THE CORRELATION BETWEEN
SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND STRESS PLACEMENT
OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN HOMOGRAPHS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI Student Number: 07 4214 087
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN
SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND STRESS PLACEMENT
OF ADJECTIVE AND NOUN HOMOGRAPHS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI Student Number: 07 4214 087
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma :
Nama : Yosephine Dewi Utami
Nomor Mahasiswa : 074214087
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memeberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SYLLABLE WEIGHT AND
STRESS
PLACEMENT
OF
ADJECTIVE
AND
NOUN
HOMOGRAPHS
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain utnuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta
pada tanggal: 31 Januari 2012 Yang menyatakan
v
"When running a race, the last lap is always the
hardest ... so keep going! You are almost there!"
vi
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all,my deepest thankfulnessbe to God for my life through all tests in the past five years. May Your name be praised, honored, and lift up.
Itake this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to my family for their tireless love and support throughout my life; this thesis is simply impossible without
them. I am owning gratitude to my father, Drs. A. Ponidjo Hadi, for his cares and love
and my mother, C.A. Meiningsih, for her everlasting love to me; although she is no
longer with us, she is forever remembered. I am sure she shares our happiness in heaven.
I feel fortunate and thankful having brothers and a sister who always give me constant
supports.
I would like to thank Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd. M.A, as my thesis advisor. This thesis could not have been written without his help. He, and the other faculty members, includes my co-advisor Linda V. Budiman, S.S, M.Hum. and my academic advisor, Harris Hermansyah S.,S.S., M.Hum., have also encouraged and challenged me throughout my academic years.
I would like to express my thanks to my friends: Ibel, Billy, Nenek and Icha for always making my school-days more fun than I expected. Especially I thank Francisco Rodriguezwho kindly supports my study with good books and information and Adrian Harris for helping me on computer works.
I also extend my thanks to all lectures, hospitable librarian and my classmates of 2007, who have made my experience studying in Sanata Dharma University unforgettable.
viii
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ………..….... 8
A. Review of Related Studies .………... 8
B. Review of Related Theories ………..………. 11
C. Theoretical Framework ……….………. 32
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……….……..35
A. Object of the Study ……… 36
B. Approach of the Study ………36
C. Method of the Study ………...37
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULT ……… 40
A. The Stress Placement of Adjective and Noun Homographs …...…………. 40
1. Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ……….…………40
2. Three-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….……….……….42
3. Four-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….………... 44
4. Five-Syllabled Adjective and Noun …..………...45
B. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and Stress Placement of Non Compound Noun and Adjective Homographs ….………46
1. Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ….………...…..46
1.1. Two-Syllabled Adjective ..………...……... 46
1.2. Two-Syllabled Noun ………..………….………...50
2. Three-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ……..………..……….53
2.1. Three-Syllabled Adjective …….……….………... 53
2.2. Three-Syllabled Noun ………..………..57
3. Four-Syllabled Adjective and Noun ………..………... 60
3.1. Four-Syllabled Adjective ………..………. 60
3.2. Four-Syllabled Noun ………..…………62
ix
APPENDICES ……….. 71
Appendix 1 ………..71
Appendix 2 ………...75
Appendix 3 ………..78
x
ABSTRACT
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and Stress Placement of Noun and Adjective Homographs. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
For the non-native speakers and English learners, stress placement in English is a problem since misplacing the stress in a lexical word might cause misunderstanding. This thesis is an effort to answer two questions. The first question is what the stress placement of adjective and noun homographs is. The second is how the syllable weight correlates with the stress placement of English adjective and noun homographs.
The method of this thesis is library research; using Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition published in 2008 as the primary source of the analysis, besides other books and information on net to supply theories in this study, and field research by collecting data from the primary source of analysis.
This thesis is focused on the phonological study limited to stress placement of noun and adjective homographs. There are 96 adjectives and nouns each which are collected from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition. The 96 adjectives consist of 15 bisyllabic having primary stress on their ultimate positions, 49 penultimate and 32 antepenultimate for polysyllabic. The 96 nouns are composed of 8 bisyllabic with primary stress on ultimate position, 49 penultimate and 40 antepenultimate for polysyllabic.
The answer of the first question of this thesis is the stress placement of bisyllabic adjective and noun is on penultimate. The three-syllabled adjective and noun have stress on the third syllable from the end (antepenultimate), so are the four and five-syllabled noun and adjectives.
To answer the second question, the syllable weight pattern of each noun and adjective must be drawn. From the syllable weight pattern of each group, there is a tendency of stress to fall on heavy syllable which are characterized with tense or long vowel or diphthong, and or ending with more than one consonant. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of some cases where light syllable is bearing the stress through the process of ambisyllabicity to meet the requirement that stressed syllable must be heavy. Furthermore the difference in pronunciation may affect the weight of syllable which in turn affects the occurrence of second primary stress and stress-moving of primary stress on some words.
xi ABSTRAK
YOSEPHINE DEWI UTAMI. The Correlation between Syllable Weight and Stress Placement of Noun and Adjective Homographs. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
Bagi yang bukan penutur asli dan pelajar yang belajar bahasa Inggris, penempatan tekanan kata dalam bahasa Inggris menjadi sebuah masalah karena kesalahan penempatan tekanan kata dalam sebuah kata bermakna leksikal dapat menyebabkan kesalahpahaman. Skripsi ini berupaya untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan, yaitu bagaimana penempatan tekanan kata pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda dan bagaimana berat suku kata berhubungan timbal-balik dengan penempatan tekanan kata dalam bahasa Inggris pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda.
Metode skripsi ini dengan penelitian pustaka; menggunakan kamus Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2008 sebagai sumber utama analisa, disamping buku-buku dan informasi yang diunduh dari internet untuk memasok teori, dan dengan penelitian lapangan yaitu mengumpulkan data dari sumber utama analisa.
Skripsi ini fokus pada studi phonologi yang dibatasi pada penempatan tekanan kata pada homograf kata sifat dan kata benda. Ada 96 homograf dari masing-masing kata sifat dan kata benda, dimana 15 kata sifat berdua suku kata memiliki penempatan tekanan kata primer pada suku kata terakhir, ultimate, 49 kata pada suku kata kedua dari belakang (penultimate) dan 32 kata pada suka kata ketiga dari belakang (antepenultimate) pada kata bersuka kata lebih dari dua. Pada 96 kata benda yang terdiri dari 8 kata benda bersuku kata dua dengan tekanan kata primer pada ultimate, 49 kata pada penultimate dan 40 kata pada antepenultimate.
