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ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS’

MASTERY AND PERCEPTION OF WORDS WITH -EOUS, -IC, -ITY,

AND -ION SUFFIXES

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Ardhian Listyarian

Student Number: 101214136

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2015

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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THIS THESIS IS DEDICATED TO:

MYSELF,

PHONOLOGY & PRONUNCIATION

ENTHUSIASTS,

AND LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN GENERAL.


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ABSTRACT

Listyarian, Ardhian. 2015. English Language Education Study Program Students’

Mastery and Perception of Words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion Suffixes.

Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma

University.

Pronunciation is an indispensable element in establishing effective

communication. Word stress, as a part of pronunciation, is essential in determining

the meaning of a word because it puts greater force on a certain syllable of a word.

Word stress is subject to stress shift caused by several suffixes such as -eous, -ic, -

ity and -ion. In this research, the researcher intends to look closely into how the

seventh semester students of ELESP year 2014 pronounce 80 English words that

end in -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes.

There were two research questions, namely (1) How do the seventh semester

students of English Language Education Study Program view the stress placement

of English words with -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes? and (2) How do the seventh

semester students of English Language Education Study Program stress English

words with -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes? The data from the first and second

research questions were collected using a questionnaire and an oral test

respectively. Thus, the methodology was survey.

The majority of the sample believed that stress placement was very

important. They too, believed that different suffixes had different stress rules.

Nearly half of them (45%) believed that -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes did not

shift the stress and 41% of them believed the opposite. Almost all students (82%)

retook no subjects related to pronunciation or phonology. However, their oral

performance yielded different results. In the -eous category, for example, many

students could not locate the stress because the words presented were less familiar

to them. Inappropriate stress placement remained a problem when students

pronounced words ending in -ic, -ity and -ion. Many students were unaware of the

morphological factor that contributed to stress rules so that they failed to stress

words having more than two syllables. Improper articulation of speech sounds had

been prevalent in all suffix categories. Thus, in several words, there were no more

than ten correct pronunciations although in a few others there were more than 20

correct pronunciations.

As for the recommendations, the researcher recommends that ELESP

students be taught using approaches that are more engaging in order to meet their

various needs. In addition, the researcher recommends that future researchers

investigate other topics related to prosodic phonology or the interrelation between

stress rules and morphology.

Keywords: stress placement, -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes, ELESP students


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ABSTRAK

Listyarian, Ardhian. 2015. English Language Education Study Program Students’

Mastery and Perception of Words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion Suffixes.

Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata

Dharma.

Pronunciation adalah elemen penting dalam membangun komunikasi yang

efektif. Penekanan kata, sebagai bagian dari pronunciation, sangat esensial dalam

penentuan makna kata karena ia memberi penekanan lebih pada suku kata tertentu.

Penekanan kata dapat mengalami perpindahan yang disebabkan oleh beberapa

akhiran seperti -eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti bertujuan

menganalisa bagaimana mahasiswa PBI semester tujuh program studi PBI tahun

2014 melafalkan 80 kata Bahasa Inggris yang berakhiran -eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion.

Ada dua pertanyaan ilmiah, antara lain (1) Bagaimana mahasiswa PBI

semester tujuh mengkonsepkan penempatan penekanan kata pada kata-kata

Bahasa Inggris berakhiran -eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion? dan (2) Bagaimana mahasiswa

PBI semester tujuh memberi penekanan pada kata-kata Bahasa Inggris berakhiran

-eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion? Data dari pertanyaan ilmiah pertama dan kedua

dikumpulkan dengan kuesioner dan tes lisan. Dengan demikian, metodologi yang

digunakan adalah survei.

Mayoritas dari sampel percaya akan pentingnya penempatan penekanan

pada kata. Mereka juga percaya bahwa akhiran yang berbeda memiliki aturan

penekanan kata yang berbeda pula. Hampir setengah dari sampel (45%)

menganggap bahwa akhiran -eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion tidak memindah posisi

penekanan kata dan 41% menganggap sebaliknya. Hampir semua mahasiswa

(82%) tidak mengulang mata kuliah yang berkaitan dengan cara pengucapan

ataupun fonologi. Meski demikian, performa lisan mereka menunjukkan hasil

berbeda. Pada akhiran -eous, misalnya, banyak mahasiswa tidak dapat

menentukan penekananan kata karena kata-kata yang kurang familiar. Penekanan

kata yang tidak pas tetap menjadi kendala ketika mahasiswa melafalkan kata-kata

berkahiran -ic, -ity dan -ion. Banyak dari mereka tidak peka terhadap faktor

morfologis yang berdampak pada aturan penekanan sehingga mereka gagal

memberi penekanan pada kata-kata yang memiliki lebih dari dua kosa kata.

Nampak jelas adanya artikulasi speech sounds yang tidak tepat di semua akhiran.

Maka, beberapa kata memiliki kurang dari sepuluh pelafalan akurat meski ada

beberapa kata yang memiliki lebih dari 20 pelafalan akurat.

Sebagai rekomendasi, peneliti menyarankan agar mahasiswa PBI diajarkan

menggunakan metode yang menuntut keterlibatan mereka secara aktif agar dapat

memenuhi kebutuhan mereka. Selain itu, peneliti menganjurkan agar peneliti

berikutnya bisa mengkaji topik lain terkait prosodic phonology atau hubungan

antara aturan penekanan dengan morfologi.

Kata kunci: penempatan penekanan kata, akhiran -eous, -ic, -ity dan -ion,

mahasiswa PBI


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to thank Allah, The Source of all creations and reality

itself. Secondly, I am very much indebted to my father, Bambang Sulistriyanto

for his unwavering support. If it were not because of him, I would not be the person

I am today.

Likewise, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., who is my thesis advisor,

deserves my deepest gratitude for facilitating my learning process in which I had to

persevere. Moreover, I would like to thank Paulus Kuswandono, Ph.D., Dr.

Antonius Herujiyanto, M.A., Concilianus Laos Mbato, M.A., Ed.D., Fidelis

Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd., M.Hum., Patricia Angelina, M.Hum., and

Laurentia Sumarni, S.Pd., M.Trans. St. for their permission for my data

gathering. Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. helped me scrutinize my own work. For

that, I thank him. All PBI lecturers, who had taught me during my study, have my

gratitude. Mbak Dhanik of PBI secretariat, who helped me deal with

administrative businesses, also deserves my gratitude.

Next, I would like to express sincere thankfulness to all PBI students of

batch 2011 whose participation in this research was indispensable. As much

indispensable as them was my companion, Fina, for she enlivened my days. Being

a happy member of PBI 2010 benefits me in an unorthodox way. To all PBI 2010

friends, expecially those of PBI C, I thank them. Also, I would like to thank Maria

Penny Ratnaningganadi, S.Pd., Anggun Wahyu Purnomo Sidi Subagyo, S.Pd.,

Agustina Hana, S.Pd., Christa Yona Twedrian, S.Pd., Rentina Vidianti, S.Pd.,


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Joshua Apriandi, Sunu Broto Laksono, S.Pd., and Pandhu Mahendra Putra,

S.Pd. for their willingness to give their feedback on my thesis. Lastly, I would like

to appreciate those whose names I could not mention here.

