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4. For Further Researchers
For further researchers, the researcher hopes that there would be more research concerning stress placement on other suffixes. There are numerous other
topics covering prosodic phonology that have not been thoroughly researched by undergraduate students, some of which including the relationship between suffixes
and stress. Thus, the researcher suggests that further exploration of the interconnection between English stress and suffixes be executed.
F. Definition of Terms
This subchapter discusses two paramount concepts of this research in general. These two concepts are defined so as to avoid misunderstanding. They are
defined as follows.
1. Suffix
Richards Schmidt 2010 define suffix as “a letter or sound or group of
letters or sounds which are added to the end of a word, and which change the meaning or function of the word
.” p. 572. Suffix has many functions when attached to a word. One of its primary functions is being a lexical modifier. As a
lexical modifier, suffix could change the part of speech of a word. Suffix is also categorized into those not affecting the stress, retaining the stress and shifting the
stress. The researcher only investigates the suffixes that shift the stress. Hence, in this research, it is defined as the additional word attachment put at the end of a
9 word, which changes the position of word stress. The suffixes included in this
research are only focused on -ic, -ion, eous and -ity since they are some of the stress- shifting suffixes.
2. Word Stress
According to Poldauf 1984, word stress is the syllable that actually carries the peak of force p. 1. This peak of force results in a higher pitch and a louder
voice. As what Katamba 1996 claims, stress is a matter of allocating prominence on a syllable that results in clear distinction from other syllables in the word p.
221. Thus, the stressed syllable also produces a higher pitch, a longer duration and sometimes a louder voice Katamba, 1996; Yavas, 2011. Word stress in this
research means the appropriateness in pronouncing English suffixed words. The words are to be pronounced accordingly by the seventh semester students of
ELESP.
3. The English Language Education Study Program
The English Language Education Study Program, abbreviated as ELESP, is one of the study programs in Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Students of
ELESP engage in pedagogy, linguistics and literature that become the main parts of their interests when they are about to graduate. Therefore, the English Language
Education Study Program in this research is defined as the study program in Sanata Dharma University where the students develop themselves through learning
pedagogy, linguistics and literature. The students involved in this research are those
10 of the seventh semester in academic year 20142015 who are supposed to have
attained sufficient understanding of pronunciation, especially stress placement.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter embodies two essential parts that support the research, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The researcher attempts to solve
the research problems by using the theories discussed in this chapter.
A. Theoretical Description
This subtopic consists of several theories relevant to the research. The researcher provides two major parts essential to understanding the topic of the
research, namely stress placement and English suffixes. Then, these parts are segmented into subcategories by which they are elaborated. The consideration for
the use of such theories is that this study focuses on phonology.
1. Stress
This chapter points out three subcategories relevant to the research. These subcategories are the definition, the importance, and the usage of stress. Stress in
this research does not have any relationship with psychology. Instead, it is included in the study of sound patterns, phonology. English, as a foreign language to
Indonesians, is strictly dependent on its pronunciation. As a part of pronunciation, stress addressed in this research is discussed in detail but is limited to the relevance
of this research since this research only deals with students’ mastery of stress
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