Menjawab pertanyaan pertama skripsi ini, penempatan tekanan kata pada kata sifat dan kata benda bersuku kata dua terletak diultimate. Kata sifat dan kata benda bersuku kata tiga atau lebih memiliki tekanan kata padaantepenultimate.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Learning another language opens up new opportunities and gives us
perspectives that we might never have encountered. Mastering a new language,
besides our native language, can not only expand our educational development
and opportunities but also unrestraint our communication and thinking abilities.
We will have the ability to fully appreciate and understand the world where we
live in.
That English is spoken by over one third of population in this world makes
English one popular language that learned by its non-native students. To have a
satisfactory conversation, non-native students have to have a good skill and
knowledge in it. Usually, the difficulties in learning a new language are that the
new language has different rules and systems from their mother tongue. The
differences such as vocabularies, grammar and other general rules, which are
applied in a language, can cause errors in the communication practice.
Learning a language is basically learning to speak. Unconsciously the way
we speak is one of the first things that others will notice about. People will judge
our background, education and social position just by the way we speak, although
we have already talked in English, if we do not speak clearly, people will hardly
In order to speak fluently, one must pronounce the words correctly.
Listening and understanding are also important. If we do not know how different
words are pronounced, we will not improve our understanding, especially when
we are communicating with a native speaker. A wrong pronunciation often causes
a misunderstanding which may lead to failure in communication. To have proper
communication, one should consider some aspects in both segmental and supra
segmental level. The supra segmental aspects like intonation, rhyme and word
stress will be influential in the oral communication. These aspects function to
make some elements more prominent than others (Fromklin, 2000).
A word stress in English is very important to study, especially for the
non-native speakers. Griegerich (1992: 179) states that English is a stress language in
which every lexical word – a noun, a verb an adjective or an adverb has stressed
syllable. English word stress is phonemic. It means it can distinguish the meaning
of a word. For foreign language learners whose native language does not have
word stress as something phonemic, this may lead to difficulty. Carr marks the
differences of stress among languages:
In some languages, the location of the main stress in polysyllabic words is fairly straightforward matter, which requires merely a general statement of which syllable position the main stress falls on: in French and Turkish, for instance, it falls on the last syllable in the word, in Polish and Welsh on the penultimate, and in Finnish and Czech on the initial (1993: 214).
It shows that the stress patterns in one language may be distinguishable from other
languages. The stress syllable in French and Turkish is on the last syllable. Polish
Czech are on the initial position. In English, we cannot say the English stress is
always on the ultimate, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. This is a result of
its history. English is inherited from Germanic but it has frequently been strongly
influenced by Latin, French, and other Romance languages (McMahon,
2002:120). By that reason, the stress in English word may be different from the
stress in other words and it seems that the English stress within words is not fixed.
Collin and Mees (2003:76) state that phonology produces deeper insights
into the structures and patterns of language sound systems. The phonology of a
language may be different from other languages. By knowing phonology, one can
recognize sounds in language. In phonology, sounds emitted by organs of speech
work together with supra segmental aspects; stress, rhythm, and intonation
(Collins and Mees, 2003:108). Unfortunately, it is not easy for non-native to
memorize the word stress’ application in English. It is possible that some words
having same spelling but different in part of speech. Fromklin (1991:525) defines
a word spelt identically to another and possibly pronounced the same as
homograph.
For examplecompact, the pronunciation might be:
(1) compact: ʹcom-pact /ʹkɒm pᴂkt/
(2) compact: com-ʹpact / kəm ʹpᴂkt/
That also differentiates their lexical group. The stress in (1) compact/ʹkɒmpᴂkt /
is on first syllable /ʹkɒ/ and it is lexically grouped in a noun (N), which is defined
different from (2) compact /kəm ʹpᴂkt/ that has stress on second syllable /ʹpᴂkt/.
It is categorized lexically in an adjective which means small, but arranged so that
everything fits neatly into the space available; or into verb which is defined as to
be press something together so that it becomes smaller or more solid. In this
example, both words are spelled identically, but they have differences in
pronunciation and stress pattern. The stress pattern of this homograph can
determine the grammatical category of some words (Roach, 2001:32). If the
speaker puts the wrong stress of words in (1) and (2) in a sentence, then the
sentence will be confusing, therefore stress pattern in English has relation with
semantics and syntax. If a certain syllable of words is stressed incorrectly, the
meaning of the words can be different from what it supposed to be meant and
syntactically it can also be wrong. For example:
(1) *Acomʹpact(N) was made between two countries in fighting drug
dealers
(2a) *The soil where I plant my roses is notʹcompact(Adj), or
(2b) *She has untied herʹcompacted(V) books by cutting the rope.
The examples above show that stress pattern in noun are different from adjective
or verb.
McMahon says that English words are not classified based on the lexical
class. English has the general rule in the relation to the stress assignment. As an
example words that have same number of syllables may have different stress
pattern. A stressed syllable usually is a heavy syllable. McMahon (2001:122)
states that nouns bear a primary stress in the penultimate (on the second syllable
from the last) syllable if it is heavy. If the penultimate is light, the stress falls in
the antepenultimate (on the third syllable from the last) syllable. In the words
′abstract/ ʹæb.strækt/ and al′ternate/ɔ:l.ʹtɜ:n.ət/ that have heavy syllables on their
penultimate syllables, thus they have stress on the penultimate syllables. In
′aggregate /ʹæg.rɪg.ət/ and biʹnocular / bɪ.ʹnɒk.jʊ.ə/, the penultimate syllables are
light, thus the main stress are on one syllable before from the last, which is on the
antepenultimate syllable. There are not many books talking about stress pattern in
adjective. However, the stress pattern of adjective can be learnt.
The knowledge of stress pattern rules will be very helpful to distinguish
homograph in a lexical word of English. It will help one to predict where the
stress should be put on a word. As an example above, the word compact, as a
noun, it has stress on the penultimate syllable. It is different, when the word
compact, as adjective, the stress is put on the antepenultimate syllable. Knowing
the stress pattern will improve the pronunciation and listening ability which is
important in good communication.
To be able to predict the stress pattern in a word, the syllabification
with the syllable weight pattern that all stressed syllables must be heavy but not
all heavy syllables are stressed (Giegerich, 1992:179).
In English vowel quality has significant role in the syllabification process.
Vowel quality indicates whether a vowel is central that is contained by unstressed
syllable, or peripheral that is contained by stressed syllable. Vowel duration is an
important factor in indicating stress in that vowels in English are shorter in
unstressed syllables than in stressed ones (Collin and Mees, 2003: 109-110).
