Syllables How many syllables are there? go / kitchen  syllable . chocolate   comfortable . different . Syllables A syllable is a group of one or more sounds The essential part of a syllable is a vowel sound If a word has more than one syllable, you give stress to one of the syllables STRESS • STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS • STRESS IN COMPLEX WORDS SIMPLE WORDS VS COMPLEX WORDS • Simple words: words that are composed of one grammatical unit  Eg: care, beauty, happy,… • Complex words: words that are composed of more than one grammatical unit (affixes or compound words)  Eg: carelessness, unhappy, suitcase… STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS  Nature of stress  Levels of stress  Stress placement within words NATURE OF STRESS  Definition  Transcription  Characteristic DEFINITION of stress Stress is an extra force put on a particular syllable in a word in speech (Source: A course in phonetics, Peter Ladefoged) Eg: GOing /'g@UIỴ/ phoTOgrapher /f@'tÁgr@f@/ TRANSCRIPTION Place a vertical line (') high up just before the syllable it relates to Eg: open /'@Up@n/ determine /dI'tỈ:mKn/ CHARACTERISTIC Two ways of approaching stress  Production What the speaker does in producing stress syllables  Perception What characteristics of sound make a syllable seem to be stressed to listeners PRODUCTION OF STRESS  The speakers use more muscular energy to pronounce stress syllable than for unstressed ones  The muscles that we use to expel air from the lungs are more active  create higher subglottal pressure