall behaviour of the pitch
 It can be level or moving
 The latter are more
 Level tone does not sound natural
 When saying yes or no in a final manner, falling tone is usually
used
 For questioning manner rising tone is used (now we are already
talking about function) Tone and tone languages

69
 Tone is marked before the syllable: level _yes falling yes rising
yes In this way we can also mark the high tone level and low tone
level
The case for some other languages is different:
In these the tone can determine on the meaning of the word in
question, in Croatian as well Speech may be divided into tone
units. Each tone unit is composed of:
 A tonic syllable (obligatory)
 Optional elements which precede the tonic syllable (pre-head,
head)
 Optional elements which follow the tonic syllable (tail) In
synthesis:
 (pre-head) (head) tonic syllable (tail) Complex tones and pitch
height
 Each of these may express particular attitudes:
 Fall: neutral statement
 Rise: neutral question, doubt
 Fall-Rise: scepticism
 Rise-Fall: emphatic statement
 Level: boredom, disinterest
In ordinary speech intonation tends to take place within the lower
part of the speaker´s pitch range. Only with strong feelings we
use extra pitch height.

Fall: neutral statement, conclusion

 E.g. Have you seen John?
 Yes. (Falling intonation indicates \)

70
I have answered your question and do not intend to add anything
else.

Rise: questioning, doubt, desire to continue

conversation
 E.g. Have you seen John lately?
 Yes /… Rising intonation indicates /) want to continue the
conversation, I am curious/
Rise-Fall: emphatic statement, irritation, command
 Do I really have to clean my room?
 Yes!

Fall-Rise: surprise, scepticism

 Ann and John were on good terms at the party?

 Yes!

71
Level: boredom, lack of interest _______________
 Can you remember Peter Jackson, the cost consultant for our
company in Taiwan? The other day in the office I invited him for
dinner, he’ll be coming tomorrow.
 Yes.

We shall begin by considering the fall:

here is a tone unit solely composed of a tonic syllable.

yes
Things become more complicated when we add syllables. In this
case there are no stressed syllables before the tonic:

__ ____
I said yes
‘ I said’ is the pre-head.
Here we added a stressed syllable ,’told’ before the tonic, which
is called the head. Notice how the intonation rises from the pre-
head.
____ _____ _ _____
__
I told you I said yes

72
Here we have added syllables after the tonic, this is called the
tail. Note how it tends to follow the intonation pattern of the
tonic.

_ _____ ____ _ _____

I told you I said yes to him
In a similar way a rising tonic syllable will condition its tail: here
͚when is the tonic syllable

When did you say ?

Again when we come to complex tone we find the tail following

the tonic syllable: for a fall-rise the fall occurs on the tonic and
the rise at the end of the tail

I might buy it

No matter how many syllables there are in the tail, the rise
finishes on the last

I might have thought of buying it

73
Use punctuation to help your pronunciation skills by adding a
pause after each period, comma, semi-colon or colon. By using
punctuation to guide when you pause while reading, you will
begin to speak in a more natural manner. Make sure to read the
example sentences on this page out loud using the pronunciation
tips provided. Let's look at an example sentence:

I'm going to visit my friends in Chicago. They have a beautiful

house, so I'm staying with them for two weeks.

In this example, pause after 'Chicago' and 'house.' This will help
anyone who's listening to you follow you more easily. On the
other hand, if you rush through the periods and commas (and
other punctuation marks), your pronunciation will sound
unnatural and it will be difficult for listeners to follow your
thoughts.

Punctuation that marks the end of a sentence also has specific

intonation. Intonation means the rising and the lowering of the
voice when speaking. In other words, intonation refers to the
voice rising and falling. Let's take a look at the different types of
intonation used with pronunciation.

Asking Questions Follows Two Patterns

Rising Voice at the End of a Question

If the question is a yes / no question, the voice rises at the end of

a question.

74
 • Do you like living in Portland?
• Have you lived here a long time?
• Did you visit your friends last month?

Falling Voice at the End of a Question

If the question is an information question—in other words, if you

are asking a question with 'where,' 'when,' 'what,' 'which,' 'why,'
'what/which kind of..,' and questions with 'how'—let your voice
fall at the end of a question.

• Where are you going to stay on vacation?

• When did you arrive last night?
• How long have you lived in this country?

Question Tags

Question tags are used to either confirm information or to ask for

clarification. The intonation is different in each case.