Ardhian Listyarian


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................ ii

DEDICATION PAGE ........................................................................................... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ....................................................... v

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ....................................................... vi

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... vii

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................. viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ xi

LIST OF TABLE .................................................................................................. xiv

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... xv

LIST OF APPENDICES ....................................................................................... xvi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1

A. Research Background ................................................................................. 1

B. Research Problems ...................................................................................... 5

C. Problem Limitation ..................................................................................... 5

D. Research Objectives .................................................................................... 6

E. Research Benefits ........................................................................................ 6

F. Definition of Terms ..................................................................................... 8


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CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................... 11

A. Theoretical Description ............................................................................. 11

1. Stress ................................................................................................... 11

a. The Definition of Stress ................................................................ 12

b. The Importance of Stress .............................................................. 14

c. The Nature of Stress ...................................................................... 15

2. English Suffixes .................................................................................. 20

a. Suffixes Retaining the Stress by Themselves ............................... 22

b. Suffixes Preserving the Stress ....................................................... 22

c. Suffixes Affecting the Stress ........................................................ 23

B. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 25

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................ 29

A. Research Method ...................................................................................... 29

B. Research Setting ........................................................................................ 30

C. Research Participants ................................................................................ 31

D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique .............................................. 32

E. Data Analysis Technique .......................................................................... 35

F. Research Procedure ................................................................................... 36

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................ 39

A. Students’ Perception of English Word Stress and English Words with -

eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion Suffixes ................................................................ 39

1. Attitude towards Word Stress and English Suffixed Words ............... 40

2. Experience Related to Word Stress and English Suffixed Words ...... 46


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B. Students’ Pronunciation of English Words with eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

suffixes ...................................................................................................... 47

1. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -eous Suffix ......................... 48

2. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ic Suffix .............................. 57

3. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ity Suffix ............................. 67

4. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ion Suffix ........................... 77

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................... 92

A. Conclusions ............................................................................................... 92

B. Implications .............................................................................................. 94

C. Recommendations ..................................................................................... 94

REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 96

APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 100


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LIST OF TABLE

The Questionnaire Blueprint .................................................................................. 33


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 Importance of Word Stress .................................................................. 40

Figure 4.2 Suffixes and Their Principles Regarding Stress Placement.................. 41

Figure 4.3 Stress-shifting Attribute of -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion Suffixes ............... 42

Figure 4.4 Subjects Retaken by Students ............................................................... 46


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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A: The Oral Test ................................................................................. 101

Appendix B: Data Summary of eous-Suffixed Words ........................................ 103

Appendix C: Data Summary of ic-Suffixed Words ............................................ 114

Appendix D: Data Summary of ity-Suffixed Words ........................................... 120

Appendix E: Data Summary of ion-Suffixed Wods ........................................... 128


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter contains six main sections. These sections are the research

background, research problems, problem limitation, research objectives, research

benefits, and definition of terms.

A. Research Background

Universally spoken throughout the world, English has become one of the

official languages of United Nations in addition to Russian, Arabic, Chinese,

Spanish, and French. As one of the widely used international languages, English is

viable as a means of communication in politics, economy, education, and socio

cultural domain (Weda, 2012: 23). English, as a foreign language for many

Indonesian learners, remains a compulsory subject taught in schools starting from

junior high school. English as a foreign language technically means the condition

where it is not used as the primary medium in delivering instructions or ideas in

school (Gunderson, 2009: 121). George Yule (2010) states that a second language

learner who is not open to receive the features of the target language may encounter

problems during the acquisition since the features of his or her L1 limit the capacity

of other different features (p. 188). Not only is internalizing the grammar and

vocabulary of a second language important, but also is recognizing its sounds and

intonation.


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Phonotactically and phonologically different from Indonesian, English,

especially in English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma

University (later abbreviated as ELESP), is therefore taught thoroughly. This

includes pronunciation, which is essential in communication and thus it holds the

cornerstone a in successful oral conversation (Kenworthy, 1988, pp. 13-14). If

pronunciation is ignored, failure in communicating with foreigners is certain to

happen since there is minimum intelligibility of the speaker (Kenworthy, 1988: 3).

This minimum intelligibility is what causes misinterpretations and often results in

disputes (Kenworthy, 1988: 8). The case happening to Indonesians is that most

Indonesian EFL speakers find it challenging to articulate English words due to their

first language interference, namely Indonesian. For example, as the researcher

examined, a few Javanese students of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University tended

to pronounce ‘the’ as /ndə/ or /də/ because the phoneme /ð/ is absent in Indonesian.

In ELESP of Sanata Dharma University, the seventh semester students are

supposed to have taken at least three obligatory courses related to speech

production, namely Pronunciation Practice 1, Pronunciation Practice 2, and

Phonetics and Phonology. In this regard, they should be able to note the differences

in pronouncing English suffixed words. Although these courses prompt students to

work intensively on the phonetic transcriptions, English sounds, phonemes, and

other aspects of sound production, the result proves to be unsatisfactory. Most of

ELESP seventh semester students, as the researcher observed during daily English

conversations, plays, and Micro Teaching class did not yet apply the fundamental

principle of pronunciation, namely word stress. They, in many occasions,


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pronounced several English words inappropriately. The words such as

communication and ability are some of the words that are often mispronounced.

As stated by Dardjowidjodjo (2009: 161), in almost all spoken languages,

there always be one or more suprasegmental features accompanying a word. One

of these features is stress. Stress does take a large part in expressing meaning since

stress itself is the act of putting a greater force on a syllable of a word so the syllable

sounds more prominent (Katamba, 1996; Gordon, 2011; Ladefoged & Johnson,

2011)

Stress is considerably important, according to Poldauf (1984), as it deals with

the intensification and emphasis, which are naturally present in oral communication

(p. 12). For instance, the word import acts either as a verb or as a noun. As a verb,

the stress is placed on the second syllable, whereas as a noun, the stress is on the

first syllable. If an Indonesian EFL learner speaks without knowing which syllable

to stress, he or she then assumes that the stressed syllable is the same as that of

Indonesian. Since Indonesian is not a stress-based language, a difference in word

stressing does not disrupt the meaning, e.g. mengambil (to take), can be pronounced

ˈmengambil, mengˈambil, or mengamˈbil with the initial, the mid, and the final

syllable being stressed respectively.

In order to pronounce English words accurately, one needs to examine how

a word has particular features, one of which is affixation normally found in English

words whether they are Germanic, Latin, and French or from any borrowed

language. According to Crystal (2008), affixation is the attachment of a bound

morpheme to another morpheme (pp. 15-16). A bound morpheme is a morpheme


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that cannot exist as an independent word. An example of a bound morpheme is a

suffix. A suffix is a part of affix that acts as the complementary final (ending) of a

word (Crystal, 2008: 464). In pronunciation, especially when dealing with stress

placement, certain suffixes such as -ic, -ity, -ion, and -eous are the ones which affect

the stress placement within the syllables (Dardjowidjodjo, 2009: 171).

Therefore, -ic, -ity, -ion, and -eous suffixes do not have the principles of

common stress, because the position of the syllable being stressed cannot be

justified by only applying the same stress rule as in other suffixes. Compared to

other suffixes such as -ful, -able, -al and -ing within which the stress always falls

on the root of the word e.g. ˈfanciful, diˈgestible, deˈnial, and adˈvising, the stress

of words having the former suffixes cannot be easily predicted. Poldauf (1984) also

states that “…neither words with an agglutinatively attached final nor those whose

characteristic final requires a particular syllable to be stressed can be subjected to

the principle shared by other finals” (p. 52). In other words, suffixes that affect the

stress placement of a word are not subject to stress rules of other suffixes. An

agglutinative word is a morphologically parallel word as seen in dis/establish/ment.

Overall, word stress, as a fundamental part of pronunciation, must be taught

adequately to ELESP students. In the future, many of these students will be teachers

and workers who employ their English as the basic requirement for the job. As

teachers, they must have at least adequate competence in pronunciation, as they

need to shed light on the use of distinct pronunciations in different words. If English

teachers are unqualified in pronunciation, they will cause distortion of meaning in

communication.


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B. Research Problems

This research seeks to find the answers to the following questions:

1. How do the seventh semester students of English Language Education Study

Program view the stress placement of English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -

ion suffixes?

2. How do the seventh semester students of English Language Education Study

Program stress English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes?

C. Problem Limitation

This research only focuses on the stress placement of English suffixed words

ending with -ic, -ity, -ion and -eous. As explained earlier in the background, these

suffixes can shift the stress placement of a word. That is why other suffixes that

cannot shift stress are not dicussed here. There are twenty suffixed words

segmented into each suffix, each is either found in daily life or in academic contexts.

Only the seventh semester students in the academic year 2014/2015 were

involved in this research due to their length of study, which in turn, makes much of

the experience and knowledge regarding English word stress. Studying long enough

does not mean they are accomplished in pronouncing English suffixed words, but

it does mean they have better input related to English pronunciation and phonology.

In the oral test, students were required to pronounce each word under each suffix

category by using an audio recorder to record their pronunciation. Besides testing

their ability in pronouncing English suffixed words, the students had to give their


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opinions so that the researcher could understand how their general attitude was

towards English word stress.

D. Research Objectives

There are two objectives of this research, notably:

1. To determine the opinions of the seventh semester students towards stress

placement of English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes.

2. To determine the mastery of stress placement of English words with -eous, -ic,

-ity, and -ion suffixes among the seventh semester students.

E. Research Benefits

The contributions of this research are rigorously described in this subchapter.

Four main parties can benefit from this research, notably the ELESP lecturers, the

seventh semester students, English teachers, and future researchers.