B. Problem Formulation
The role of syllable weight in English stress system is very important to be
discussed to distinguish homograph noun and adjective in English. Based on that,
this study answers the following questions :
1. What are the stress placement of adjective and noun homographs?
2. How does syllable weight correlate with the stress placement of English
adjective and noun homographs?
C. Objectives of the study
Based on the problem formulations, the first objective of this study is to draw the
pattern of stress which has been mentioned before, the second objective is to find
out how the syllable weight correlates with the stress pattern itself which means
the way of syllable weight characterizes the stress pattern of simple noun and
adjective homographs.
D. Definition of Terms
Syllable Weightis the concept that syllables pattern together according to
the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. Syllable weight uses two
terms: heavy (H) and light (L). It plays important roles in determining the stress
placement, since a stressed syllable must be heavy and unstressed one is light
(Giegerich, 1992). One word only has one syllable. It cannot have two stresses at
same time. When it is heard two stresses, it means there are two words. Since it is
true there can be a secondary stress in some words, but a secondary stress is much
smaller than the primary stress, and is only used in long words.
Stress Placementin phonology normally the number of syllable in a word
is counted from the back. Giegerich (1992) classifies stress placement into either
final or non-final. English has some rules to predict the stress placement in words.
Final stress or ultimate stress is marked in English (Giegerich, 1992). It means we
can predict if a word can receive final stress.
Homograph is a word spelt identically to another and possibly
pronounced the same (Fromkin, 1991:525). Homographs might differ from each
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or
French for example, pronounce each syllable with equal emphasis. English words
are pronounced with at least one dominant syllable while the other syllables tend
to get squashed and reduced. In English, words with different stress position can
have different meanings.
The importance of learning the different position of word stress to
distinguish meanings of words among non-native students has been studied as a
thesis titled The Mastery of Stress Placement of Nouns among the Second Semester Students of the English Language Education Study Program (Kenyar, 2009). Her study was focused on the mastery of stress placement of noun among
the second semester students of the English language education study program.
She analyzed the knowledge and common errors of the objects of the study in
putting stress in either disyllabic, trisyllabic and tetrasyllabic nouns, affix nouns
and compound nouns. The data of her study was collected from students’
speeches that had been recorded. Kenyar was aware that the difference in stress
position of an English word is very important to be identified by a non-native who
knowledge and his concept of English. One of her findings on her study is three
commons errors done by the students which are misplacing the word stress,
putting double stress in three-syllabled words and equaling stress to both
unstressed and stressed syllables (2009:58-59). This study is supporting her
evaluation on her data in putting stress of English words, that it is not free to
stress whichever syllable. However this study is more concern on stress placement
of both non-compound noun and adjective sharing same spelling but having
different pronunciation. To find further if stressing a word based merely on the
class of the word or if another factors can influence in assigning the stress.
Relating to stress pattern, Setyarini has also written about the stress pattern
of English noun and adjective homographs on her journal titledThe Stress Pattern of English Noun and Adjective Homographs (2009:51-59). She collected both noun and adjective homographs and described the patterns of those homographs
by considering the tenseness of the peak of a syllable. Her study finds that 33 out
of 54 homographs have same stress pattern, but 9 homographs have different
stresses due to their different pronunciations. Although she served her paper with
data, not all of her data was analyzed if the stress pattern of her data bearing stress
by following the theories that she used. The fact that she analyzed her data by
syllabifying the word but she did not consider the form of the syllables, if the
syllabification of the word is following the characteristics of the elements forming
syllables itself and the principles of syllabification. She also used both
phonological and syntactical theories to justify the stress assignment of her data.
particular theories or if there is more specific conditions which not allow a word
to bear stress just based on general rules of stress assignment based on
phonological theories that is syllable weight or reverse condition happens. The
data in this study is also limited to non-compound words.
The correct placement of stress requires the correct syllable boundaries,
such as phonotactic constraints and onset maximalism, since the correct syllable
boundaries is restricted, and wrong in applying the boundaries of syllable might
lead to wrong implementation of stress and pronunciation. Budiman in her journal
titled Recognizing the Phonotactic Constraints in the English Syllabification
(2008:95-103) discussed the rules that control the placement of syllable
boundaries in words. With the same understanding, this study syllabifies the data
by considering the restriction of syllable boundaries to gain correct syllabification.
Since the study of stress pattern cannot purely learnt based on phonetics,
this study takes in phonological reasons, generalizations and exceptions. But this
study only analyzed the data, non-compound noun and adjective homographs
which found from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition, published in 2008 and took the placement of stress of both non-compound noun and adjectives
homographs. Subsequently, it would describe how the syllable weight correlates
B. Review of Related Theories
Stress is only present in the syllable which forms a word. There are some
factors which influence the prediction of stress placement. They are phonological
factor, which is involving the segment which makes up each syllable and syllable
weight, and non-phonological factor which is relating to the lexical category, in
which the noun has different pattern with verb and adjective, morphological and
etymological process. This study concerns on the phonological process, although
the non-phonological is alluded a bit to help the analysis later.
The most precise way to talk about the placement of stress in a word
phonologically is by analyzing the syllables that build a word. Analyzing a
syllable includes rules which are related to the establishment of a syllable and
syllable process that allows stress to be placed on the syllable.
1. Syllables
1.1 Structure of Syllables
Native speakers of English are usually able to count how many syllables
that contain in a word easily. They know back and fall consist of one syllable (monosyllabic);contentandpedaleach has two syllables (bisyllabic);arsenicand
piano three (trisyllabic), arithmetic and periodic four (tetrasyllabic),
There are a few English words that may have variable pronounciations with different numbers of syllables – bottling may be pronounced with two or three syllables, realistic with three or four etc. – and in some such cases the difference in the number of syllables may be a matter of what the listener perceives rather than one of the actual pronunciation (Giegerich, 1992:131).
To be able to predict the right number of syllables for a great majority of English
words, Giegerich states two principles. Those are the sonority principle and
number of phonemes which are contained in a syllable.
Giegerich (1992: 132-133) states the sonority of a sound is its relative
loudness compared to other sounds, everything else (pitch, etc) being equal.
Speech sounds can be ranked in terms of their relative sonority: voiceless oral
stops are of minimal sonority while low vowels have the highest degree of
sonority of all speech sounds. The other sounds are ranked in between those two
sounds.
