Lecture 6
Intonation: stress, accent, nucleus, prehead, head, tail
Using weak & strong forms (3): phonological context
Regular –(e)s and –(e)d suffixes
Stress
 Word stress
o secondary vs. primary <,into’nation>
 Sentence stress (rhythmical)
Where’s the nearest railway station?
Accent (=primary stress)
Where’s the nearest railway station?
Sentence stress without accent (=secondary / nonprimary stress)
Where’s the nearest railway station?
Nuclear syllable and nucleus
 one nuclear syllable per tone unit
 usually at/near the end of a tone unit. (The nuclear
syllable = the nucleus of the tone unit)
 The nucleus involves pitch prominence
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Prehead
 = unaccented syllables at the beginning of a tone
unit – before any accented syllables
 The prehead tends to be low in pitch (‘low prehead’)
 The prehead may contain stressed syllables, but not
accented ones
Tail
 = unaccented syllables that occur after the nucleus
(at the end of a tone unit)
 The pitch of the tail depends on the type of nuclear
tone.
Stress-placing (polysyllabic words and lexical
words)
a) The bottle’s under the table over by the window
(word stress in polysyllabic words)
b) She likes the old house on the hill.
BUT: c) Who are these for?
Accent placing (neutral vs. emphatic)
Neutral: Lexical words are most likely to receive accent.
In phrases, the main accent tends to be on the last
lexical word
an old house a beautiful, old house (cf. a publishing
house)
a house of cards, The House of Commons
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Nuclear accent is likely to fall on the last lexical item in
the tone unit.
She likes the old house on the HILL
The bottle’s under the table over by the WINDOW
Where’s the nearest RAILWAY station?
A neutral accent pattern – one that is used if there is no
particular reason to do otherwise.
An emphatic pattern: Main accent in places where you
would not expect them – on words that the speaker
particularly wants to emphasize.
She likes the OLD house on the hill
She likes the old HOUSE on the hill
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Head
= the stretch from the first accented syllable up to the
nucleus
Note: the last (or only) accented syllable is the nucleus
The head, like the nucleus, is marked by pitch
prominence.
High head
One type of head involves high (level) pitch. No glide up
or down, so different from the High Fall.
The high head can be used in front of both High Fall and
Low Rise nuclear tones.
There may be a low prehead in front of the high head.
Emphatic High head
Involves two or more accented syllables (in front of the
nucleus).
For each accented syllable, there is a step down in pitch
– but no glide.
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Regular <(e)s> and <(e)d> suffixes
<(e)s> suffix = the plural of nouns (book – books)
 3rd person singular present tense (I read – she
reads)
 the genitive –s (John’s hat, the boys’ hats)
 the weak (short) forms of is and has
Pronunciation of the <(e)s> suffix:
 after the sibilants /, , , , , /   (RP), 
(GA + RP weak form of has)
 after fortis, non-sibilant consonants (, , , , ) 
s
 in all other cases (i.e. after sonorants, lenis
obstruents, and vowels)  z
teach – teaches //, //
book – books /s/
read – reads /z/
pen – pens /z/
study – studies /z/
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Pronunciation of the <(e)d> suffix (= past tense / past
participle of regular verbs):
 after the alveolar plosives /t, d/  d (RP), d (GA
+ RP weak form of had)
 after fortis consonants minus /t/ (, , , , , , )
t
 in all other cases (i.e. after sonorants, lenis
obstruents minus d, and vowels)  d
print – printed -d (RP), -d (GA)
tend – tended -d (RP), -d (GA)
step – stepped /t/
pass – passed /t/
clean – cleaned /d/
study – studied /d/
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Weak forms that vary according to phonological
context:
the, do, to
Pronunciation depends on the following sound:
before vowel
before consonant
the RP:  GA:  
do 
to

 (d)

the apple, the pear
RP: ,
GA: ,
So do I RP: / / GA: / /
Do you mind / ()
to England //
to Canada //
to York / ()/
The two weak forms of you ( / ) don’t vary
according to phonological context.  tends to be
preferred in RP,  in GA.
Weak forms of is and has vary according to
phonological context, just like the <(e)s> suffixes.
She’s (=has) left. //
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He’s (=is) nice. //
Luke’s (= has) arrived. //
George’s (=is) mad. RP: // GA:
//
The match has been cancelled. /
/
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