Sentence Stress, Weak forms and Sentence Rhythm in English Liu Yan liuyantjfsu@sina.com Centre for Foreign Language Education TJFSU

CONTENTS Importance of Sentence Stress （Why？） 1 Definition of Sentence Stress （What？） 2 Strategies of Sentence Stress （How？） 3

BBC News with Jonathan Izard Questions to Reflect on: 1. Could you usually feel the rhythm institutively when listening to English? 2. Do you have any knowledge about STRESS? 3. Do you think English sentence stress and rhythm are important? WHY? 4. How does STRESS relate to four English skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and communicative competence? Please listen to a piece of material. BBC News with Jonathan Izard

Importance of Sentence Stress 1 Making English Difficult 3 Suprasegmental Phonemes 2 Microskills and Macroskills 4 Communicative Competence

Importance: Making Listening Difficult (Brown, 2007, p.307, 327 )

Importance: Making Speaking Difficult (Brown, 2007, p.307, 327 )

Importance: Microskills of Listening (Brown, 2007, p.308)

Importance: Microskills of Speaking (Brown, 2007, p.308)

Importance: Suprasegmental Phonemes (Nunan, 2013, p. 51) Elements involved in speaking. Left: 4 areas of linguistic analysis. Right: suprasegmental phonemes.

Importance: Communicative Competence (Celce-Murcia, 2001) Canale and Swain’s (1980) adaptation of Hymes’s theory of communicative competence proposes that the ability to communicate in a language comprises four dimensions: 1. Grammatical competence: including rules of phonology, orthography, vocabulary, word formation, and sentence formation. 2. Sociolinguistic competence: rules for expression and understanding of appropriate social meaning and grammatical forms in different context. 3. Discourse competence: rules of both cohesion (how sentence elements are tied together via reference, repetition, synonym and coherence (how texts are constructed). 4. Strategic competence：compensatory strategies that help with a variety of communication difficulties.

Importance of Sentence Stress Suprasegmental Phonemes Making English Difficult 3 1 2 Microskills and Macroskills 4 Communicative Competence 1. Correct word and sentence stress in spoken English can mean the difference between good communication and no communication at all. 2. Sentence Stress is one of the differences between Chinese and English.

Definition of Sentence Stress （What？） CONTENTS Importance of Sentence Stress （Why？） 1 Definition of Sentence Stress （What？） 2 Strategies of Sentence Stress （How？） 3

A Question to Reflect on: 01 What is your perception of Sentence Stress? Could you please define Sentence Stress in your own words?

Definition of Stress Stress can be defined as the degree of intensity or loudness placed on a sound; that is the amount of force one puts on a syllable or word to give it importance.

Some rules of Word Stress 1.One-syllable words: Though there is no stress mark, the syllable is stressed. e.g. bike, time, hit… How to draw the stress pattern?

2.Two-syllable words 1. One primary stress and a zero stress. E.g. mountain, reason, How to draw the stress pattern? 2.Two primary stresses e.g. thirteen, nineteen, Hong Kong, Beijing, 3. One primary syllable and one second syllable (few) stonebridge, football, Chinese,

3.The word with suffix or prefix The word with suffix or prefix will be stressed on the main part, while the suffix or prefix part is unstressed. E.g. careful, careless prepare, predict

4.words with 3 or more syllables For words with 3 or more syllables, the stress is on the third syllable from the back. e.g. particular, participate, melody, chemistry, botany, psychology, ability Exceptions: important, necessary

5. Words ended with[∫ n] The stress will be on the syllable before [∫ n] e.g. discussion nation translation interpretation

6. Words ended with [ik] The stress will be on the syllable before [ik] e.g. scientific historic optimistic terrific

7. Secondary stress In the words with 3 or more syllables, the secondary stress will be on the two syllables before the syllable primarily stressed. e.g. pessimistic photogenic

Definition of Sentence Stress Sentence stress refers to the word or words in a sentence that receive a strong accent. In most sentences you will find a series of both stressed and unstressed words (王桂珍，2009）. Question: How does sentence stress relate to sentence rhythm?

Sentence Stress Every word has a stress, but the word may not be stressed in a sentence. The unstressed syllables between the stressed syllables constitute the rhythm of English, whose number is not definite （屠蓓，2005）.

Unity of opposite one-syllable word two-syllable word word stress three-syllable word more than three word stress Stress Unity of opposite sentence stress Primary Stress Secondary

A Question to Reflect on: Not every word is stressed in English sentences, then which group of words should be stressed? While which group should not be stressed?

