Definition of Word Stress

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the writer tries to examine some theories that support this study. This study is about the students’ mastery of stress placement of nouns. Therefore, it is important to state some related theories as the bases of this study in order to achieve the results. There will be two major sections discussed in this chapter: theoretical description and theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description

This subtopic consists of some theories that are relevant to the study.

1. Word Stress

This chapter will give an overview of the definition of word stress, the types of word stress and the importance of word stress.

a. Definition of Word Stress

English is not a tone language; it means that the raising and the falling tone of a word will not completely alter its meaning, instead it has a suprasegmental function which operates above the level of individual segments Finch, 2000: 50. Suprasegmental features consist of four parts: stress, pitch, length, and juncture Pateda, 1988: 65 furthermore stress is the most complicated part to be explained Verhaar, 1996: 57. However, there are some linguists who 8 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI try to identify what stress is. According to O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff 1989: 39, stress is a cover term for the combined effects of pitch, loudness and length as seen in some vowels that are uttered more prominent than others. This prominence always occurs in any polysyllabic words Widdowson, 1996: 43. Poldauf 1984: 13 has the same opinion that word stress is the relative position of the force peak or peaks in a word opposed to other positions the force peak or peaks could occupy in a word in consideration of the number of its syllable. It implies that monosyllabic words cannot have word stress since it has no syllables to be compared to. Jones 1972: 245 concludes that stress may be described as the degree of force which a sound or syllable is uttered. Moreover, Fasold and Connor-Linton 2006: 31 state that stress is a prominence relation between syllables. Further he states that the certain syllables are longer, louder, higher, pitched or more clearly articulated than those around them. Furthermore, McMahon 2002: 118 states that stress in a word is a highest property, signaled by a number of subsidiary phonetic factors, which work together to pick out a stressed syllable from the unstressed ones which surround it. Most dictionaries assume that stress is unpredictable and idiosyncratic property of each word Liles, 1972: 209 but Chomsky and Halle 1968: 59-60 state that the placement of main stress within the word is predictable. Moreover, Widmayer and Gray 2007 state that word stress is not an optional extra that can be added to the English language only when the speaker wants to but it is part of the language. There are two main characteristics of the stressed syllable. The first one is about the production. The stressed syllables in English are produced with a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI stronger burst in initiatory energy Giegerich, 1992: 179. It is using more muscular energy than the energy that is used for unstressed syllables Roach, 1991: 85 and it pushes out more air from the lungs Brazil, Coulthard, and Johns, 1980: 3. Based on experimental studies, when a speaker produces stressed syllables, the muscles he uses to expel air from the lungs are more active, producing higher subglottal pressure. Similar things probably happen with the muscles in other parts of the speech apparatus Roach, 1991: 85. Moreover, these extra efforts cause a tightening and shortening of the vocal cords and a consequent higher pitch, also make the stressed syllables into schwa Brazil et al., 1980:3 The second characteristic is the perception of the stressed syllable toward the listener. This characteristic is closely related to the first one but they are not identical. All stressed syllables are recognized as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables. There are four important points that make a syllable becomes prominent Roach, 1991: 86. The first one is the stressed syllables are produced with greater intensity and therefore heard as louder than adjacent unstressed syllables McMahon, 2002: 118. Loudness is one component of prominence but changing only the loudness will not give significant effect to the syllable. The duration of syllables also has an important role in prominence. The duration of stressed syllables is greater and then perceived as longer. If a syllable is longer than the others, that syllable tends to be the stressed syllable. The third point is the pitch. Every syllable has pitch, but when a syllable is produced with higher fundamental frequency, that is the vocal folds vibrate more PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI quickly McMahon, 2002: 118, that will be heard as spoken with higher pitch. When a syllable is said with a pitch that noticeable different from the others, that syllable can be marked as the stressed syllable. The last point that implies the prominence is the quality. If a syllable contains a vowel that is different in quality from the others, the syllable may be the stressed syllable. The most frequently encountered vowels in weak syllables are I , ə, and ʊ , and the stressed syllable is often against the vowels in the weak syllables. So the prominence of the stressed syllable is increased by contrast with these background qualities Roach, 1991: 86. McMahon 2002: 118 has the same opinion that the stress has effects on vowels quality. Vowel in low stress will be reduced into schwa; nevertheless the stressed syllables have the full vowels as :, a ʊ , and i:. As a conclusion, prominence is produced by four main factors: loudness, duration, pitch, and quality. Experimental work has shown that the strongest effect is produced by pitch. Duration is also a powerful factor; however, loudness and quality have much less effect Roach, 1991: 86. On the contrary, Avery and Ehrlich 1992: 63 define that word stress in English language is not only about higher pitch but also about making vowels longer and louder. In addition, there are simple rules about word stress. The first one is one word has only one primary stress. One word cannot have two primary stresses. One word may have two stresses that are primary and secondary, but the secondary is much smaller than the primary stress. The second rule is although stress is not applied only to individual vowels and consonants but to whole syllable Ladefoged, 1993: 249, the stress is in vowels, not in consonants Widmayer and Gray, 2007. Some notations are often used to symbolize the word stress in the written text. Following are some marks that are used in books. a. TAble b. table c. táble d. table O o e. table There are some advantages and disadvantages from using each type of the notation. The first notation is not very suitable for learners who are not used to the Roman alphabet Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. Also, the writer has to know the boundaries of the syllable of each word so he can write it in upper and lower case. The mark is a very quick addition to the written word, but dictionaries vary in the use of similar mark; some put it before the stressed syllable, some put it after, so this may be a source confusion Kenworthy, 1987: 29. The third mark is so simple but the writer has to be careful when taking it in syllables with two vowel letters. In other language, putting in two vowel letters means that two vowels are pronounced as two separate syllables. The underline mark is also simple to be used and can be quickly added nevertheless the writer meets the same problem as the upper and lower case. He has to know the syllable boundaries of each word. The last mark is also quick to be written besides it has the advantage that it can be used to illustrate a stress pattern such as o O, O o, or O o o. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

b. The Importance of Word Stress