1. Follow up lesson 6

2. First: Understanding Syllables
To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables.
Syllable: a unit of pronunciation that has one vowel sound, and may or may not be surrounded by consonants.
Automatic au-to-ma-tic
dog 1
green
quite
quiet
qui-et 2
orange
or-ange
table
ta-ble
expensive
ex-pen-sive 3
unrealistic
un-rea-lis-tic 4
unexceptional
un-ex-cep-tio-nal 5

3. Syllables should be counted relying on the spoken word, not on the written word
Automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/ 5 vowels but 4 syllables
Interesting /ˈɪn.trəs.tɪŋ/ vowels but 3 syllables

4. Word stress
You stress one syllable by pronouncing it louder than the others
Stress is carried by vowels
Phonetic transcriptions show which syllable is stressed with a an apostrophe (or more precisely a raised vertical line just before the stressed syllable: /'plæs.tɪk/
(conventions may change in different dictionaries)

5. Any rules for word-stress position?
Stress the first syllable of:
Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate, KNOWledge)
Most two-syllable adjectives (examples: FLIPpant, SPAcious)
Stress the last syllable of:
Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE, deCIDE)
Stress the second-to-last syllable of:
Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic, geoGRAPHic)
Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples: exTENsion, retriBUtion)
Stress the third-from-last syllable of:
Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy (examples: deMOCracy, unCERtainty, geOGraphy, radiOLogy)
Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional, CRItical)

6. Limited usefulness of rules
Many words fall outside the scope of these rules:
E.g. photograph: no rule for three syllable-words ending in –ph
E.g. assembly: no rule for three syllable-words ending in –ly
Princess /prɪnˈses/: two syllable noun, stressed on the second syllable
(although a possble variant is /ˈprɪn.ses/)

7. Shifting stress
photograph, photographer and  photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No.

8. Word stress and listening comprehension
If, for example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress.
Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these words, photo... Which word is it, photograph or photographer?
If you heard PHOto: photograph
phoTO: photographer

9. Secondary stress
Normally there is one stress per word, but in long words there can be a main stress and a secondary stress
It is less pronminent than the main stress
Secondary stress is marked with a lowered vertical line [ˌ] at the beginning of the syllable.
autobiography 
UK ​ /ˌɔː.tə.baɪˈɒɡ.rə.fi/ 

10. Compound words (words with two parts)
rule
example
For compound nouns, the stress is on the firstpart (Wells, p. 100)
BLACKbird, GREENhouse
For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part
bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned BUT HIGHlight
For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part
underSTAND, overFLOW