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Stress Patterns in Ga and Sbe

1) The document discusses stress patterns in General American (GA) and Standard British English (SBE), noting some key similarities and differences. 2) Similarities include stress-neutral endings like -ing and stress rules for suffixes like -ate. 3) Differences include stress on words ending in -ate, stress on some French-origin words, and pronunciation of suffixes like -ary and -ile. 4) While most everyday words have similar stress patterns, GA tends to be more regular and follow general principles, whereas SBE has some incidental differences from GA stress rules.

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266 views2 pages

Stress Patterns in Ga and Sbe

1) The document discusses stress patterns in General American (GA) and Standard British English (SBE), noting some key similarities and differences. 2) Similarities include stress-neutral endings like -ing and stress rules for suffixes like -ate. 3) Differences include stress on words ending in -ate, stress on some French-origin words, and pronunciation of suffixes like -ary and -ile. 4) While most everyday words have similar stress patterns, GA tends to be more regular and follow general principles, whereas SBE has some incidental differences from GA stress rules.

Uploaded by

laura
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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STRESS PATTERNS IN GA AND SBE

I. Definition of stress

a) Stress
- No single factor determines stress. It is generated by a combination of loudness, intensity,
length of the syllable, pitch and muscular energy…
= It is something that stands out/is more prominent.
- The stress strengthens a syllable. A lack of stress leads to less audible prominence for a
syllable.

b) Function of word stress


- Word stress is a key factor in decoding meanings.
It may have a distinctive function: billow/below = /’bɪ ləʊ/ /bɪ ‘ləʊ/)

c) English and Germanic


- In German, the word stress tends to be placed toward the beginning of a word (example of
pilgrimus/pilgrim…). On the contrary, in French, the stress is invariably on the final syllable.

d) Stress patterns in English


- Native speakers acquire a natural “feel” for the phonological shape of words (and non-native
speakers don’t).

II. Similarities between GA and SBE

a) Stress-neutral endings
- Grammatical endings: -ing, ed, -s, -er, -est
- Others: -ly, -less, -ful, -ness, -er, -or, -able…

b) Stress-imposing endings
- Last syllable bears the primary stress
= VV(C)# (cartoon, bazaar)
= ESE, ETTE# (Japanese, kitchenette)

- Penultimate syllable carries the primary stress


= IC(S) words (pa’cific, fan’tastic) BUT some exceptions: ‘Arabic, ‘catholic, ‘politics…
= ION words (i/e/u + V + C) (e’motion, super’stitions)

- Antepenultimate syllable carries the primary stress


= ATE (an’ticipate, co’llaborate)
= IFY, ITY, ETY (‘justify, so’ciety)

III. Differences between GA and SBE

a) -ATE
- Two-syllable words in -ate are stressed as 01 in SBE and 10 in GA (it’s a tendency).
= ‘Narrate, ‘rotate, ‘frustrate
- Also works for derived forms with -er, -or, -ing
= ‘Narrator, ‘rotated, ‘frustrating, ‘frustratingly

b) Words of French origins


- Not all words of French origin -> only a tiny fraction are still felt to be French.
= é/et (mostly) like cli’ché, sou’fflé, bu’ffet, bou’quet
= Age like ma’ssage, ga’rage
- In SBE, they are stressed in 10.

c) Few incidental differences


- Controversy: SBE ˈkɒntrəv3ːsi, GA kənˈtrɒvəsi
- Laboratory: SBE ləˈbɒrətəri, GA ‘læbrətɔːri
- Advertisement: SBE ədˈv3ːtɪsmənt, GA ædv3r’taɪsmənt

d) Pronunciation of some endings (primary stress same as in SBE and GA here)


- ARY, ORY, ONY, BERRY-ending not reduced to a schwa in GA
= Ceremony, SBE əni, GA oʊni
= Strawberry, SBE ˈstrɔːbri, GA ‘stra:beri
= Secondary, SBE ˈsekəndri, GA ˈsekənderi

- IZATION
= SBE aɪ ’zeɪ ʃ ən, GA ə’zeɪ ʃ ən

- ILE
= SBE ‘frædʒaɪ l, GA ‘frædʒəl

CONCLUSION:
- Vast majority of everyday words have some stress pattern in SBE and GA.
- GA tends to be more regular: advertise, advertisement.
- GA tends to abide by more general principles (example: primary stress towards the beginning
of words as in -ate 10).
- Recent patterns: all you can eat buffet (‘b f t)
- Regional narration: in’surance (south: ‘insurance).
- Some GA stress patterns are very common in SBE today.

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