Morphological Make-up as the Predictor of English Word Accent

Abstract

For years, phoneticians have tried to simplify pronunciation for EFL/ESL learners. Some have identified four degrees of primary, secondary, tertiary, and weak stress, and others only three degrees: primary, secondary, and weak. Still others have concentrated on two stress levels: accented versus unaccented, or stressed versus unstressed (Bowen, 1975; Stageberg, 1964; Chomsky & Halle, 1968). None, however, has followed an orthography-based approach to English accent. Because orthography is the most static way of representing words in English, spelling- or orthography-based rules of accent/stress placement may come as a relief to ESL/EFL learners. In this article I present four spelling-based rules for stress placement to help EFL/ESL learners master pronunciation.