1. For English Language Education Study Program Lecturers

This research aims to encourage the lecturers of ELESP to provide a more

commensurate approach to teaching Phonetics & Phonology and Pronunciation

Practice. The lecturers of all those subjects are therefore motivated to teach more

strictly, because they bear the excellence of ELESP of Sanata Dharma University.

Though the duties of an educator are not solely about creating competence among


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students, it is still worth considering the long-term effect of students’ oral

competence.

2. For English Language Education Study Program Students

Students can also benefit since this research discusses the performance of

EFL adult learners’ competence in pronunciation so that they are able to notice the

points that need improvement. Moreover, students can be more confident and

literate when speaking, which leads them to becoming accomplished speakers. The

quality that the students have will reinforce their speaking ability that results in

better chance when applying for a job directly related with the use of spoken

English.

3. For English Teachers

The role of English teachers is not solely in giving practical lessons in

grammar, but also in developing a communicative purpose. To achieve a specific

communicative purpose, English teachers need to pay attention to pronunciation,

especially to word stress. English teachers will benefit from this research since it is

designed to pinpoint EFL learners’ difficulty in pronouncing English words

accurately. By highlighting the findings in this research, for example, English

teachers can construct a more suitable approach to teaching pronunciation at an

early stage.


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4. For Further Researchers

For further researchers, the researcher hopes that there would be more

research concerning stress placement on other suffixes. There are numerous other

topics covering prosodic phonology that have not been thoroughly researched by

undergraduate students, some of which including the relationship between suffixes

and stress. Thus, the researcher suggests that further exploration of the

interconnection between English stress and suffixes be executed.

F. Definition of Terms

This subchapter discusses two paramount concepts of this research in

general. These two concepts are defined so as to avoid misunderstanding. They are

defined as follows.

1. Suffix

Richards & Schmidt (2010) define suffix as “a letter or sound or group of

letters or sounds which are added to the end of a word, and which change the

meaning or function of the word.” (p. 572). Suffix has many functions when

attached to a word. One of its primary functions is being a lexical modifier. As a

lexical modifier, suffix could change the part of speech of a word. Suffix is also

categorized into those not affecting the stress, retaining the stress and shifting the

stress. The researcher only investigates the suffixes that shift the stress. Hence, in

this research, it is defined as the additional word attachment put at the end of a


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word, which changes the position of word stress. The suffixes included in this

research are only focused on -ic, -ion, eous and -ity since they are some of the stress-

shifting suffixes.

2. Word Stress

According to Poldauf (1984), word stress is the syllable that actually carries

the peak of force (p. 1). This peak of force results in a higher pitch and a louder

voice. As what Katamba (1996) claims, stress is a matter of allocating prominence

on a syllable that results in clear distinction from other syllables in the word (p.

221). Thus, the stressed syllable also produces a higher pitch, a longer duration and

sometimes a louder voice (Katamba, 1996; Yavas, 2011). Word stress in this

research means the appropriateness in pronouncing English suffixed words. The

words are to be pronounced accordingly by the seventh semester students of

ELESP.

3. The English Language Education Study Program

The English Language Education Study Program, abbreviated as ELESP, is

one of the study programs in Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Students of

ELESP engage in pedagogy, linguistics and literature that become the main parts

of their interests when they are about to graduate. Therefore, the English Language

Education Study Program in this research is defined as the study program in Sanata

Dharma University where the students develop themselves through learning

pedagogy, linguistics and literature. The students involved in this research are those


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of the seventh semester in academic year 2014/2015 who are supposed to have

attained sufficient understanding of pronunciation, especially stress placement.


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter embodies two essential parts that support the research, namely

theoretical description and theoretical framework. The researcher attempts to solve

the research problems by using the theories discussed in this chapter.

A. Theoretical Description

This subtopic consists of several theories relevant to the research. The

researcher provides two major parts essential to understanding the topic of the

research, namely stress placement and English suffixes. Then, these parts are

segmented into subcategories by which they are elaborated. The consideration for

the use of such theories is that this study focuses on phonology.

1. Stress

This chapter points out three subcategories relevant to the research. These

subcategories are the definition, the importance, and the usage of stress. Stress in

this research does not have any relationship with psychology. Instead, it is included

in the study of sound patterns, phonology. English, as a foreign language to

Indonesians, is strictly dependent on its pronunciation. As a part of pronunciation,

stress addressed in this research is discussed in detail but is limited to the relevance

of this research since this research only deals with students’ mastery of stress


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placement as well as their attitude towards English word stress. Not only were

phonological theories used as the ground, but also some morphological theories

were since they were related to English word stress.

a. The Definition of Stress

English is one example of a stress-timed language other than Russian and

Arabic (Checklin, 2012: 1). The syllables of these languages are not stressed

equivalently, which means that there is always a syllable prominently emphasized

among others. Stress-timed languages differ from that of syllable-timed languages

in the sense of the stress distribution. Syllable-timed languages do not weigh the

differentiation of assigning stress on certain syllables of a word. Thus, syllable-

timed languages treat each syllable equally in terms of its duration and length

(Crystal as cited in Checklin, 2012: 2). There are two types of a stress-timed

language, notably a free-stress language and a fixed-stress language. A fixed-stress

language typically has predictable stress patterns. Every word, no matter what it

belongs to lexically, is always stressed the same way without weighing the number

of syllables (Kager, 2007: 195).

There is an exception to this nature, because in fixed-stress languages, the

morphological structure such as affixation may as well relocate the stress (Kager,

2007, pp. 195-196). For example, in Turkish, the stress often falls on the final

syllable, such as in tani-ˈdik ‘acquintance’; tani-dik-ˈlar ‘acquintances’ and tani-

dik-lar-ˈim ‘my acquintaces’ (Sezer as cited in Apoussidou, 2011: 97). The second

type is a free-stress language, which does not reflect the nature of predictability of


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the stress. Quite contrary to fixed-stress languages, the stress on a free-stress

language occurs freely, and does not depend merely on the number of syllables, as

seen in Russian words such as boroˈda ‘beard – singular’, bˈorody ‘beard – plural’,

baˈgrit ‘to paint crimson’, and ˈbagrit ‘to spear fish’.

A stress-timed language usually employs culminativity, a way in assigning

more prominence to a certain syllable (Kager, 2007; Hayes, 2009). In other words,

culminativity is only applicable to a syllable that acts as the peak. Hayes (2009)

claims that there are exceptions to this culminativity that include auxiliary verbs,

articles, prepositions, and pronouns (p. 271). As neither part of a free-stressed nor

a fixed-stressed language, English adopts the stress patterns differently due to the

nature of the borrowed Germanic and other Romanic languages such as Latin and

French (McMahon, 2002: 120).

Word stress in English, therefore, has strong affinity with Germanic, Latin,

and French languages (McMahon, 2002: 120). The word stress in English is not

different from the word stress in other languages since it distributes a ranged

amount of energy upon a certain syllable, so that it is louder and more powerful

than other syllables in the word (Yavas, 2011: 156). In line with what Yavas

proposes, Poldauf (1984) defines word stress as the most distinct syllable that

carries the peak among other syllables of a word (p. 12). This emphasis or peak is

in the form of energy allocation. By allocating more energy on a certain syllable,

the syllable will be more prominent (Dardjowidjojo, 2009: 163). It means to say

that the stress placement of a word is the allocation of greater emphasis to a syllable,

so that it becomes intensified.


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The intensification of a syllable of an English word could be the change in

pitch, length, and/or loudness. Pitch is the most discernible feature of stress

compared to length or loudness (Fry as cited in Ashby, 2011: 160). These distinctive

pitch, loudness, and duration are all caused by the amount of energy allocated into

a syllable of a word (Katamba, 1996; Roach, 1998; McMahon, 2002; Gordon, 2011;

Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011; Yavas, 2011). Stress is relative, which means that not

all syllables carry the same amount of stress. There is always a secondary stressed

and/or an unstressed syllable (Giegerich, 1992: 179).

b. The Importance of Stress

According to Syafei (1988), stress is an inseparable element of English

pronunciation since it is something by which the accuracy of pronunciation is

measured (p. 23). Therefore, ignoring the appropriate stress placement means

having unintelligible pronunciation, which results in mispronunciation. English

stress is influenced by the morphological element of the word. Consequently, a

morphologically modified word sometimes denotes different stress placement,

depending on the derivational affixes, as in recordaˈbility (Apoussidou, 2011: 98).

