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Sometimes the difference in syllabic division might be the
basic ground for differentiation sentences in such minimal pairs

as:

I saw her eyes. – I saw her rise.

I saw the meat. — I saw them eat.

11.3 Word stress

Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or

more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of
the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and

quantitative characteristics of the sound which is usually a vowel.
Signals: pitch of voice (level), sonority of sound (vowel quality:

strong, weak; stressed syllables have strong vowels – pot, Tom,
office, odd, man – weak: potato, official, addition, woman),

duration in time (length – syllables are extra long when they are

prominent) – together they make syllables sound louder. Degrees
of stress: primary, secondary (partial), weak. Stress may be

semantically contrasted (verb – noun – adjective). Modify of
stress: photogragh-photographer-photographic.

Orthographically identical word-pairs in English differentiated
by word-stress as nouns (penultimate stress) or verbs (ultimate

stress):
Table 2

abstract commune detail extract object recess
accent compound digest fragment outrage record

addict compress discard import perfume reill
address conine discharge impact pervert refuse

affect conlict discount impress present segment
afix contest discourse incline project survey

annex contrast escort increase produce subject

collect convict envelope insert progress suspect

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