Emphasis and Subordination

Rhythm

Emphasis and Subordination

      1. When we speak of emphasis in English, we mean the prominence or importance we give to certain syllables. Emphasis is more commonly called stress. Subordination on the other hand, means the reduced prominence or unstressing we give to other syllables.

  2. English rhythm requires that some words or syllables receive definite prominence while others are relegated to the background.

The elements of stress are:

• loudness or intensity
• heightened tone or pitch
• increased duration

A stressed syllable is therefore said louder, with a higher tone, and a longer duration than the unstressed syllable.

        3. In English we consider two types of stress:

                  a. Syllable stress - stress on a syllable.

                  b. Sense stress - stress or prominence given to a word due to its meaning.

        4. Syllable Stress is stress on a syllable of a word in relation to other syllables in the word. It is commonly called accent.

        5. The accented syllable in a word is said with a higher tone or pitch, a louder voice, and longer duration than other syllables. In the word TODAY, the stress or accent falls on DAY, DAY is therefore said with a higher tone, louder voice, and a longer duration than TO.

        6. Sense Stress is the stress or prominence given to words in a sentence in relation to the other words in the same sentence.

            In English, words that carry idea or thought are stressed. They are sometimes called content words. Generally, the following carry idea or thought -

            a. nouns - boy, baby, school, radio, university
            b. verbs - (except auxilliary or helping verbs) run, jump, write, cry, study
            c. adjectives - beautiful, dark, dirty, famous
            d. adverbs - fast, slowly, very, lazily
            e. demonstratives - this, that, those, these
            f. interrogatives - what, where, why, when (when they start questions)