Indonesian EFL learners will stumble on the challenge to pronounce English words

accurately because there is no stressing in Indonesian. Stress in Indonesian does not

affect either lexical categories or meaning.

Therefore, if EFL learners cannot produce intelligible word stressing, native

English speakers will have a hard time understanding what they are talking about

(Kenworthy, 1988: 3). This difficulty, according to Syafei (1988), is caused by


15

irregular spelling of the English word itself or is due to students’ first language

interference (p. 1). The language interference that is being discussed is the

difference in vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. The phonemes that are

problematic for Indonesian learners are /i:/, /u:/, /æ/, /ʌ/, and /ɔ:/ because these

phonemes are a bit different from Indonesian /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/ and /o/ (Syafei, 1988;

Dardjowidjojo, 2009).

To help students overcome phonological constraints, an English teacher

needs to introduce English sounds and morphology to the students so that they

understand how to pronounce morphologically related words. Although Kenworthy

(1987) argues that a native-like pronunciation is not something a language learner

should aim, he states that “word and sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation are

very important in highlighting the important bits of message” (pp. 13-14). He also

notes that learners need to have awareness of being able to stress properly since

they will have a hard time recognizing the word said by a native speaker if they do

not store it in their mental dictionary (pp. 27-28).

c. The Nature of Stress

There are several rules that govern the stress placement in English word such

as the word origin, the number of syllables, the lexical category, and even the

affixation (Dardjowidjojo, 2009, pp. 164–166). Not all English words follow the

same rules. Thus, when affixation affects the construction of a new word that

changes the lexical category of the affixed word, the stress placement may differ.

Disyllabic and trisyllabic English words are stressed differently, depending on the


16

existing vowels, the final consonant, and the diphthongs (Roach, 1998, pp. 89-90).

These diverse treatments are not affected only by vowels, consonants or diphthongs,

but also by the word origin. However, Burzio (1996) argues that stress cannot be

predicted by simply applying the transformational cycle theory proposed by

Chomsky and Halle (1968) and thus, must not be presumed as having the

phonological effect (pp. 10-13).

The transformational cycle theory, or commonly known as the ‘cyclic

theory’, is the phonological consideration in determining the stress (Chomsky &

Halle, 1968: 15). The cyclic theory assumes that stress placement must be based on

the surface structure containing strings and on phonological rules applied to the

strings until it reaches phonological phrase (Chomksy & Halle, 1968: 60). Burzio

(1996) rejects this because he believes that there is a relation between

morphologically related words to the stress preservation (Burzio, 1996; Kager,

1995). It is also agreed that phonological features are not the only things that

constitute the rule of stress placement. Gussenhoven & Jacobs (2011) argue that

there is also another consideration in assigning stress rules called foot. Earlier, in

The Sound Pattern of English or SPE, it was claimed that stress was constituted by

phonetic implementation rules, resulting in transformational cycle theory but it was

argued that the structural position or the foot, played a more relevant part

(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011: 214).

A foot is the constituent by which a syllable is divided into strong and weak

(Gussenhoven & Jacobs, 2011: 214). Morphology also plays an essential part in

generating the rules that govern stress placement, as can be observed in the metrical


17

theory. The way words are constructed by morphological features called

morphemes, notably affixes and roots, vitally contribute to the stress placement in

English (Giegerich, 1992: 190). Thus, the analysis of stress placement in English

cannot be based phonetically or phonologically because additionally, morphology

contributes more.

McMahon (2002) summarizes the heaviness of a syllable is what attracts

stress generally (p. 120). Katamba (1996) and McMahon (2002) share equivalent

notion about a heavy syllable, stating that a syllable is heavy if it consists of a long

vowel with or without a coda, or a short vowel with a coda (Katamba, 1996;

McMahon, 2002). Likewise, Hayes (2009) proposes that it is more precise to claim

stress as the appendage of syllable, not vowel or diphthong (p. 272). The reasoning

behind this claim is that there is no contrast of stress within the syllable. For

example, if a diphthong in a syllable is primarily stressed, it is awkward to decide

which part of the diphthong that really bears the stress (Hayes, 2009: 272). Vowels

or diphthongs of a stressed syllable are subject to increasing length, while the ones

in an unstressed syllable are more likely to shorten (Kager, 2007: 195). Stress stays

within the frame of syllable weight and is commonly attracted to the syllable having

the highest sonority (Kager, 2007: 198). In many examples of monosyllabic words,

however, the stress is realized on the only syllable there is (Katamba, 1996: 234).

Although most English stresses fall on the heaviest syllable, there are

exceptions that allow the stress to fall on a lighter syllable. This happens when there

is a [ə] nuclei on the syllable or because the stress is on the final syllable by default

(Yavas, 2011: 158). In this regard, English has been known to shorten vowels in


18

unstressed syllables and thus they become /ə/, /ɪ/, /ɪə/ or /ʊ/ (Poldauf, 1984: 15).

However, this tendency is not without its exception. The exception that Poldauf

shows is about maintaining the vowel quality in unstressed syllables due to the

influence of related words as in representation [ˌreprɪzenˈteɪʃn] that comes from

represent [ˌreprɪˈzent] (Poldauf, 1984: 15). Roach (1998), states that a vowel that

is of different place of articulation than the rest of other vowels in a word can

preserve stress and that syllable length can potentially affect prominence (p. 86).

He also mentions that affixes can determine the position of the stress, whether it

falls on the affix itself, or remains on the stem but is shifted to another syllable

(Roach, 1998: 96). Thus, if the stress moves from its original position because the

word has been affixed, the vowel quality differs since the stress stays on a heavy

syllable. That is why, according to Crosswhite (2004), the unstressed syllable

undergoes a vowel reduction (p. 191).

This view confirms the significance of a suffix in assigning stress. The suffix

-ion is a verb-attracting suffix that changes the stress of a word because it always

gives the stress in the penult (second syllable from the last) (Plag, 2003: 91).

Furthermore, Plag states that when -ion suffix is attracted to -ify and -ate verbs, the

variants are -ification and -ation respectively although -ation can be attracted to

nouns without -ate suffix (Plag, 2003, pp. 90-91). This is why -ion words, which

are nouns, have different primary stress from their roots. Miller (2006) adds, the

original -ion suffix does not nominalize like -(a)tion does because the -ion suffix is

authentic (p. 76). The similarities, however, are obvious. The suffix -tion, for


19

example, attracts verbs ending in -ify and -ate as seen in purify → purification and

duplicate → duplication.

As what has been discussed previously, other stress-shifting suffixes besides

-ion are -eous, -ic, and -ity. When -ity meets some coinages having Latinate suffixes

such as those that end in -al (i.e. marginal → marginality), -able (drinkable →

drinkability) and -ous (in some cases as in generous → generosity), it denotes the

state of being something (Miller, 2006, pp. 27-28). This principle holds true because

the majority of -ity derivatives are those of adjectives ending in -ic, -able, -al and

of phonetic string [ɪd] like in readability and solidity (Plag, 2003: 91). The -ic

suffix, even though it is sometimes indistinguishable from -ical in meaning like in

diabolic and diabolical, only attracts foreign bases and changes the stress placement

into a penultimate stress as found in ˈhero → heˈroic (Plag, 2003: 96). It is obvious

that -ic makes for adjectives. That is to say, it is a non-deverbal suffix. A non-

deverbal suffix is a suffix that attracts non-verbal bases such as nouns and then

constitutes adjectives; hence, it is also known as a relational suffix.

According to Plag (2003) and Miller (2006), -ous suffix attaches itself to

Latinate bases and functions as a denominal suffix (Plag, 2003: 97; Miller, 2006:

166). Its variant, -eous, maintains that principle and affects the stress placement of

the base, moving it either to penult or antepenult (third syllable from the last).

Burzio (1996) argues that the null vowel at the end of the eous-suffixed words is

preserved because “it affects the quality of preceding consonant, including

spiranization or palatalization, as a form of preservation of the relevant context.”

(pp. 288-289). This means that the final syllable of words ending in a palatalized


20

vowel (semi-vowel), as in advantage and courage, can attract stress if combined

with -eous i.e. adˈvantage → advanˈtageous, ˈcourage → couˈrageous.

2. English Suffixes

English has many borrowed suffixes. Many of which come from Latin.