Question Tags to Confirm

If you think you know something, but would like to confirm it, let
the voice fall in the question tag.

• You live in Seattle, don't you?

• This is easy, isn't it?
• You aren't coming to the meeting, are you?

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Question Tags to Ask for Clarification

When using a question tag to clarify, let the voice rise to let the
listener know that you expect more information.

• Peter isn't going to be at the party, is he?

• You understand your role, don't you?
• We aren't expected to finish the report by Friday, are we?

End of Sentences

The voice usually falls at the end of sentences. However, when

making a short statement with a word that is only one syllable
the voice rises to express happiness, shock, approval, etc.

• That's great!
• I'm free!
• I bought a new car.

When making a short statement with a word that is more than

one syllable (multi-syllabic) the voice falls.

• Mary is happy.
• We're married.
• They're exhausted.

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Commas

We also use a specific type of intonation when using commas in a

list. Let's take a look at an example:

Peter enjoys playing tennis, swimming, hiking, and biking.

In this example, the voice rises after each item in the list. For the
final item, let the voice fall. In other words, 'tennis,' 'swimming,'
and 'hiking' all rise in intonation. The final activity, 'biking,' falls in
intonation. Practice with a few more examples:

• We bought some jeans, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and an

umbrella.
• Steve wants to go to Paris, Berlin, Florence, and London.

Pause After an Introductory Subordinate Clause

Subordinate clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. These

include 'because,' 'though,' or time expressions such as 'when,'
'before,' 'by the time,' as well as others. You can use a
subordinating conjunction to introduce a subordinate clause at
the beginning of a sentence, or in the middle of a sentence. When
beginning a sentence with a subordinating conjunction (as in this
sentence), pause at the end of the introductory subordinating
clause.

• When you read this letter, I will have left you forever.

77
• Because it's so expensive to travel in Europe, I have decided
to go to Mexico for my vacation.
• Although the test was very hard, I got an A on it.

78
 The Rules of Intonation in English
Have you heard about the rules of intonation in English? If you
have not heard of them yet, then let me walk you through them.
Here’s what you need to know!
Imagine yourself asking someone and realize was it exactly the
way it should sound? Sometimes, the way we said things actually
gets us really anxious in a way that we get scared if we said it
wrongly or sarcastically, or jokingly. The point is, we want to make
sure that we say things with the correct intonation.
In particular, you talk to a friend and say, “My shoes are nice,
aren’t they?” Yet, you felt bewildered whether you are trying to
confirm it or simply trying to ask about his/her point of view.
Truthfully, almost all of us struggle to distinguish when to use the
rising and falling intonation whenever we utter a statement or a
question. Subsequently, this continues to confuse people with what
we truly want to convey. That’s why in this article, we are going to
learn the different types of intonation.
What is Intonation?
Intonation is the way the voice rises or falls when
communicating. In short, it is the music of speech.
It focuses more on how you say it rather than what is being said.
This is important in English communication because sentences may
vary in meaning depending on the intonation. It also yields
dynamics on your speech and makes it more compelling to hear.

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So what are common types and rules of intonation?
The most common types of Intonation we have in English are the
following:
• Falling intonation
• Rising intonation
• Falling–rising intonation
• Rising–falling intonation
Falling Intonation
One of the most common intonation patterns in the English
language is the rules of falling intonation.
This is when the pitch of the voice falls at the end of a sentence.
We commonly use them in statements, commands, WH-questions,
confirmatory question tags, and exclamations.
Below are some examples where we use the falling
intonation:
In statements, we say:
Pleased to meet ↓you.
Mom wants to buy that ↓bag.
We should keep ↓going.
In commands, we say:
Show me the way to the ↓station.
Take your shoes ↓off.
Leave them on the ↓desk.
In WH-questions, we say:
What food do you ↓want?

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Where do you come ↓from?
Whose book is ↓this?
In question tags, we use the rules of falling intonation only when
we seek confirmation or invite agreement.
For example, we say:
He thinks he’s so smart, doesn’t ↓he?
They didn’t enjoy the party, did ↓they?
She’s the one you told me about, isn’t ↓she?
In exclamations, we say:
That’s a perfect ↓gift!
How nice of ↓you!
What a beautiful ↓performance!
Rising Intonation
Another intonation marking used in the English language is the
rules of rising intonation.
This is when the pitch of the voice rises at the end of the sentence.
It is commonly used in yes or no questions, and question tags that
show uncertainty.
In question tags showing uncertainty, we say:
You’re new here, aren’t ↑you?
He prefers the beach, doesn’t ↑he?
The rules were changed, weren’t ↑they?
In yes or no questions, we say: Do you like your new ↑shirt? May
I borrow your ↑book?
Will she ↑agree?

