Form words in stressed positions

Form words are stressed in certain special cases.

1. Auxiliary and modal verbs, the link-verb to be are stressed in the following positions: (p.174)

(a) In general and alternative questions, e.g.

‘Were you ↗busy last night?

(b) In short answers:

‘Have you ↗seen him? – ‘Yes, I ↘have.

(c) In contracted negative forms:

He ‘doesn’t ↘know it.

(d) The auxiliary verb “to be” is stressed when final and preceded by the subject which is unstressed. (p. 175)

I ‘don’t ‘know where he ↘was.

‘Here we ↗are.

(e) The auxiliary verb “to do” is stressed in emphatic sentences of the following type:

↘Do ring me ↗up.

I ↘do hate him.

(18) Continuation(p. 175)

2. Prepositions are usually stressed if they consist of two or more syllables and are followed by an unstressed personal pronoun at the end of a sense-group, e.g. (p.175)

The dog ran after him. [ðә ‘dͻg ræn↘α:ftә him]

(Note: Prepositions consisting of one syllable may be either stressed or unstressed if they are followed by an unstressed personal pronoun at the end of a sense-group. But even if they are unstressed in this position they usually have a full form.)

3. Conjunctions are usually stressed if they stand at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by an unstressed word, e.g. (p.176)

If he drives, he may be here at any moment.

[‘if hi ↗draivz|hi mei bi ‘hiәr әt↑eni ↘moumәnt]

Unstressed notional words

q Some words belonging to notional parts of speech are not stressed in certain cases. The most important of them are as follows: (p.176)

1. When a word is repeated in a sense-group immediately following, the repetition is generally unstressed, e.g.

- ‘How many ↘books have you got?

- ↘Two books.

2. The word-substitute one (e.g. good one, black one, etc.) is usually unstressed, e.g. (p.177)

I ‘don’t ↘like this green pen. ‘Show me a ↘black one.

3. When the word most does not express comparison, but a high degree of quality, e.g.

‘This is a most ‘beautiful ↘picture.

• However, when the word most serves to form the superlative degree of an adjective, it is usually stressed, the adjective being stressed too, e.g.

It is the ‘most ‘interesting ‘book I’ve ‘ever ↘read.

Continuation – 1

4. The word good in the greetings “good morning, good evening, good afternoon” is usually not stressed when these greetings are said on meeting a person, e.g. (p.177)

“Good ↘morning, Miss Mason!”

On leave-taking, however, the word “good” in “good morning”, etc is usually stressed and pronounced with a slight rise: (p.178)

‘Good ↗morning!

5. The pronoun “each” in “each other” is always unstressed, while the word “other” may be stressed or unstressed, e.g.

They ↘like each other.

6. The adverb “so” in “do so”, “think so”, etc is not stressed, e.g.

I ↘think so.

(Note: If the expressions are pronounced emphatically, the adverb “so” is stressed, e.g. I ↘think ↗so.)

Continuation – 2

7. The adverbs “on” and “forth” in expressions “and so on, and so forth” are usually not stressed, e.g.

There are some branches of summer sport: swimming, fishing, hunting and so on.

[ðεәr ә sәm ‘brα:nt∫iz әv ↘sʌmә ,spͻ:ts| ↗swimiŋ| ↗fi∫iŋ|↗hʌntiŋ| әnd ↘sou ͻn] (p.179)

8. The conjunction “as” in the construction of the type “as well as, as bad as, as much as” is not stressed, e.g.

I was to ↗blame there, Chris, | as much as ↘Ivory.

9. The word “street” in the names of streets is never stressed, e.g. ‘Oxford Street. (Note: However, the words “road, square, lane, circus, hills, gardens, mountains, park”, etc are always stressed in the names of localities, e.g. ‘Oxford ‘Road, Trafalgar ‘Square, ‘Hyde ‘Park, etc. The words sea and ocean are also stressed in geographical names, e.g. the ‘North ‘Sea, the Atlántic ‘Ocean, etc.)

10. The word what in such exclamations as “What a ‘dreadful ↘thing!”, “What ‘beautiful ↘weather!” is not stressed in order to give greater emphasis to adjectives like dreadful, beautiful.

11. When such is followed by an emphatic word, it is generally unstressed, e.g.

Such a ‘curious ↘shape!

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 1338