Through years of exposure and blend, countless English words that are now

available are the results of French and Latin influence (Miller, 2006: vii). English

suffixes generally have two categories seen from the morphological perspective, to

wit: inflectional and derivational suffixes (Giegerich, 1992: 190). Derivation is

traditionally the formulation of a new meaning of a word through affixation (Beard,

1998; Miller, 2006). Some examples are game, gamer, person, and personify. The

first words, game and gamer are both nouns but differ in meaning. A gamer is the

one who plays the game. The latter examples, namely person and personify, have

very different meaning. A person means someone, while personify means to have

a certain characteristic. Therefore, -ify is one example of a derivational suffix that

modifies the noun person so that it becomes a verb. Derivational suffixes can be

divided again into those that affect the stress placement and those that do not affect

stress placement.

Zamma (2012) proposes two major classes of suffixes in his study, namely

class 1 suffixes and class 2 suffixes. Suffixes presented in class 1 such as -ity, -ion,

-(i)an, -al (adjective), -ous, -ant/-ent, -ory, -ary, -ic, -id, -ive, -ate, and -ify are

phonologically and morphologically opposing to class 2 suffixes. Class 2 suffixes

such as -like, -hood, -ness, -less, -ful, -ish (adjective), -ly, -wise, -ing, and -ed do


21

not have the stress-shifting manner (p. 3). Thus, Zamma’s classification of English

suffixes can be generalized into the suffixes that affect stress placement and suffixes

that do not affect stress placement. It means to say that the suffixes in this research,

namely -ic, -ion, -ity and -eous, can significantly shift the stress. These suffixes also

give impact on the length reduction of a long vowel or a diphthong of a base. The

suffix -ic has a fixed stress. Therefore, this suffix is stressed on the penultimate

syllable as in symˈbolic, arˈtistic and eˈlastic.

The suffix -ity has many extended forms. If it follows the letter ‘i’, it is

spelled as -ety. It is also possible that the suffix -ity is incorporated with another

suffix, namely -ial, which could change the stress as in artificiˈality (Poldauf, 1984:

54). Meanwhile, the suffix -ion is special in terms of its extended forms because it

has been developed with French influence. Poldauf (1984) states that the suffix -

ous has two extended forms, i.e. -eous and -ious (p. 60). The examples of these are

ˈanxious, couˈrageous, presˈtigious, and sponˈtaneous. Stress is unpredictable if a

word is partially combined with suffixes from Latin, French, and Greek (Kreidler,

2004: 79). If the word is attributed with suffixes or affixes from Old English, such

as -ly, -ful, un-, and -ness, then the stress can be easily predicted as it falls on the

initial and the second syllable (Kreidler, 2004: 79). Below are listed several

different suffixes that are either derivational or inflectional. These suffixes are

categorized based on their role in determining the English word stress.


22

a. Suffixes Retaining the Stress by Themselves

Some suffixes place the stress just before the suffixes themselves. In other

words, the stress is always on the final syllable. The following are examples of the

suffixes carrying the stress by themselves, derived from Dardjowidjojo (2009) and

Roach (1998).

-ee : referˈee

-eer : buccanˈeer

-ese : Sundanˈese

-esque : arabˈesque

-ette : roulˈette

-ique : oblˈique

b. Suffixes Preserving the Stress

These suffixes below are ones that keep the original stress of the stem. Thus,

the stress does not move. Here are some examples of derivational suffixes that do

not change the stress placement of English words. These examples are taken from

the work of Dardjowidjojo (2009) and Roach (1998).

-able : ˈreadable

-age : ˈorphanage

-al : ˈpartial

-ful : ˈgraceful

-fy : ˈjustify

-ish : ˈreddish

-less : ˈfruitless


23

-ment : ˈpuzzlement

-ness : ˈgreediness

c. Suffixes Affecting the Stress

While other suffixes can retain the stress by themselves or keep the original

stress, some others affect the stress placement. Thus, the stress is dependent on the

suffix because the suffix moves the stress away from the stem. The examples below

are from Dardjowidjojo (2009) and Roach (1998).

-eous : sponˈtaneous

-ial : subˈstantial

-ic : phoˈnemic

-ion : communiˈcation

-ious : caˈpricious

-ity : tranˈquility

-ive : reˈflective

English suffix -ity is actually a borrowed suffix originated from Anglo-

French, and the original form is -(i)te(e) as in Old French words such as bonté

‘bounty’ and charite ‘charity’ (Miller, 2006: 27). He also states that -ity suffix also

underwent periods of assimilation with Roman and Latin in 1300 BC, as in

seur(e)te(e) ‘security’ and also in securitas ‘carelessness’ (Miller, 2006: 27).

Parenthetically, Plag (2003) backs this view by stating that Latinate adjectives

usually make ity-suffixed words as in profundity and productivity (p. 91). In

addition, there is a special characteristic of this suffix, which enables the stress to


24

shift and the polysyllabic words to process a trisyllabic lax, a process of vowel

shortening (Plag, 2003, pp. 91-92).

The suffix -ion is interpreted as ‘the result of’ (Miller, 2006; Plag, 2003).

Miller states that the suffix -ion is not a deadjectival abstract, but is a verbal abstract,

which means that -ion only modifies verbs (Miller, 2006: 76). For instance, the

word legion (legio – conscription/choose a number of soldiers) comes from Anglo

French word legere that means ‘to collect’ (Miller, 2006: 76). There are three

allomorphs accompanying the suffix -ion, namely -ion and -ification when it is

attached to a verb with -ify suffix and -ation when -ion is attached to a verb with -

ate suffix (Plag, 2003: 90). The examples of the variation of -ion suffix include

those of verbal bases as well as nouns without the help of -ate suffix, as in

sedimentation, where the base is the noun sediment (Plag, 2003: 91). In relation to

that, Miller (2006) states that -tion can sometimes attract nouns without any base

verbs such as sanitation and sedimentation (p. 98). He also adds, -(a)tion is

normally constricted to Latinate words and is not attached to iambic words such as

desire and disturb because of the stress clash as in desi'ration and distur'bation

although exceptions allow a stress shift as in inspire→inspiration and

explain→explanation (Miller, 2006: 98).

The suffix -eous came from Indo-European suffix -e´y-o-, which later

developed into -e-us in Latin (Miller, 2006: 162). The original meaning of the suffix

-e´y-o- was denotation of material composition (Miller, 2006: 162). It means to say

that the meaning of suffix -eous is ‘comprised of’, ‘derived from’ or ‘made of’. As


25

a variant of suffix -ous, suffix -eous typically puts the stress either on the penult or

on the antepenult (Plag, 2003: 97).

Unusual as it sounds, the Indo-European suffix -ko- is the ancestor of several

suffixes including Greek’s -iko-, Latin’s -(t)icus, and English’s -ic (Miller, 2006,

pp. 160-161). Since -ic is a relational suffix, it attaches itself to foreign bases

especially nouns and bound roots (Plag, 2003: 96). A relational suffix makes a

relational adjective because the suffix implies a certain degree of relation that

belongs to the noun as in allergic, which means ‘having an allergy’ or ‘caused by

an allergy.’

B. Theoretical Framework

This part highlights the elaboration of theories and how they are used to

conduct the research. In this research, the theories function as the ground of analysis

of the research results. In regard to analyzing the data, the researcher combined the

theories of stress and suffixes elaborated in the previous subchapter.

The theories of stress and pronunciation combined with the theories of

suffixes are used to answer research question number one and two. These theories

are from Burzio (1996), Crosswhite (2004), Dardjowidjodjo (2009), Hayes (2009),

Katamba (1996), Kager (2007), McMahon (2002), Miller (2006), Plag (2003),

Poldauf (1984), Roach (1998), and Yavas (2011). By incorporating the theories of

Syafei (1988), Kreidler (2004) and Kenworthy (1988) that concern the nature of


26

English pronunciation, the researcher related students’ perception with their

performance.

Since the second research problem is about students’ mastery of stress in

English suffixed words, the researcher used the theories explaining the effect of

syllable weight from Katamba (1996), McMahon (2002), Hayes (2009), and Kager

(2007). These theories imply that there are certain qualifications by which stress

rules are applied. In addition to syllable weight, word-formation theories, notably

those that explain the relation between suffixation and root support the analysis of

the second research problem. Apart from these phonological theories, theories on

pronunciation and language teaching support the analysis because they correlate

between phonological or morphological concept and students’ pronunciation.