Oral stops Fricatives Nasals Liquids Semivowels Vowels
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced High Low p b f v m
t d ɵ ð n j i a k g s z ŋ l r w u ɑ
sonority
Figure 2.1 Sonority Scale (Giegerich, 1992:133)
The more sonorous a sounds, the more audible it is. For example
It can be seen on the figure 2.1 that the /n/ is more sonorous than the /z/.
Dardjowidjojo visualizes this word by:
e
l n
p z
Figure 2.2 The Order of Sonority of the Wordplanes.
In the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition published in 2008, as the main source of data, the word planes /pleɪnz/ has a diphthong /eɪ/ in its peak,
nevertheless the sonority of the coda is unchanged.
The right number of syllables of a word, which are associated with peaks
of sonority, is able to be predicted with the help of the sonority scale. For
instance, the wordaroma, by considering the peaks of the graphic figure 2.3 then the numbers of a syllable can be clearly predicted.
sonority
time
/ə r o m ə/
Figure 2.3 The Graphic Sonority of the Wordaroma
In the vowel system, the vowel phonemes can be compared into pairs, for
example /i/ and /ɪ/; /u/ and /ʊ/, in which the members of each pair are phonetically
similar (but not identical), one member is in longer than other and the one which
is longer can only occur in closed syllable (Giegerich, 1992:95). The difference of
the height and front/backness of vowels provide the quality differences of vowels
which lead to differences in “tenseness”. Like /u/ and /ʊ/ which both are high,
back and rounded; but compared with /ʊ/, the /u/ is higher, further back and more
rounded with [+tense] feature.
[Tense]: Tense sounds are produced with a deliberate, accurate, maximally distict gesture that involves considerable muscular effort; nontense sounds are produced rapidly and somewhat indistinctly (Grigerich, 1992:98)
Based on the description of tense vowel above, vowels are divided into two
[+tense] and [-tense]. [+tense] vowels, has two X-positions, are long vowels /iː/,
/eː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /oː/, uː/, and diphthongs /ai/, /au/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and
/ʊə/. The [-tense] vowels, or lax vowel, has one X-position, are /ɪ/, /e/, /ᴂ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/,
and /ʊ/.
Vowel and consonants are not just strung together randomly into long,
unstructured strands: instead, they form a series of larger units with their own
internal structure and distribution, governed by their own rules (McMahon,
2002:104). Structurally a syllable commonly has two parts, Onset and Rhyme
(Collin and Mees, 2003:71). Rhyme itself can be further divided into two parts,
Every syllable has a syllabic segment called Peak (Giegerich, 1992:138).
Peak and Coda form a Rhyme. It can be said that Peak is equal to Nucleus. Both
peak and nucleus refer to the part of the rhyme that most sonorous in one syllable.
The peak may be preceded by one or more consonants, called Onset; while
following the peak called Coda. It can be drawn as follows:
syllable
onset rhyme
nucleus coda
Figure 2.5 Syllable Structure
1.1.1 The Onset
The onset (On) stands before the peak and it must be a consonant (C). The
existence of the onset is not compulsory. For example the wordseat, pieandpry.
a. Syl b. Syl c. Syl
Rh On Rh On Rh
X X X
/ ɪ t/ / p a ɪ / /p r a ɪ/
Each ‘X’ stands for a position occupied by a single consonant phoneme.
The triangle simply covers unanalyzed material. In (a), there is not found any
onset. The onset consists of maximally two consonants. The first consonant must
be less sonorous than the second, which in turn will be less sonorous than the
peak. In (b) and (c) each consonant preceding the vowel or vowels will always be
less sonorous than the vowel or vowels. In (c) the first consonant /p/ must be less
sonorous than the second one /r/. Two consonants must be less sonorous than the
vowel or vowels.
However, there is a phoneme /s/ that can occupy a consonant position which
is not allowable in the onset because it violates the generalization that onset
sequences increase in sonority and the /s/ also extend the limit amount of
X-position. The phoneme /s/ can occur before /p/, /t/ and /k/ as in the words split, strong, and screw. Can be seen that the /s/ is as sonorous as /p/, /t/, /k/, but it occupies the position before those sounds and the /s/ in those words forms a third
X-position in the onset. The /s/ here called appendix (Giegerich, 1992:149).
1.1.2 The Coda
The coda (Co) of the syllable is the consonant or sequence of consonants
that follows the peak (Giegerich, 1992:139). It is similar to onset, except it
follows the peak. The existence of the coda is optional. While onset and peak
compose an ascending in sonority, peak and coda are descending. Also like onset,
a. Syl b Syl c Syl
Rh Rh Rh
On Pe On Pe Co On Pe Co
X X X / f i / /f i
/f i/ /f i l/ /f ɪ l m/
Figure 2.7 The Coda Structure of the wordsfee, feelandfilm.
The number of X-position in the coda (a) is none; in (b) is one; in (c) are two. In
(c) phoneme /m/ is more sonorous than /l/.
Similar to onset, maximally contains two consonants, a coda also can be
followed by certain appendices – /d/, /t/, /z/, /s/, /Ө/, /dᴣ/ that violate the coda’s
generalization in sonority and the total number of X-position. For example:
lobed,mind, globes, length, texts.
a. Sy b. Sy
Rh Rh
On Pe Co On Pe Co
X X X X X X X X X X X
/m a ɪ n d/ /t ɛ k s t s/
The examples above show that there are certain consonants which are allowable to
occur after the final consonant of a well-formed core syllable, a core syllable is
made up of a peak preceded by an onset. The core syllable may or may not
already have the maximum number of three X-positions in the rhyme; the
additional consonant may or may not conform to the sonority generalization. In
mind, the /d/ cannot be part of the syllable because it forms the fourth X-position; while in texts, the /s/ following the /k/ is violating the sonority generalization. The
extra consonants cannot be part of the core syllable, but appended to the preceding
structure; otherwise any random consonant phoneme could follow the core
syllable.
1.1.3 The Peak
The peak (Pe) of the syllable contains the ‘syllabic’ element: the segment
that is more sonorous than both its neighbours (Giegerich, 1992:140). The peak is
always a vowel (V), but in some circumstances a consonant can acts as the peak
of the syllable, referred as syllabic consonant (Dardjowidjojo, 2009:157). The
consonants functioning as the nucleus are, in most cases, /l/ and /n/, also /m/ and
/n/. The peak might have one or two X-positions by its vowel length. A lax vowel
associated with a single X-position; while diphthongs or tense vowels are
considered to have two X-positions. As formulated by Giegerich (1992:142) in
the Vowel-Length Rule below:
a. Associate a [- tense] vowel with one X-position.