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Rising-Falling Intonation
We do not only use rising or falling intonations alone, but we can
likewise use a combination of both. Consider the rules of rising-
falling intonation.
This is generally used for giving out a list, a set of choices, partial
and conditional statements.
In stating a list, use rising intonation in the first series of items.
Then, use a falling intonation on the last item to indicate that the
list has ended. For instance:
She bought some ↑bread, ↑meat, ↑pasta, and ↓apples.
He enjoys outdoor activities such as ↑mountain
climbing, ↑trekking, and ↓camping.
This bag comes in colors of ↑white, ↑gray, ↑black, and ↓yellow.
When used in choices, we say:
Would you like to have ↑tea or ↓coffee?
Is Jane coming ↑today or ↓tomorrow?
Did you say ↑east or ↓west?
We also use the rising-falling intonation in partial statements.
This is when the speaker is hesitant to fully express his ideas and
is unable to finish his statement.
For example:
What was the place like? –Well, it ↑seemed ↓nice… (but it’s too
small.)
So did you enjoy the trip? –Hmmm, ↑yes I ↓did… (but it was too
short.)

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Do Ethan and Ricky know you? –Well, ↑Ethan ↓does… (but not
Ricky.)
In conditional statements, we use the rising intonation in the
first clause, then gradually shift to the falling intonation in the
second clause.
So we say:
If you have any ↑questions, send me a ↓message.
Ever since you came ↑here, everything’s doing ↓well.
Unless she ↑asks, I’ll stay ↓silent.
Falling-rising intonation
Finally, one of the familiar rules of intonation is the usage of
the falling–rising intonation within a word. This is often used
when the speaker is uncertain of an answer to a question or shows
reluctance.
For example:
Should we ↓re↑port this incident?
Do you think it is ↓va↑lid?
Would he ↓su↑pport the team?
Why learn the Rules of Intonation?
Unlike other languages, the English language follows several rules
of Intonation. We use a different intonation in every different
situation in English. And while other people don’t give so much
importance to the rules, having the right intonation helps us sound
clearer and more natural.

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Below are the five benefits of having a very good intonation.
1. Awareness of intonation aids communication.

2. Incorrect intonation can result in misunderstandings, speakers

losing interest, or even taking offense!

3. Intonation allows you to play well in tune. So, the better the
tune, the more you’ll sound better and will be perceived as a better
speaker.

4. Your tone is usually better and more consistent because you

have better control in managing your air better in order to play in
tune better. Your technique has to improve in order to make the
adjustments necessary to play in tune.

5. You will feel more confident and at ease when you know your
intonation is good. When you have good intonation, speaking in
English will become more fun!

Now that you already know the reasons for the importance of
intonation in English, make sure you practice and learn them. This
will be a little challenging at first, but trust, it will be totally useful
if you already get the hang of it. So, keep practicing.

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Summary and Examples

What is intonation?

Intonation and stress are closely linked. In fact it's

impossible to dissociate them. They go hand in hand.

Intonation is about how we say things, rather

than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when
speaking, in other words the music of the language.

Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have

regular patterns of stressed words. In addition, the voice
tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the
meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger,
interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.). Intonation therefore
indicates the mood of the speaker.
There are two basic patterns of intonation in English:
falling intonation and rising intonation.
In the following examples a downward
arrow (➘) indicates a fall in intonation and an upward
arrow (➚) indicates a rise in intonation.
Again, these are not rules but patterns generally used by
native speakers of English.
Just remember that content words are stressed, and
intonation adds attitude or emotion.

85
This explanation on intonation is intended to serve as a
general guide to help learners.
It should in no way make them unnecessarily anxious!