English pronunciation is difficult for some EFL learners due to less familiar vowels,

diphthongs, and consonants compared to those of Indonesian such as /i:/, /u:/, /æ/,

/ʌ/, and /ɔ:/ (Syafei, 1988; Dardjowidjojo, 2009). If this problem persists for a long

time, it is likely that learners will substitute vowels continuously that results in

unintelligible pronunciation.

An intelligible pronunciation is not the same as a native-like pronunciation.

EFL learners, however, should comprehend how to stress words and sentences and

how to use proper intonation and rhythm (Kenworthy, 1987, pp. 13-14). Generally,

one can determine word stress by examining the heavy syllable or the syllable

having the highest sonority (McMahon, 2002; Kager, 2007). Also true is the notion

that stress is a part of a syllable because a vowel, a consonant, or a diphthong cannot

bear the stress (Hayes, 2009: 272). For monosyllabic words that consist of a


27

diphthong and a consonant, for example, the stress always falls on the first syllable

no matter what sound it has (Katamba, 1996: 234). In English phonology, not all

allophones and phonemes are permissible to occur under uncommon circumstances,

and therefore, a syllable can regulate how a speaker should pronounce words

(Katamba, 1996, pp. 164-166).

A lighter syllable can sometimes bear the stress because of the [ə] nuclei on

the syllable or because the stress is already on the final syllable by default (Yavas,

2011: 158). This theory is used to answer the second research question since the

students’ mastery of stress placement of English suffixed words depends on how

good they notice the nuclei and the heavy syllable. Poldauf (1984) claims that

vowels in unstressed syllables often become ə, ɪ, ɪə or ʊ (p. 15). Nonetheless, the

unstressed vowel sometimes maintains full vowel quality due to the effect of word

formation as in representation [ˌreprɪzenˈteɪʃn] that comes from represent

[ˌreprɪˈzent] (Poldauf, 1984: 15). Although that is the case for some instances, most

of the time, an unstressed vowel has its syllable reduced and this is called vowel

reduction (Crosswhite, 2004: 191).

Besides using those eight theories, the researcher also used the theory from

Roach (1998) that underlines the degree of strength of a syllable. He states that

stress normally prevails in syllables containing a distinguishable vowel length and

quality (Roach, 1998: 86). Stress is affected by not only syllables, but also by

affixes (Roach, 1998: 96). In line with that, Plag (2003) suggests that suffix -ion is

a verb-attracting suffix that changes the stress of a word because it always moves

the stress to the penult i.e. second syllable from the last (p. 91). Thus, most of the


28

time, -ion makes for nouns that come from verbal bases, especially those of Latinate

origin (Miller, 2006: 76). The notion that -ity suffix changes the stress placement is

true because it attracts foreign bases (Plag, 2003; Miller, 2006). The relational

suffix -ic also pulls the stress away from the root and attracts non-verbal bases

(Plag, 2003: 96). Both Plag (2003) and Miller (2006) agree that -ous suffix sticks

to Latinate bases and is primarily denominal i.e. it can make adjectives out of nouns

(Plag, 2003; Miller, 2006). Burzio (1996), adds, the final syllable of a word that has

a semi-vowel or a null vowel can attract stress naturally if there is -eous suffix added

in the final syllable (pp. 288-289).


29

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter summarizes six main parts related to methodology used in this

research. In order to clearly give understanding upon the research, the researcher

categorizes these parts into the research method, the research setting, the research

participants, the instrument and data gathering technique, the data analysis

technique and the research procedure.

A. Research Method

This research utilized a survey method because the researcher tried to infer

the results from the sample of the population. The intent of this research was to

determine whether 116 students of batch 2011 had varied mastery of stress

placement of English suffixed words. The first research problem was about the

perception of the students with regard to English stress and the second was students’

mastery of the stress placement of English words ending with -ic, -ion, -ity, and -

eous suffixes. According to Creswell (2009), a survey is a method in which the

researcher studies the population or the sample and tries to make numeric

descriptions of the result (p. 145). A survey research, according to Ary, Jacobs,

Sorensen, and Razavieh (2010) is broadly applied by researchers to investigate

specific attitudes, trends or problems of a certain population or a sample within the

time constraint (p. 414). As what has been proposed by Creswell (2009), a survey

is best used since the design is cost-effective (p. 146). Likewise, Johnson and


30

Christensen (2012) state that a survey also helps a researcher apprehend a

population through the use of sample data (p. 217).

Therefore, the survey helped the researcher answer both research questions.

To conduct the survey, the researcher utilized a questionnaire in the first place in

order to arouse students’ alertness towards the research topic. Following this

through, an oral test was used as the primary instrument to answer the second

research question. By giving the participants an oral test, the researcher could hint

at the mastery of the stress placement of English suffixed words among ELESP

students. As what Johnson and Christensen (2012) write, a combination of

instruments can yield a quality result (p. 195).

B. Research Setting

The research was conducted at Sanata Dharma University, on May 26 and

30, and on August 26, 2014. On May 26, the researcher did the first questionnaire

distribution to 110 ELESP students of batch 2011. Then, on May 30, the researcher

distributed the questionnaire to six ELESP students of batch 2011. Since it was

highly impractical to continue the research due to the end of the semester, the

researcher decided to postpone the oral test until September 2014. On September

25, 2014, the oral test was administered in Multimedia Laboratory. The researcher,

who acted as the test administrator, directly supervised the oral test.


31

C. Research Participants

Since this research employed survey as its method, the participants were

selected out of a prevailing population in ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. Ary

et al. (2010) define population as the amount of people, objects and events that exist

in a specific area (p. 148). Since it was impractical to involve the entire population,

the researcher selected some people from the population in order to denote the

population. Thus, a sampling was used. A sample, according to Ary et al. (2010), is

a part of the population from which the researcher could make generalizations (p.

148). The population of the target research was about 660 heterogeneous students,

each batch was composed of 165 students. Since the 660 students were the target

population, it means to say that the accessible population was 165 students who

belonged to batch 2011.

To avoid an illegitimate sample, the researcher ensured that the population

was valid by crosschecking the number of the students with the help from

administration staff. The researcher then decided that the sample would be 116

students from the sixth semester and acquired the list of available classes in which

the students belonged. That number was compelling since it was, although not

directly, based on 95% confidence level (Johnson & Christensen, 2012: 232). Due

to the impracticality in applying a random sampling, the researcher fully employed

a convenience sampling that was of ease because the population was already

divided into classes. A random sampling was not the best option because it was

considered time-consuming and it would have been difficult for the researcher to

assemble random participats in one room. In 2012, Hibberts, Johnson & Hudson


32

stated that a convenience sampling is efficient since the researcher can select the

participants quickly (p. 66).

After all sampling procedure had been carried out, the researcher delivered

an oral consent form when conducting the research. A consent form is the brief

description of the research given to research participants so that they are aware of

the nature, purposes, risks, and benefits of the research (Johnson & Christensen,

2012: 107). The use of consent form ensures that the participants willingly and

knowingly participated in the research.

D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique

A combination of instruments was used by the researcher, consisting of

achievement test as the core instrument and questionnaire as the secondary

instrument. To answer the first research question, a questionnaire was used because

it dealt with students’ beliefs and experience. Before distributing the questionnaire,

the researcher did the piloting to ensure that the items were clear. All students in

the sample were given a questionnaire as well as an oral consent to assure that their

identities were kept confidential. There were ten items in the questionnaire; eight

of which asked about students’ self-evaluation regarding the English word stress,

while two others asked students to revisit their previous knowledge of phonology

and morphology. Thus, the questionnaire was of great efficiency to determine their

experience and belief about English word stress and English suffixed words. The

blueprint of the questionnaire is laid out in the next page.


33

Table 3.1 The Questionnaire Blueprint

No. Features Item

number

Statement Notes

1

Belief about

stress in

English

suffixed

words.

1 Word stress is a vital part in

English pronunciation.

Four-ranged rating

scale items

2 All English suffixes have their

own principles regarding the

stress placement of a word.

3 English suffixes such as -

eous, -ic, -ity and -ion do not

shift the stress from the root.

4 My awareness of English

word stress is much improved

now.

10 Is there anything else you

would like to add regarding

English suffixed words?

An open-ended

question

2

Experience in

pronouncing

English

suffixed words

and learning

word stress

5 It is difficult to pronounce

English words ending with -

eous, -ic, -ity and -ion

suffixes.

Four-ranged rating

scale items

6 I am doubtful about

pronouncing English words

with -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion

suffixes.