Syl Syl
Rh Rh
On Pe Co On Pe
X X X X X X X X
/ k l a m p/ /p a ɪ/
The figure 2.9 The Peak Structure of the wordsclampandpie
A lax vowel /a/, like in clamp above, is associated with a single X-position. A diphthong as /aɪ/ is longer than lax monophthongs; its X-position can be
associated with two X-positions and so can a tense vowel.
1.1.4 The Rhyme
The rhyme (Rh) of a syllable is a unit that consists of the peak and the
coda. It can be used to show if a syllable well formed. Generally, the well-formed
syllables contain no more than three positions in the rhyme. It is the sum of
X-positions in peak plus coda that counts, not the way in which these X-X-positions are
distributed (Giegerich, 1992:144).
In the rhyme, the peak of the syllable functions together with the coda but
not with the onset. When a syllable already has three X-positions in the rhyme,
the additional consonant may or may not suitable with the sonority generalization.
Sy
Rh
On Pe Co
X X X X X
/k l a m p/
Figure 2.10 The Rhyme Structure of the Wordclamp.
1.2 Syllabification
There are rules that govern the way in which strings are divided into
syllables, called syllabification (Giegerich, 1992:135). Language is rule-governed
and it follows certain rules. A syllable must conform the phonological rule of the
language (Dardjowidjojo, 2009:152). In setting up syllables, there are four steps
Figure 2.11 The Steps to Set Up a Syllable (O’Grady et al, 1996:87).
To combine well-formed English syllables is by linking all onsets to
syllable; there are phonotactic constraints restricting the possibilities.
1. /ŋ/ never occurs in onset 2. /h, j, w/ never occur in codas
3. /r/ never occurs in codas in non-rhotic varieties of English 4. The lenis fricative /v,ð z, ᴣ/ never occur in onset clusters
5. In three-element onset cluster the initial consonant is in variably /s/ 6. /t, d, Ө/ never combine with /l/ in an onset cluster
7. Nasals never combine with stops in onsets
8. Nasals combining with stops in coda clusters are invariably homorganic, e.g. /mp,ŋk/ but not /mk, np/.
(Collins and Mees, 2003:73)
STEP A : Nucleus Formation
Link a vowel to a vowel to Pe symbol above it by drawing an association line. Above each Pe symbol, place an Rh symbol. Above each Rh, place a σ (syllable) symbol; link all with association lines.
STEP D : Word-level Construction
Link all σ to Wd (Word)
STEP C : Coda Formation
Link any remaining unassociated consonants to the right of each Pe form the Co and are linked to a Co symbol above them. This Co is associated with the syllable Pe to its left in the Rh. Link the m to Rh. Link Rh directly to a σ.
STEP B : Onset Formation
To see the syllabification of the noun construct /kənstrʌkt/, follow the syllabification’s steps. On step A, we found two vowels that mean the word
construct consists of two syllables. On step B, there is only one consonant precedes /ə/ but there are four consonants before [ʌ]. Therefore, we analyzed
those consonants if they can be the onset of the second syllable. As mentioned
before that the onset can maximally consist of two consonants, unless it started
with [s], then [t] and [r] were grouped into same syllable and formed the onset of
the second syllable; while /n/ went to be the coda of the first syllable. Link the rest
of consonants [k] and [t] to be the codas of the second syllable. The result is that
the word construct is then divided into [kən] and [strʌkt].
To establish the placement of syllable boundaries in polysyllabic words,
Giegerich states
Syllable-Boundary Rule
Within words, syllable boundaries are placed in such a way that onsets are maximal (in accordance with the phonotactic constraints of the language) (1992:170)
It can be said that a single consonant between vowels is a syllable onset rather
than the coda of the preceding syllable. The syllabification produces
(C)V.CV.CV(C) rather than *(C)VC.VC.V(C).
In addition to the syllable boundaries stated above, the following rules
must be paid attention when cutting a spoken word (Dardjowidjojo, 2009:154):
2. If in a word there is a consonant between two vowels, V1CV2,and the
second vowel is strongly stressed, the consonant goes with the second vowel. Example: repeat /re.ʹpeat/, succumb /suc. ʹcumb/ and before /be. ʹfore/.
3. If two vowels VV are separated by a consonant cluster, VCCV, and the consonant cluster can itself occur at the initial position of a syllable, the two Vs are separated by the cluster. Examples: deprive /de.prive/, zebra /ze.bra/, and decline /de.cline/.
Extending the point 3 above, when one or more consonants appear between
vowels in a word than is in the coda, VCV or VCVV, in favor of a syllabification,
the consonant in the onset of the syllable goes to onset rather than coda of the
preceding syllable. As figured in (2.9a) rather than (2.9b) below:
(a) σ σ (b) * σ σ
O R O R O R R
N N N C
C V C V C V C V
Figure 2.12 Consonant in the Onset of VCV Syllable Put to the Right
In three-consonant cluster, CCC, the syllable boundary is before the
consonant that is less sonorous than both its neighbors, It seems that it is more
important for a syllable to have an onset than to have a coda; this is called the
Maximal Onset Principle (Goldsmith, 1990:137; McMahon 2002:111). Syllable boundaries occur immediately before the consonant that constitutes a sonority
channel with a dot indicates syllable boundaries, but Wells (2008) shows syllable
Where there is a choice, always assign as many consonants as possible to the onset, and as few as possible to the coda. However, remember that every word must also consist of a sequence of well-formed syllables (2002:111)
There is possibility that a consonant belongs to both the previous and next
syllable, which is called ambisyllabicity which will be discussed later
Based on tenseness, Giegerich (1992:145) groups syllables into closed
syllable, of which syllable ended by a coda or codas. Both lax and tense vowels
can occur in this kind of syllable, for examplebit/bɪt/ andchurch/tʃɜ:tʃ/ and open
syllable, of which syllable ended by a vowel or vowels. In another word the
rhyme of open syllable consists of a peak alone, without coda or codas. Only tense
vowel can occurred, such as in beat /bi:t/. For this group, it does not matter whether the peak and coda are simple or complex, containing a single branch, or
containing more than one branches.