CONTENTS Importance of Sentence Stress （Why？） 1 Definition of Sentence Stress （What？） 2 Strategies of Sentence Stress （How？） 3

What should be stressed in a sentence? —Information Words (王桂珍，2009） nouns, proper nouns, verbs, adjs, most advs, numerals, gerund, present participle and past participle, prep with 2 syllables, interrogative words， demonstrative prons(this that those these)

What should not be stressed in a sentence? —Function Words (王桂珍，2009） art, pron, Be, prep with 1 syllable, aux, conj, relative prons(I, mine, my, me…)， relative advs(when, where, why)，

Practice Go home Going home Going back home Going straight back home

Answers ‘Go ‘home ‘Going ‘home ‘Going back ‘home ‘Going ‘straight back ‘home

Practice Janet has gone to school. I saw your brother yesterday. Can I carry your suitcase? Would you like a glass of beer? I must be going. My wife is waiting for me at the corner of the street.

Answers ‘Janet has ‘gone to ‘school. I ‘saw your ‘brother ‘yesterday. ‘Can I ‘carry your ‘suitcase? ‘Would you ‘like a ‘glass of ‘beer? I must be ‘going. My ‘wife is ‘waiting for me at the ‘corner of the ‘street.

Stress Patterns ‘When shall we ‘meet ‘next ‘time? ‘Janet has ‘gone to ‘school. ‘When shall we ‘meet ‘next ‘time? My ‘wife is ‘waiting for me at the ‘corner of the ‘street.

not enough/show me yours/just in front/ring me up/lend a hand/drive a car/ sing a song/cold as ice

I think so/I’d like to/ to please them/at breakfast/ but why not/ without me/ she had to/a lot of/to try it/ with pleasure

I’d like you to/to practice it/I studied it/she came with us/get rid of it/we asked them to/ they must have been/ be nice to her

A Question to Reflect on: Some words are unstressed in the sentence, but how to pronounce them in the sentence, are there any changes to be made? BBC Vedio 45

+ + Rhythm of English Word stress Information word { Sentence stress Function word Weak forms (Unstressed Syllables) + Rhythm of English Loss of plosive+Linking + Intonation

Weak forms and Strong forms (王桂珍，2009） Many function words in English have two pronunciations: strong form (or stressed form) and a weak form (or reduced form, unstressed form). The unstressed form is thus an alternative pronunciation of a word which is so reduced in its articulation that it consists of s different set of phonemes. /ə/ is the most frequently used vowel in the unstressed form and next comes /ɪ/.

The importance of learning unstressed forms 1. Most native speakers find an “all-strong form” pronunciation very unpleasant. 2. learners who are not familiar with weak forms are likely to have difficulty in understanding native speakers.

Main Features of the Weak Forms (王桂珍，2009） 1. reduction of the length of the sounds 2. obstruction of vowels towards the schwa 3. elision of vowels and consonants

When to use strong forms (王桂珍，2009) 1. when they are at the end of a sentence 2. when they are being contrasted 3. when they are used for emphasis 4. when they are cited or quoted

Learn to read with right sentence stress

Text Analysis of BBC News Listen and check.

Summary Importance of Sentence Stress （Why？） 1 Definition of Sentence Stress （What？） 2 Strategies of Sentence Stress （How？） 3

Importance of Sentence Stress Suprasegmental Phonemes 1 Making English Difficult 3 2 Microskills and Macroskills 4 Communicative Competence Correct word and sentence stress in spoken English can mean the difference between good communication and no communication at all. Sentence Stress is one of the differences between Chinese and English.

What should be stressed in a sentence? —Information Words nouns, proper nouns, verbs, adjs, most advs, numerals, gerund, present participle and past participle, prep with 2 syllables, interrogative words， demonstrative prons(this that those these)

What should not be stressed in a sentence? —Function Words art, pron, Be, prep with 1 syllable, aux, conj, relative prons(I, mine, my, me…)， relative advs(when, where, why)，

Learn to read with right sentence stress

Helpful, useful, problem-solving accurate, fluent, communicative competence

References: Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.). (2001). Teaching English as a second language. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Nunan, D. (Ed). (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill Contemporary. 王桂珍，(2009)，《英语语音教程》，北京：高等教育出 版社。 屠蓓，(2006)，《英语语音》，北京：外语教学与研究出 版社。

Q & A:

Centre for Foreign Language Education TJFSU Thank you for your attention! Good luck! Liu Yan liuyantjfsu@sina.com Centre for Foreign Language Education TJFSU