34

No. Features Item

number

Statement Notes

2

Experience in

pronouncing

English suffixed

words and

learning word

stress

7 I think my pronunciation of

English words with -eous, -

ic, -ity and -ion suffixes is

better now.

Four-ranged rating

scale items

8 Which of the following

subjects have you ever

retaken? (Check any

responses.)

A checklist item

4 Demography 9 Your student number is 111

214 ______

A “fill in the

blank” item

The purpose of an achievement test is to give adjudication on test takers’

competence of certain knowledge (Ary et al., 2010: 201). The researcher used a

performance test, i.e. an oral test, as a part of achievement test, because the

researcher wanted to assess students’ capability in stressing English suffixed words

orally. A performance test is a commensurate way to indicate generally whether the

examinees can actually produce something (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2003, pp. 154 –

155). The oral test was composed of eighty English suffixed words ending with -ic,

-ity, -ion, and -eous suffixes. These words were grouped by the suffixes, with each

suffix having twenty suffixed words.

In order to avoid a ceiling and floor effect, the test items were first pilot-

tested. After the researcher conducted the piloting, the researcher revised it prior to

using it to answer the second research question. The researcher administered the


35

oral test in Multimedia Laboratory because there were computers capable of

recording students’ performance simultaneously.

E. Data Analysis Technique

In order to check the accuracy of the stress placement, two dictionaries were

used. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (2008) or LPD and Cambridge English

Pronouncing Dictionary (2011) or CEPD were the main sources of analysis

regarding the stress placement. These two dictionaries were specialized references

to English pronunciation as they provided spoken pronunciations and a wide

coverage of words. Both dictionaries featured spelling-to-sound notes that

highlighted the relationship between spelling and pronunciation so that it could

easily be understood. In addition, both dictionaries included a CD-ROM that

enabled a self-record feature so that one could compare his or her own

pronunciation to the standard one. Not only did it have a self-record feature, the

CD-ROM from both dictionaries also had the sound search option, from which one

could search certain words by selecting the phonetic alphabets available.

Since the speeches were directly recorded using an audio recorder in the

computers at the Multimedia Laboratory, the researcher then played the recordings

to check whether the sound was audible. After listening to the recordings, the

researcher copied them onto his laptop. Next, the researcher played the recordings

using the laptop. The recordings were played in chronological order – from the

earliest date until the latest date of the test. Having done so, the researcher carefully

listened to the recordings and examined whether the pronunciations were correct.


36

Both LPD (2008) and CEPD (2011) provided a great help in comparing the

recordings with the correct pronunciation. Then, the researcher laid out not only the

correct and incorrect stress placements but also the phonetic errors found in each

word.

F. Research Procedure

The following was the procedure the researcher followed to conduct his

research. Each step was an essential progress towards the success of this research.

1. Identifying the Research Problems

Since the researcher was interested in English pronunciation, stress

placement became the major focus of the research. The researcher finally came up

with an idea and sought to investigate ELESP students’ mastery of English suffixed

words. The first research question addressed students’ belief about the English word

stress and the English suffixed words while the second research question asked

about students’ pronunciation mastery of English suffixed words.

2. Designing the Research

The researcher assumed that a mixed method would be a better approach to

answer both research questions. However, after reading four books on research

design and research method, the researcher began to understand the nature of

qualitative and quantitative methods better so that the researcher fully utilized a


37

survey method to answer all the questions. In applying the survey, the researcher

used an oral test and a questionnaire as the instruments that he piloted first.

3. Gathering the Data

In order to gather the data, the researcher defined the population and the

sampling. It was determined that 116 students were the samples and were the

appropriate representation of 165 students – the accessible population. A

questionnaire was used to gather students’ responses related to their belief about

the research topic. In addition, an oral test was also administered to record students’

performance in pronouncing English suffixed words. All prospective participants

were given an oral consent form prior to being given a questionnaire.

Having done that, the researcher managed to continue the research in

September. At this point, an oral test was administered to answer the second

research question. The speeches of the participants were recorded using audio-

recording application available in every computer at Multimedia Laboratory. The

recordings were then transferred into a laptop.

4. Analyzing the Data

The initial data that the researcher acquired were the students’ belief and

experience. To analyze this, a chart was utilized to act as a reference from which

one could easily see the trends. Also, the researcher wrote all the phonetic

transcriptions of the words and compared them to the standard pronunciation


38

derived from two dictionaries: LPD (2008) and CEPD (2011). Theories from

experts were used to help the researcher generate his analysis.

5. Writing the Report

Finally, after all preparation and findings had been finalized, the researcher

concluded the research. The findings and their justification were summarized in a

written form. Suggestions for future researchers, English teachers, the lecturers and

the students of ELESP were made.


39

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter reports and discusses the findings. The data from which the

discussion was directed were obtained from the questionnaire and the oral test.

There are two essential parts acting as the subheadings of this chapter. The first part

lays out the ELESP students’ perception of English word stress and English

suffixed words, whereas the second part explains how the students pronounce

English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes and compares their

pronunciation to the standard one.

A. Students’ Perception of English Word Stress and English Words with -

eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion Suffixes

The section answers the first research question. Since the first research

question deals with students’ attitude towards English word stress and English

suffixed words, the researcher used a questionnaire to determine their perception.

Thus, by using the responses the students gave, this section exposes the opinions,

beliefs, and judgments of the students in relation to the first research question.


40

1. Attitude towards Word Stress and English Suffixed Words

Figure 4.1 Importance of Word Stress

Figure 4.1 above shows students’ perception of the importance of word stress

in English pronunciation. Most students strongly agreed that word stress was vital.

Some students believed that word stress was of moderate importance as seen from

the 39% slice of the pie chart. Residing at 6%, the ‘Strongly Disagree’ option gained

a small portion of the chart. These students stated that word stress was not vital.

Kenworthy (1988) pinpoints that there are learners who are unconcerned about their

pronunciation because they have no idea that they may cause difficulty for the

listener (p. 8). The smallest proportion of the chart belonged to ‘Disagree’ option

in which the student(s) regarded English word stress as a less important part in

learning English.

Strongly Disagree6%

Disagree2%

Agree39%

Strongly Agree53%

Word stress is a vital part in English pronunciation

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree


41

Figure 4.2 Suffixes and Their Principles Regarding Stress Placement

Although the biggest portion in Figure 4.2 belonged to ‘Agree’ category,

many students in this category did not realize that they misplaced the stress during

the oral test. For example, when they had to pronounce the word academic, many

of them stressed the antepenult instead of the penult. This distorted their beliefs

completely. Those who believed that all suffixes had their own principles seemed

unaware of their improper way of stressing most words in -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

suffixes. Some of the 22% proportion that strongly agreed with the notion also

misplaced the stress of most words during the oral test. Both ‘Disagree’ and

‘Strongly Disagree’ categories gained 4% and 1% proportion respectively. Figure

4.2 proves that the students had yet understood what suffix applied what principle.

Strongly Disagree1%

Disagree4%

Agree73%

Strongly Agree22%

All English suffixes have their own principles regarding the stress placement of a word



42

Figure 4.3 Stress-shifting Attribute of -eous, -ic, -ity and -ion Suffixes

From Figure 4.3, it is apparent that there was a slight difference between

‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’ options since each of them stayed at 45% and 41%

respectively. On the contrary, only 11% of the sample really believed that -eous, -

ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes did not change the stress and 3% of the sample were very

sure that those suffixes changed the position of the stress. As seen from the

percentage, there was a tendency not to appear extreme by not choosing ‘Strongly

Disagree’ or ‘Strongly Agree.’ They knew little or none about the stress-shifting

attribute of -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes so that they had to assume by looking

at the examples given by the researcher in the questionnaire. This conclusion was

made after the researcher compared their questionnaire response with their oral

performance.

Eight students who gave positive attitude towards the first and the second

questionnaire items stated that different stress made for different meaning or lexical

Strongly Disagree11%

Disagree41%

Agree45%

Strongly Agree3%

-eous, -ic, -ity and -ion suffixes do not shift the stress from the root



43

category. They all emphasized how important word stress was. However, these

eight students had different perspectives on the influence of English suffixes over

stress placement. Four of them believed that -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes did

not shift the stress. Four others believed that those suffixes could shift the stress.

Four students who believed that -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes shifted the

stress, stressed the words under the suffix -ion properly, although there were minor

slips. These students also did rather well when they had to stress words under the -

ity category. Nevertheless, they did not stress the words under the -eous and -ic

categories very well because they were less familiar with the stress pattern both

suffixes had.

