Chapter 11
Complex Word Stress
Week 10
April.7.2013
Outline
1. Complex Words.
1. Simple words Vs. Complex words
2. Types of complex words
a. stem + affix
b. compound words.
3. Effects of affixes on word stress.
2. Suffixes
1. suffixes carrying primary stress.
2. suffixes that do not affect stress placement.
3. suffixes that influence stress in the stem.
11.1 Complex Words Vs. Simple words
• Simple word are composed of one grammatical unit.
• Complex words are words composed of more than
one grammatical unit.
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Types of Complex Words
1. Stem + Affix.
1. Compound Words.
Page 82
• A stem is the basic word form.
• Affixes are prefixes and suffixes.
• A root is the smallest piece of lexical
material that a stem can be reduced to.
• Compound words are made of two or
more independent English words.
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Effects of Affixes on Word
Stress
1- stress attracting affixes
2- neutral affixes
3- stress moving affixes
Effects of Affixes on Word Stress
1. The affix itself receives the primary stress. As in
“semicircle” the prefix “semi” received the primary
stress.
2. The word is stressed as if the affix were not there.
Example: “Un’pleasant”
3. The stress remains on the stem, not the affix, but is
shifted to a different syllable. Example: “mag’netic”
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Suffixes carrying primary
stress
If the stem consist of more than one syllable there will
be a secondary stress on one of the syllables of the
stem. It cannot fall on the last syllable of the stem, if
necessary it will move to an earlier syllable.
Page 83-84
Prefixes
Stress in words with prefixes is
governed by the same rules as
those for polysyllabic words without
prefixes.