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 2020-2021

CONTENT

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Sentence stress
IN THIS LESSON , WE WILL FIND ABOUT

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 What is sentence stress ?

 Content vs function words

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 Strong and weak forms

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 The process of reduction

 A table of weak and strong forms

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 Practice
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 introduct
ion
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Sentence stress is considered as free because it is largely determined by

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the meaning to be conveyed.

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 Some words are predisposed by their function in the
language to receive the accent. They are called content

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(lexical words): main verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs.

A-Content words have in connected speech the qualitative pattern of their isolated forms;
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therefore, they retain
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some qualitative prominence even when no pitch is associated to them and when they are
relatively unstressed.
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B-Function words (grammatical, structural words) belong to the category of unstressed

words, but they may be exceptionally stressed if the meaning requires it. There are
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approximately 50 function words in English, including auxiliary verbs, prepositions,

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conjunctions, particles, etc. Typically, when they are unstressed, they are pronounced in their
weak form. However, in some rare contexts, they can be stressed and appear in their strong
form.
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the category of unstressed words, but they may be exceptionally stressed if the meaning
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requires it

The following environments usually require the use of strong forms:

 when in isolation, as in: Who? /hu:/;

 when being quoted, as in: he said “of”, not “off” /ov/;

  at the end of a phrase or sentence, as in: What are you looking for? /fɔː/;

 as the first of two consecutive auxiliary verbs without a full verb, as in: would

 have liked /wʊd/;

 in coordinations, as in: he travels to and from London /tuː/, /frɒm/;

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 in contrasts, as in: a message from John, not for John /frɒm/, /fɔː/;

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when used to emphasise a particular aspect of the message, as in: Paris is the love city /ði:/.

 The accented form is called the ‘strong form’

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 the unaccented form is called the ‘weak form’

2.The process of reduction

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 The weak form is also often referred to as the reduced form because it is
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generally distinguished from the strong form of the word and undergoes the process

of reduction.
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 Reduction is the process that affects the quality and quantity of the
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sound. Thus, depending on the character of the change, reduction may be purely
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quantitative, qualitative, or zero.

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Types of elision
Quantitative Qualitative Zero
It affects the length of sounds when the vowel changes its It is the process when sounds
quality to a neutral sound are elided
 e.g. me /miː/ to /mɪ/. e.g. can /kæn/ to /kən/. e.g. of /əv/ to /v/

STRONG AND
WEAK FORMS

TABLE
OF FUNCTION

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WORDS

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 Se
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Report Notebook
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 Se
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Report Notebook
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 Practice
Exercise 1
Mark the stress in the following sentences

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QUIZZES
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1. Which words in a sentence are usually stressed?
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content words
structure words
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2. Which words carry little meaning but make a sentence grammatically correct?
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content words
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structure words
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3. When speaking English, we try to create a rhythm in which the time between
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stressed words is
the same
different
4. Which is a list of content words?
they, should've, through
Donald's, eyes, smallReport Notebook
5. Which are NOT usually stressed?

prepositions, articles, pronouns, conjunctions

nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs

6. Which is the normal neutral stress pattern?

If you CAN, CALL me in the MORNING.

If you can, call ME in the MORNING.

7.An exception to the rule: We can also stress structure words in order to _______ wrong
information.

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provide

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correct

8. Which stress pattern corrects this statement? "I'm sure they work for the police."

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THEY don't, but WE do.

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They don't, BUT we do. ss
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THE END !

THANK YOU Mrs Senoussi !

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PS, In this lesson I combined theory and practice since I have

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inserted some exercises at the end to reinforce the TBL ( which you
have already introduced ) . I have also attached a teacher lesson

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outline/plan in which I mentioned the target objectives of this
lesson

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 Your student Hiba Youcefi
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