2. Stress Pattern
2.1 Stress and Syllable Structure
Stress is the property of syllable. Each syllable in a word has certain level
of stress. Stressed syllables in English are produced with a stronger burst in
initiatory energy – a more powerful contraction of the chest muscles – than
unstressed syllables are (Giegerich, 1992:179). Stress is important for the phonetic
structure of the word since it is fixed for each word. Stressing a syllable can be
done by pronouncing it louder, longer or with significantly higher or lower pitch
Giegerich said that stress in English is phonemic. It means that stress can
differentiate meanings of words and it can be predictable or unpredictable.
A syllable structure takes part in determining the stress assignment. In
order to be able to bear stress, a syllable must satisfy certain structural
requirements. Giegerich (1992:182) points the requirements as:
1. Stressed syllables must be heavy while unstressed syllables may be light. It means that a stressed syllable must have a complex rhyme (containing at least two X-positions)
a. *Sy b. Sy c. Sy
Rh Rh Rh
On Pe On Pe Co On Pe Co
X X X X X X X X
/b ɪ / /b ɪ t/ /b i:/
Figure 2.13 The Syllable Structure of Stressed Syllable of the Wordsbitandbee
The figure (a) cannot bear stress since it has only single X-position in its rhyme. If
the syllable is open, having no consonant in the rhyme, to make it heavy,
Goldsmith (1990:158) said that the vowel must lengthen to get same result.
Sy Sy
Rh Rh
On Pe Co On Pe Co
X X X X X X
[ʹp ɛ t r ə l]
Figure 2.14 The Ambisyllabicity of the Wordpetrol
Pronouncing petrol, the /t/ shows a belonging to both first and second
syllables, yet syllabifying the petrol /ʹpɛtrəl/, the syllable boundary is directly before the well-formed consonants cluster /tr/, /ʹpɛ.trəl/, but to order to meet the
principle of syllable boundaries, the /t/ goes to be the coda of first syllable and
makes branching rhyme of the first syllable; the /t/ also goes to the second syllable
due to the maximal onset principle. Solving the problem of consonant belonging
to both the preceding and following syllable, the consonant undergoes the process
of ambisyllabicity, called consonant ambisyllabic. This process makes the first
syllable has complex rhyme and be able to bear stress. Nevertheless, it does not
mean that the /t/ is ‘long’ since it only represents one X-position. When a
consonant is ambisyllabic, Giegerich (1992:172) states that a consonant is
ambisyllabic if it is (part of) a permissible onset (cluster) and if it immediately
follows a stressed lax vowel.
In addition, there is phonetics rules conditioned by syllable boundary
which affecting stress placement, namely aspiration, that English /p t k/ are
or whenever it stands as the only consonant at the beginning of the stressed
syllable. Elsewhere they have less aspiration or none. As Budiman (2008:102)
reports that aspiration takes place in the words capstan [ʹkhᴂp.stən], constant
[ʹkhɑ:n.stənt], pastry [ʹpheɪ.strɪ]; but not in the words discard [dɪʹskɑ:rd], displace
[dɪʹspleɪs] nor distate [dɪʹsteɪst], since the phonemes /p t k/ do not occur in initial
positions although they form stressed syllables. Further she analyzed that the last
three words consist of prefix + stem.
2.2. Degree of Stress
The characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables can be observed in
terms of intensity, pitch, vowel quality and vowel duration (Collins and Mees,
2003:111). Based on loudness, pitch and quality of vowels, Akmajian (2001:130)
classifies degrees of stress into major stress, minor stress and zero stress or
unstressed. The major stress consists of both primary and secondary stress.
Primary stress is often perceived as the loudest syllable, highest pitch, and
full quality of vowel. It is indicated by a vertical mark [ʹ] placed above the line, at
the beginning of syllable or by number [1]. For an example the word father
/ʹfɑ:ð.ə/ which has primary stress on the initial word.
The secondary stress is weaker than primary stress. It is indicated by a
vertical mark below the line at the beginning of the syllable [ˌ] or by number [2].
syllable must be heavy, but a heavy syllable must not be stressed. The vowel
undergoing secondary stress is characterized by the fullness, the loudness, but not
the necessarily high pitch. Secondary stress may be found in polysyllabic words
or compound words. As in example ˌcateʹgorical which has five syllables. The primary stress is on the third syllable before the end, while the secondary stress is
on the fifth syllable from the end. The unstressed syllables are left unmarked.
Tertiary stress of syllable is not indicated by any mark, however it must be
heavy. Tertiary stress may occur in polysyllabic words. For example the word
graduation/ˌgrᴂdᴣ u ʹeɪʃ ən/. The primary stress falls on the second syllable from the end and the secondary stress is on the initial word. Since the second syllable
from the beginning of word is also heavy, it receives tertiary stress.
Syllable which do not bear any stress called zero stress or unstressed
syllable. Unstressed syllable is structurally is light and left unmarked. From the
example graduation above, the existence of schwa /ə/ in the leftmost syllable indicates the unstressed syllable. The schwa which is written raised denotes sound
that is sometimes optional inserted, as example in the wordbottle/ʹbɒt.əl/.
2.3 The Position of Stress
The position of stress is important since the focus of this study is stress
pattern on non-compound noun and adjective homographs. Syllables are counted
from the back (right most) moving forward. The primary stress might be in the
syllable from the end: import (noun) /ʹɪm.pɔ:t/), antepenultimate (third syllable from the end: quality (noun) /ʹkwɒl.ət.i/), preantepenultimate (fourth syllable from
the end: formidable (adj.) /ʹfɔ:m.ɪd.əb.əl/), ante-preantepenultimate (fifth syllable
from the end: exoskeleton /ʹeks.əʊ.ˌskel.ɪt.ən/).
3. Syllable Weight
Based on its rhyme, Giegerich (1992:146) determines a syllable weight
into two, light and heavy syllable. A syllable is light when it contains a lax vowel
without coda as in the first syllables of potato and report. Thus, a heavy syllable is a syllable that contains either a lax vowel with a consonant or consonants on the
coda, or a tense vowel with a consonant or consonants on the coda as in the words
desk. It can also contain a branching peak, consisting a long vowel or diphthong such as in bee or bite, although a diphthong can occur in an unstressed syllable. Goldsmith (1990:115) also states that syllables are light if they are of the form
CV; all CV: (i.e. with a long vowel) and CVC syllables are heavy.
It can be said that a light syllable has a simple rhyme and a heavy syllable
has a complex rhyme. Thus, the stressed syllable must be heavy and a light
syllable can occur in an unstressed syllable. Therefore, a monosyllabic word
consisting of a light syllable is not able to be a lexical word in English such as
verb, adjective, noun and adverb. For verb, adjective, noun and adjective words
stress may not be indicated. In unstressed syllables, schwa /ə/ is the most
common vowel can be found. Schwa can occur in both open and closed syllable
and it also can place in initial, medial or final of words.