It should be remembered that a written explanation can

never be a substitute for a 'live' conversation with a native
speaker.
Attitudinal intonation is something that is best acquired
through talking and listening to English speakers.
Falling Intonation
(➘)
(The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)
Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern
in English.
It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-
questions (information questions), confirmatory question
tags and exclamations.
• Statements
o Nice to meet ➘ you.

o I’ll be back in a ➘ minute.

o She doesn’t live here ➘ anymore.

o Dad wants to change his ➘ car.

o Here is the weather ➘ forecast.

o Cloudy weather is expected at the end of

the ➘ week.
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 o We should work together more ➘ often
o I'm going for a walk in the ➘ park.

• Commands
o Write your name ➘ here.

o Show me what you’ve ➘ written.

o Leave it on the ➘ desk.

o Take that picture ➘ down.

o Throw that ➘ out.

o Put your books on the ➘ table.

o Take your hands out of your ➘ pockets.

• Wh- questions (requesting information.)

(questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where',
'when', 'which', and 'how')
o What country do you come ➘ from?

o Where do you ➘ work?

o Which of them do you ➘ prefer?

o When does the shop ➘ open?

o How many books have you ➘ bought?

o Which coat is ➘ yours?

o Whose bag is ➘ this?

• Questions Tags that are statements requesting

confirmation rather than questions.
Not all tag questions are really questions.
Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite

87
 agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the
end.
o He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ➘ he?

o She's such a nuisance, isn't ➘ she?

o He failed the test because he didn't revise,

did ➘ he?
o It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ➘ it?

• Exclamations
o How nice of ➘ you!

o That's just what I ➘ need!

o You don't ➘ say!

o What a beautiful ➘ voice!

o That's a ➘ surprise!

Rising Intonation (➚)

(The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.)
Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking.
It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question
tags that are real questions.
• Yes/no Questions
(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)
o Do you like your new ➚ teacher?

o Have you finished ➚ already?

o May I borrow your ➚ dictionary?

o Do you have any ➚ magazines?

88
 o Do you sell ➚ stamps?

• Questions tags that show uncertainty and require

an answer (real questions).
o We've met already, ➚ haven't we?

o You like fish, ➚ don't you?

o You're a new student ➚ aren't you?

o The view is beautiful, ➚ isn't it?

We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling

intonation in the same sentence.
The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise
intonation.

Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)

(The intonation rises and then falls.)
We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished
thoughts and conditional sentences.
• Choices (alternative questions.)
o Are you having ➚ soup or ➘ salad?

o Is John leaving on ➚ Thursday or ➘ Friday?

o Does he speak ➚ German or ➘ French?

o Is your name ➚ Ava or ➘ Eva?

• Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)

Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is
finished.

89
 o We've got ➚ apples, pears, bananas
and ➘ oranges
o The sweater comes in ➚ blue, white, pink
and ➘ black
o I like ➚ football, tennis, basketball
and ➘ volleyball.
o I bought ➚ a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘ handbag.
• Unfinished thoughts (partial statements)
In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall
intonation indicates reservation.
The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.
o Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚ leather
is ➘ nice... ( but I don't like it.)
o What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚ fish was ➘ good...
(but the rest wasn't great).
o So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚ Alex ➘ does ...
(but I don't).

• Conditional sentences
(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the
second clause.)
o If he ➚ calls, ask him to leave a ➘ message.
o Unless he ➚ insists, I'm not going to ➘ go.
o If you have any ➚ problems, just ➘ contact us.

Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚)

(The voice falls and rises usually within one word.)
The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the
speaker is not certain of the answer they are giving to a
question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone
used when there is no hesitation). It is also used in polite
requests or suggestions.

• Hesitation/reluctance:
90
 o So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ...
I ➘sup➚pose so ...
o You didn't see him on Monday? I don't
quite ➘re➚member ...

• Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty: (You are not sure what

the answer might be.)
o Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?
o Should we ➘cop➚y the list?
o Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?

Tips for learners:

A good exercise to improve pronunciation would be to listen to

short recordings of everyday dialogues and then 'shadow read'
the script, or read it along with the tape using the same stress
and intonation as the speaker. Students can repeat this exercise
until their voice sounds similar to the voice on the recording.

It is also a good idea to note down or record some examples of

everyday conversations (either from real life or from film or
television dialogues) and repeat them as often as possible,
copying the stress and intonation of the speakers.

Modern English songs are also a useful way of learning English

stress, rhythm and intonation.
To begin with, try singing (or saying loudly) the lyrics of songs
that you find easy to understand.

91
 You will be surprised how quickly your pronunciation will improve
with the help of audio materials.
It will be a reward for all your hard work!

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