compounds and its main stress

Question

Dear Teacher,

Thank you!

When I read English, I can meet many words linked by hyphens, but there are none of them in English dictionaries, so I cannot know if they are compound words although I know the meanings of them. How can I do to them? Especially their pronounciation: Where are the main stresses and the secondary stresses? I have some English dictionaries, to the compound words, especially the ones with no hyphens, such as cover letter, the editors don't tell where are the main stresses and the secondary stresses. I think stress on words is very important. How do you think this question? Now I have meet some words linked by hyphens in a novel, but I don't know if they are compound and their main stresses:

apartment complexes, fume-spewing manufacturing complexes, twilight sleep, mock-Spanish, a palm-planted courtyard, a glass-enclosed lobby, apricot-tinted hair, running shoes

Please tell me if they are compound words and their main stresses.

Thank you!

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

Hi,
I have trouble with that too, but I'm afraid every learner has trouble with that. And it's something that doesn't have an easy explanation, because I don't think there's an easy rule of thumb to remember, and I think not everyone pronounces those words the same way...
I personally pay attention to the stress in single words, not to the stress in sentences, not much. Stress in sentences can really vary a lot depending of a lot of different things, and I don't feel like learning 1,000 rules just to say a simple sentence. I think (this is just my feeling), that stressing the wrong word in, say, fire extinguisher, is not really bad compared to stressing the wrong syllable in extinguisher. One day maybe correct stress in sentences will come naturally to me. I hope it will.

Zerox · Answer

Just like Kooyeen said, there is no easy rule for this. Moreover, stress in BrE and AE vary especially in words. What I really think is woeful is that no dictionary, to my knowledge, offers solid information about phrasal verbs and stress in those, although, normally foreign people are encouraged to use phrasal verbs.

For example,

She 'put on the 'light.
She put the 'television on.
She 'put them 'on.

CalifJim · Answer

apartment complexes, fume-spewing manufacturing complexes, twilight sleep, mock-Spanish, a palm-planted courtyard, a glass-enclosed lobby, apricot-tinted hair, running shoes

From the point of view of stress patterns they are all compounds.

The stress in compounds is, 99.5% of the time, on the first noun.

Stress levels, from most to least stressed: AAAA, aaaa, aaaa, aaaa

aPARTment complexes
fume-spewing manuFACturing complexes
TWIlight sleep
mock-Spanish
a palm-planted COURTyard ('palm-planted' is an adjective)
a glass-enclosed LOBby (as with previous example)
apricot-tinted HAIR (as with previous example)
RUNning shoes

CJ

Kooyeen · Answer

Hi Jim,
I noticed this, and remembered something I read on that book, "American Accent Training". I didn't pay much attention to that part, because I then found out that there were a lot of exceptions, so many that it made no sense to consider any rules.

CalifJim a palm-planted COURTyard ('palm-planted' is an adjective)
a glass-enclosed LOBby (as with previous example)
apricot-tinted HAIR (as with previous example)

She says:
"An adjective and noun combination is called a descriptive phrase, and in the absence of contrast or other secondary changes, the stress will always fall naturally on the noun."
And then there's this exercise:
"There is a little girl. Her name is Goldilocks. She is in a sunny forest. She sees a small house. She knocks on the door, but no one answer. She goes inside. In the large room, there are three chairs. [...]"

Ok. So, the stress in on the noun. A red car, not a red car. Really? Hmm... All of a sudden, there it is, "review of chapters 1-6". And as an exercise, this thing comes up, "sentence balance". She says:
"Certain shifts will be dictated for the sake of sentence balance. Set phrases and contrast don't change, but the intonation of a descriptive phrase will move from the second word to the first, without changing the meaning. The stress change indicates that it's not the end of the sentence, but rather, there is more to come. [...] When we practiced Goldilocks the first time, we had very short sentences so we didn't need sentence balance. All of the descriptive phrases in blue would otherwise be stressed on the second word, if the shift weren't needed."

There is a little girl called Goldilocks. She is walking through a sunny forest and sees a small house. She knocks on the door, but no one answers. She goes inside to see what's there. There are three chairs in the large room. [...]

At that point, I thought: "What's the point in spending time on this?" I feel those kinds of stress shifts are really common, and they depend on a lot of things, not only to say "Hey, this is not the end of the sentence". Native speakers don't usually have prearranged sentences in mind when they talk. Then not everyone has the same intonation... take valley girls: would they stress the same words as everyone else?

So I decided not to focus on that, and just "go by ear". That's why I often have trouble with stress and intonation... I don't have a clue, LOL. It would be too complicated to find out and remember rules for that, and it wouldn't be worth it, I think.

Opinions? Thanks

CalifJim · Answer

You'll probably do just as well or better to go on instinct, imitating, imitating, imitating native speakers, rather than to approach it like a math problem with all sorts of "stress rules" to memorize!

Nevertheless, as you get more and more comfortable with speaking English, you may find yourself wishing, out of curiosity, to return to the discussions of the details of stress, such as found in that book you mentioned. Then you may be more ready to absorb that sort of information. But there's no sense in tackling a topic that you don't feel ready to tackle. It only leads to frustration, and to false conclusions about what will enhance your opportunities for success.

CJ

Kooyeen · Answer

Yeah, it would be something too complicated (and boring) to study, I think. I hope one day it'll come natural to me... Thanks <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

compounds and its main stress

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