RHYTHM OF ENGLISHFirdayanti Firdaus, S.Pd., M.Hum.

RHYTHM

Rhythm is the sense of movement in speech, which is marked by the stress, timing, and quantity of syllables.

Rhythm has a correlation with stress

STRESS In phonetic, stress is the degree of emphasis

given to a sound or syllable in speech. Stress is the emphasis that may be given to

certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence.

Stress is the intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting relative loudness.Examples:1. After, Capital, Happen, Exercise, Easy.2. Instead, Pronounce, Agreement, Particularly.3. Entertain, Understand, Concentration

Why stress is important?

1. If the wrong words are stressed in a sentence, the speech will be difficult to understand, for example:

important

O o o impotent

2. Stressing a word differently can change the meaning, for example:

"They will desert* the desert** by tomorrow."

o O O o desert* desert**

1. Word Stress/Syllable Stress

The stress is placed on syllables within a word. It is the ‘beat’ on one or more syllables within a word.

Level of stress

Primary Stress Higher pitch (Stress) Louder voice

Longer vowel

Secondary stress Relaxed(Unstress) Weaker

Dissappear

Stress + Unstress

Rhythm

(musicality)

Teacher busy Baby crying

The teacher is busy The baby is crying

Which words are most stressed and which are not

Stressed Words Unstressed Words

* Content Words:-Main Verbs-Nouns-Adjectives-Adverbs-Interjections

* Wh Words

* Function Words:-Articles-Pronouns-Prepositions-Conjunctions-Auxiliary verbs /helping verbs

Functional Stress There are a number of two syllable words which function both as

noun or adjective and verbs. These words have stress on first syllable when they are used as

noun or adjective. and stress occurs on the second syllable when they are used as

verbs.For examples:1. Her ‘conduct is good. (noun)

She con’ducts herself well. (verb) 2. What is our ‘import policy? (adjective)

They do the ‘import trade. (noun) We im’port this item from USA. (verb)

3. He was ‘present here yesterday. (adj.)Please pre’sent your case! ( verb)

4. Tell me the ‘object of your case. (noun)I ob’ject to your ideas. (verb)

5. What are your ‘subjects of study? (noun)He was sub’jected to much humiliation. (verb)

Stress in Compound noun

The first of a compound noun should be stressed.E.g.DownloadGolf courseCell phoneHeadacheKeyboardVoicemailNewspaper

I found a new download for my laptop.Check your voicemail before going into the conference room.

Why does stress matter?Green house green houseWhite house white house

Stress in Phrasal Verbs

The stress is on the second part of the verb.e.g.Please walk down the stepsI’d like to sit downBack it up

Stress in number S tress the second syllable or the last part of the “teen” number in

amount, money, and time.- Sixteen- 09:15 nine thirteen

Stress the first syllable in “ten” number.- Sixty- 09:30 nine thirty

Stress the second number for number above twenty.- twenty – one

When number becomes adjective, primary stress shifts to the nouns and number receive the secondary stress.- Thirteen pounds- Fourteen minutes- fifteen miles

Syllable Stress Pattern

Don’t stress a suffix. Give primary stress to the syllable immediately

before most suffixes, such as: -ic, -ical, -ify, -omy, -ogy, -istry, -metry, -ive, -ity, -tion, -ion,-ious, -ily, -eous, -able, -ible, -ophy, -graphy, -ogist, -cian.For examples:- Domestic - identify - economical - geography- Economy - economics - philosophy - authentic- transportation -psychology - communication- Trigonometry

Exceptions:Comfortable vegetable irritable formidable

Give primary stress to the syllable that is two syllables before the suffixes –ate, -ary (for 3 syllable words), and sometimes –ive.e.g.Appropriate estimate appreciateTemporary voluntary ordinaryrepresentative consecutive repetitive

Stress one syllable before the –ary suffix for four or more syllables.e.g.elementary [eli’mentri]rudimentary [ru:di’mentri]

Stress a prefix to emphasize a point.e.g. rewriteinfrequently

I’m going to rewrite the paper for the third time!No, she called very infrequently.

Do not alter the stress pattern when you add –er or –or to a verb or noun to make it an occupation.e.g.counselorProfessorReporterAdministratorInvestigatorentertainer

2. Sentence Stress

It shows what words in a sentence are stressed. It is the ‘beat’ on certain words within a sentence.examples: - ‘Take a ‘book out of the ‘bag.- ‘Where are you ‘going?- It’s a ‘door.- ‘Bring me a ‘pencil.- ‘When will she ‘go?

Examples

1. When are you coming to dinner?2. Motorcycles can be dangerous to drive or

ride on.3. Last month Carol got a job in San

Francisco.4. Kenny has gone to France and back.5. The Americans are buying some

souvenirs and posters.

Sentence stress Pattern

Stress the last important content word in a sentence. These words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and will rarely be pronouns, unless contrastive stress is needed.Ex:

I walked to the store.He is very tall.I will meet you at Five.It doesn’t work for me.I need to thank him.

Contrastive stress

Contrastive stress is typically used to make our speech more emphatic, such as expressing a point or negating a comment.

- It doesn’t work for me - It doesn’t work for me - It does not work for me

I bought a blue car, not a red car.

Don’t stress pronouns, articles, or prepositions, unless we are emphasizing a particular word to clarify meaning..

No, please give the book to me, not to him.

It is on the table, not under the table.

Extremes of stress will affect the clarity and effectiveness of the message. It should be stresseeded at least one word in a thought group. Don’t stress two words next to each other.You can say:

“It is very nice,” or

“It is very nice,” But not “It is very nice”

Speed up on words that are not stressed“I will see you on Monday”

Try saying the sentences below:

She bought the book    She bought the book for his birthday              She bought the book for his birthday today    She bought the book for his birthday today she had

read          She bought the book for his birthday today she had read

long ago in college               She bought the book for his birthday today she had read

long ago in college as a freshman         She bought the book for his birthday today she had read

long ago in college as a freshman about daffodils She bought the book for his birthday today she had read

long ago in college as a freshman about daffodils and how to grow them.

Try saying to the sentences below!

1 2 3 4

1 and 2 and 3 and 4

1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4

1 and then a

2 and then a

3 and then a 4

The four sentences take the same length of time to say and you will notice the numbers are stressed and the unstressed words in between are said much more quickly in order to keep the rhythm of the language. In other languages, which are not stress-timed the stress would fall more equally on each word and syllable.

Can you make these sound different?

08 : 15 08 : 50 16 dollars 60 dollars

The meaning of a sentence can change by altering the stressed word.

I’d like to know what she is doing here. I’d like to know what she is doing here. I’d like to know what she is doing here.

Little Jack HornerSat in a cornerEating his pie

He stuck in his thumbAnd pulled out a plum

And said, “what a good boy am I”