The peripheral vowel in the unstressed syllable is actually replaced by another phoneme – most commonly by /ə/, sometimes by /ɪ/ or /ʊ/, or even a syllabic consonant, e.g, attention /əʹtenʃn/, excitable /ɪkʹsaɪtəbl/ (Collins and Mees, 2003:110).
Further, Goldsmith also states that three degrees of heaviness must be established.
Simple open (CV) syllables are categorized in the lightest, while syllables
containing long vowels or diphthongs (CVV) are the heaviest, but short closed
syllables (CVC) are intermediate in weight. For example the first and third
syllables inaroma, are light.
4. Stress and Nophonological Information
English has borrowed a lot of words from other languages which made
English has various ways to analyze a word to avoid ambiguity. The regularities
of English word stress are affected by the presence of nonphonological
information. Grigerich (1992:190) says that every word has a (relatively) stable
stress pattern, which is very little influenced by the context in which the word
occurs. The role of syntax claims that stress is assigned to the syllables of
syntactic units called words; particularly in lexical words like Noun, Adjective or
Adverb. Function words like articles, prepositions, pronouns, etc do not bear
likely to have first syllable stress than verb. As Griegerich states that the verbs
and adjectives with final stress are common, while nouns with that stress pattern
are somewhat exceptional (1992:185). Noun generally has penultimate syllable
stressed if it is heavy, otherwise is at antepenultimate.
The role of morphology also plays a significant part in the regularities that
control stress placement in English words, since words may be formed from
morphemes, the smallest component of a word which contributes to its meaning,
which are prefixes, roots and suffixes. Derivational prefixes normally do not
change the lexical category of the base/root and mostly do not bring changes in
stress position of a word; instead some prefixes can carry stress themselves like
bi-syllable prefixes semi- in word semiannual (adj) /ˌsem.i.ʹᴂn.ju.əl/ and anti- in word antibiotic (adj) /ˌᴂnt.i.baɪ.ʹɒt.ɪk/. Different from prefix, suffix can make a
word has other categories lexically.
Finally, if we take noun roots, we can create adjectives such as boy-ishandchild-ishusing the suffix–ish..,and complex nouns such as boy-hood, child-hoodandnation-hoodby means of the suffix –hood.
(Radford, 2003:166)
By breaking a word apart into root, prefix and suffix, it will be easier to
determine its literal meaning. The suffixes, on the phonological side, may affect
the stress pattern of English words. Giegerich (1992:191) divides the suffixes into
The behaviors of stress-neutral suffixes never make any difference to the
stress pattern of their base. In morphology, the stress-neutral suffixes are suffixes
grouped into inflectional suffixes. For example, the stress pattern of developing /di.ʹvel.əp.ɪŋ/,andtallies/tᴂl.iz/ are the same as their rootsdevelop /di.ʹvel.əp/ and
tally /tᴂl.i/. The stress-neutral suffixes also are always unstressed; although they compose heavy syllables and even where several such suffixes are attached
together, for example inpennilessness.
The behaviors of the stress-shifting suffixes are on the contrary. The stress
pattern of English words with stress-shifting suffixes is totally different from their
bases. For example: solemnity /sə.ʹlem.nət.i/ and atomic /ə.ʹtɒm.ɪk/ are different from solemn /ʹsɒl.əm/ and atom /ʹᴂt.əm/. Stress-shifting suffixes can bear the main stress of the word if they set up heavy syllables.
C. Theoretical Framework
Since this study tries to find out the stress placement of adjective and noun
homographs and how the syllable weight correlates with the stress placement of
them, some theories are used.
The first theory is the theory of syllable since stress occurs in syllable. To
find the syllable weight pattern of each noun and adjectives which is used as data,
the theory of syllabification, by Giegerich (1992), Akmajian (2001), McMahon
syllabification is done by looking both the spelling and phonetics transcription of
a word in the dictionary and considering the rule of syllabification. For example
the word radical /ʹrᴂdɪkəl/, we would probably cut this word into ra.di.cal or in the dictionary, it is cut into rad.i.cal. Those are not correct. It must be cut into
rad.ic.al. Since the /ᴂ/ and /ɪ/ are short vowels, the next /d/ and /c/ should go with
the previous vowels. How the dictionary cuts a word is based on the orthographic
or graphemic which has different set of rules, which will not be discussed in this
study. The sonority scale (Giegerich, 1992) and phonotactic constraints (Collins
and Mees (2003)) are also used to determine if a syllable is well-formed, since
syllabification is based on the phonotactic restraints of the language. The sonority
scale gives a hint if a syllable starting to increase in sonority from the onsets,
reach the point on peak and then decrease to codas and to give the number of
syllable in an English word which does not violate the phonotactic constraints.
Since the phonotactic constraints is for determining if a syllable is possible to be
combined. If a violation happens, the consonant is attached to previous peak or
can be an appendix.
The second theory is theory of syllable weight (Giegerich, 1992) and
(Goldsmith, 1990), since this study is aimed to find the relation between syllable
weight and stress placement of noun and adjective homographs. Syllable weight is
divided into light and heavy syllable. The absence of reduced vowels, branching
rhymes are some factors influencing a syllable to be heavy. Whichever a syllable
is heavy, it can bear stress. Stress can be primary, secondary or even neutral
The first theories of syllable and stress placement are used to answer what
the stress placement of adjective and noun homographs, the first question of this
study.
With the additional rules on the second theory of syllable weight the
second problem about the correlation between syllable weight with stress
35
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is noun and adjectives that share the same spelling
but may have different pronunciation and stress pattern. The noun and adjective
homographs are collected from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition,
published in 2008. Although there are many others homographs, if they were not
found in this dictionary, they are excluded.
This dictionary is used for the primary data because it has the common
phonetics transcription, International Phonetic Association (IPA) that is used by
most English learners in Indonesia. This dictionary was published by Longman
Group in Harlow and London, it is expanded and completely update with 135,000
pronunciations for both British and American English. Professor John Wells as
the author is the chair of Phonetics in University of London. The position which
was previously occupied by A.C. Gimson and, before him, Daniel Jones, who was
responsible for establishing the standard IPA system used in English Language
Teaching throughout the world. This dictionary is widely used by Indonesian
students studying English as main reference in pronunciation. The latest was used
The number of data are 192 homographs which are varied from base nouns
and adjectives and both words with affixation. The data consists of 110
two-syllabled homographs, 54 three-two-syllabled, 26 four-two-syllabled, two five-two-syllabled
non-compound noun and adjective. This study only uses British pronunciation for
a homograph which is provided in English, other varieties of British English and
American pronunciation. This study concerns on syllable weight and stress
placement of non-compound words; since stress can only occur in words
containing two or more syllables, therefore words that less than two syllables and
compound words are not included in the data.
B. Approach of the Study
This study started by studying one particular kind of phonetics detail that
the fact that speech sounds are grouped into syllables. Syllables are the larger
phonological units, since syllables are representations of phonetics. In another
word, it can be said that syllables are not only phonetics units but also
phonological units. They form the phonological structure of the language. For
example the word lampoon, there is no phonetics justification for saying that the
first syllable in lampoon has secondary stress, different from no stress; the
phonetics facts only suggest that the first syllable is less stressed than the second.
But comparing with balloon, it reveals that the first syllable in lampoon is
different; it bears some of characteristics of stressed syllable that the first syllable
schwa /ə/ which is associated with unstressed syllable, while lampoon has a full,
unreduced vowel in its first syllable shows that stress is another phenomenon
relating to the sound pattern, but cannot be purely phonetically based. Since this
study is aimed to find the stress pattern of noun and adjective homographs and the
relation between syllable weight and their stress patterns, the appropriate
approach used in this study is phonology. The analysis of this study deals with the
syllable and its process, syllabification, syllable weight and the stress placement
of both noun and adjective homographs. Therefore the phonology is suitable to be
used since phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural
languages. Phonology includes rules which specify how sounds interact with each
other (Akmajian, 2001:109).
C. Method of the Study
In doing the analysis, this study used both the library research and field
research. This study involved many sources from books and pages on internet.
However, only one dictionary is as the main source of the data. The data are taken
only from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd Edition, published in 2008.
The applied theories in this study were theories of syllable and syllable weight by
Giegerich (1992), McMahon (2002), Collins and Mees (2003) and O’Grady et al
(2005), as the second data. The field research consisted of collecting data from a
Because each word has a stress, the data various from two-syllabled base
adjectives and noun to complex which included in homographs. The steps to write
this study followed were divided into three parts.
First of all, deciding what topic that would be discussed in the study.
Related to the topic which has been taken, next step was formulating the problem
formulations. The two questions had to be answered. The first question asks about
the stress pattern of the noun and adjective homographs. While on the second
question deals with the relation of syllable weight to the stress placement which
previously asked. After the problem formulations had been formulated, the next
step to do was deciding what approach of study would be used to help in
answering those problem formulations. After that, searching the theories related
which help to answer those questions had to be done.
The next part was analyzing the data are done in the following steps:
Firstly, collected all English non-compound noun and adjectives homographs
from the dictionary. After that, wrote down the transcription from the dictionary
and composed the syllabification of each noun and adjective to determine the
stress placement in next step. Grouped each nouns and adjectives based on their
number of syllable and stress placement which later can be used to answer the
second question in problem formulation. Put apart nouns and adjectives which
experienced stress shifting, vowel changing or ambilyllabicity. For next step,
based on the common stress placement of the previous work, the stress pattern of
noun and adjective homographs can be drawn to answer the first question in
The last step was drawing some conclusion and generalization on stress
placement of each noun and adjective homographs and noting some exceptions of
the generalization showing that syllable weight has influence in determining the
40 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS RESULT
Since a stressed syllable must be a heavy syllable, the syllable weight
pattern can be recognized. Before answering the correlation between syllable
weight and stress placement of noun and adjective homographs, this chapter
draws the pattern of stress placement for both adjective and noun homographs
first.
A. The Stress Placement of Adjective and Noun Homographs
The stress placement of adjective and noun homographs is drawn based on
the number of syllables.
1. Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun
The complete numbers of two-syllabled adjective homographs is 56 and
nouns are 54. Here are some adjectives and nouns which are taken based on the
alphabet as representative data.
No Word Adjective Noun
1 adept /ə.ʹdept/ /ʹᴂd.ept/
2 burnet / bə.ʹnet/ / ʹbɜ:n.ɪt/
No Word Adjective Noun
13 preschool * /ˌpri:.ʹsku:l/ /ʹpri: .sku:l/
14 quadrate /ʹkwɒdr.eɪt/ /ʹkwɒdr.eɪt/
Table 4.1.1 The Stress Placement of Two-Syllabled Adjective and Noun
Observing the forms of stressed branching-rhyme of two-syllabled
adjectives, the ultimate is stressed when the rhyme contains a tense vowel with
one or two codas, a diphthong with a coda, a lax vowel with two codas, and a long
vowel with a coda. These forms of heavy ultimate syllable are found in 15 of 56
adjectives (26.78%). Meanwhile, the primary stress is born by penultimate
syllable when the rhyme consists of a lax vowel with one or two codas, a long
vowel with a coda, a diphthong with one or two codas, and tense vowel with one
or two codas. 41 words have primary stress on penultimate (73.24%).
Apparently the percentage of the primary stress is put on the penultimate
syllable is bigger than the ultimate. All possible form of stressed branching rhyme
on the penultimate is more variable than ultimate; and mostly rhymes are ended
Identifying the forms of stressed branching-rhyme of two-syllabled nouns, the
ultimate syllable is enduring primary stress when its rhyme contains a diphthong
with a coda; or a tense vowel with one or two codas; or a lax vowel with two
codas; or a long vowel with a coda. These types of heavy rhymes can be met in 8
of 54 (14.81%) nouns. Meantime, the primary stress is endured by penultimate
syllable when the rhyme consists of a lax vowel with a coda; or a tense vowel
with a coda; or a long vowel without or with a coda; or a diphthong with one
coda; and 46 (85.18%) two-syllabled nouns have primary stress on penultimate.
It can be seen that two-syllabled noun has tendency to bear stress rather
on penultimate than on ultimate syllable with the characteristic of the rhymes is a
lax vowel or long vowel or tense vowel or diphthong with a coda. Rhymes ended
with consonant cluster are characterizing primary stress on ultimate syllable.
In short, most of the two-syllabled adjective and noun have primary stress
on penultimate position.
2. Three-Syllabled Adjective and Noun
Total number of three-syllabled adjective is 25; while the total number of
three-syllabled noun is 27. The following are some of the adjective and the noun
which are taken as representative data based on the alphabet.
No Word Adjective Noun