In comparison, four students that believed that -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

suffixes did not shift the stress performed equally well when they stressed the words

under -ity and -ion categories. Although they stated that such suffixes did not shift

the stress, they knew the stress pattern of words under -ity and -ion categories. This

proves that they were unaware of the interplay between suffix and word stress.

What they did – stressing appropriately – was due to years of encountering such

suffixed words so that they developed automatic response when they saw the words.

This is what Kreidler (2004) implies, stating that many English speakers know how

to stress words with -tion and -ity endings, even though not consciously (p. 180).

These four students were rather troubled when they stressed words under the -ic

category, just as the four previous ones were.


44

Most students, in response to the fourth questionnaire item, chose to agree

with the notion of their increased awareness of English word stress, as shown by

the 65% proportion. Around 27% of the sample also appeared to be positive

regarding their increased awareness of English word stress while 7% suggested that

their awareness remained stagnant. Being in an extreme position, one student

strongly disbelieved that his awareness had much improved. Many of the students

who chose ‘Strongly Disagree’ or ‘Agree’ showed a rather delusive opinion about

their own awareness, for they either mispronounced the word or misplaced the

stress when they sat the oral test. It means that they were unaware that they were

mispronouncing.

An interesting phenomenon occurred in the fifth questionnaire item because

65% of the sample argued that it was rather easy for them to pronounce words that

ended in -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes. Reality shows that many of the 65%

proportion mispronounced some words that belonged to those suffixes.

Interestingly, a few students who agreed that pronouncing words with -eous, -ic, -

ity, and -ion suffixes was difficult (21%) performed slightly better because they

were cautious while the others were not. Those who were less cautious pronounced

the words too quickly, as indicated by their haste in pronouncing most of the words

in the oral test, which resulted in stress misplacement or mispronunciation. The

twelve percent of the ‘Strongly Disagree’ students were confident of pronouncing

the words appropriately although evidence shows that they mispronounced some

vowels and misplaced the stress. The smallest part of the figure (2%) admitted that

it was very hard to pronounce English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes.


45

In response to the sixth item of the questionnaire, a few students felt that

pronouncing English words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes was difficult.

Thus, they were doubtful in pronouncing them. However, these students performed

well on the test because they rarely mispronounced most of the words. Even though

some students stated that they were not doubtful (54%) in pronouncing English

words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes, their recorded pronunciations showed

that their performance was not in accordance with their confidence. Therefore, their

confidence was not related to their ability. Those who chose ‘Disagree’ in the

previous item but chose ‘Agree’ in this item tried to believe that they were able to

predict word stress but they were doubtful in pronouncing words with -eous, -ic, -

ity and -ion suffixes. Interestingly, a small part of ‘Agree’ proportion also chose

‘Agree’ in the previous item about difficulty in pronouncing English words. These

students, although they did not show enough confidence in responding to the

questionnaire item, performed better during the oral test compared to those who

chose ‘Strongly Disagree’ or ‘Disagree’ in both previous item and this item.

Seventy-nine percent students felt that their pronunciation of English words

with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes improved. This number, nevertheless, had

little to do with the actual performance because some students that belonged to the

‘Agree’ proportion mispronounced some words during the oral test. This proves

that they had been unaware about what they were going to do with their less

intelligible pronunciation. Further evidence showed that those of ‘Strongly Agree’

group simply reassured themselves that they had better pronunciation while in fact

they did not know to what extent their pronunciation really improved since they


46

could not stress many ic-suffixed words properly. Students who disagreed with the

notion (9%) were unsatisfied with their own pronunciation although a small part of

this category performed really well on the test.

2. Experience Related to Word Stress and English Suffixed Words

Figure 4.4 Subjects Retaken by the Students

From 116 students, none retook Pronunciation Practice 1 subject. This, at

least, was positive because by the time ELESP students were in the seventh

semester, they should have mastered the most fundamental part of English

pronunciation, i.e. the recognizing English sound. However, as Figure 4.4 shows,

some students retook Pronunciation Practice 2 (7%), Phonetics & Phonology (4%)

and seven percent of the sample even retook all subjects related to English

pronunciation. This backed the evidence that many of these students could not

perform well on the oral test, let alone mimicking the English sounds. The biggest

Pronunciation Practice 1

0%

Pronunciation Practice 2

7%

Phonetics & Phonology

4%

None82%

All subjects7%

The Subjects that the Students Retook

Pronunciation Practice 1 Pronunciation Practice 2 Phonetics & Phonology

None All subjects


47

proportion of the sample (82%) retook none, although there were many

pronunciation errors uttered by most of the students of this category.

Three students who retook no subject stated that first language interference

affected the quality of English pronunciation. They further added that as long as the

speaker could convey the message orally and that the listener could understand it,

there should have been no problem in communicating. While this might be true, as

teacher candidates, they need to help their students hear and produce appropriate

sounds. As stated by Kenworthy (1987), one of the teacher’s roles is to facilitate

the students to recognize English sounds (p. 2).

B. Students’ Pronunciation of English Words with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

Suffixes

This section answers the second research question. Discussed in this

subchapter is ELESP students’ pronunciation of English words with -eous, -ic. -ity

and -ion suffixes in the form of recordings. Only 97 students participated in the oral

test either because the other nineteen students could not be contacted or did not

submit the recording. By using two English pronunciation dictionaries and

questionnaire responses, the researcher elaborates the findings.

1. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -eous Suffix

Under this category were twenty words ending in -eous suffix. Students had

to pronounce each of them. The words included advantageous, consanguineous,

contemporaneous, courageous, courteous, disadvantageous, discourteous,


48

erroneous, extemporaneous, extraneous, gorgeous, heterogeneous, homogeneous,

instantaneous, miscellaneous, outrageous, righteous, sanguineous, spontaneous,

and unrighteous.

The first word to appear in the list of this suffix is advantageous

[ˌæd.vənˈteɪ.dʒəs, -vɑːnˈ-, -vænˈ-, US -vænˈ-, -vənˈ-]. Many students

mispronounced it as advantages because they substituted the diphthong /eɪ/ in the

third syllable with /e/ or /ɪ/ and because they stressed the second syllable instead of

the third one, as in adˈvantages. Some even substituted the diphthong /eɪ/ with a

long vowel /i:/. Few students, although they stressed the word properly, substituted

the first vowel /æ/ with /ʌ/ and consonant /v/ with /f/. Only 24 correct

pronunciations were present. This is something that Kenworthy (1987) underlines,

stating that learners need to develop awareness of recognizing the appropriate stress

to avoid misinterpretations as what happened in this research.

The word consanguineous [ˌkɒn.sæŋˈɡwɪn.i.əs, US ˌkɑːn.sæŋˈ-] was

mispronounced more frequently, since there were vowel variations such as /ə/ in

the first syllable and /e/ or /ʌ/ in the second syllable. Syllable shortening was the

most frequent case since the fourth and fifth syllables were joined by the students.

This is due to the fact that the word was unfamiliar to them. Therefore they

speculated how to pronounce it. The last syllable varied from /-nəs/, /-njəs/ to /niəs/.

Thirty-one students misplaced the stress by placing it on the second syllable where

it should have been on the third one, whereas only six students were able to

pronounce it the right way.


49

In the word contemporaneous [kənˌtem.pᵊrˈeɪ.ni.əs, kɒn- ˌkɒn.tem-, US kən]

were three dominant stress placements students showed. These were the fourth, the

third, and the second-syllable stresses. Although the majority was of the fourth

syllable, most of the words pronounced underwent syllable shortening, making

contemporaneous sound [kɒn.tem.poˈreː.nəs]. The stress should have been

antepenultimate because originally, the word has six syllables. Although 53

students stressed the fourth syllables, only nine students pronounced it correctly.

The problem with misplacing stress remained when students had to pronounce the

word courageous that should have been penultimately stressed. The correct

pronunciation is [kəˈreɪ.dʒəs].

Instead of stressing the penultimate syllable, 29 students stressed the

antepenultimate syllable so that the word sounded as if it were courages. Little did

these students realize that stressing the first syllable would change the part of

speech. Dardjowidjojo (2009) shows how affixation can shift the stress and how

different stress can convey different lexical categories (pp. 164–166). In addition to

students’ misplacing the stress, pronouncing incorrect vowels and consonants

remained a problem for most students because only 21 students pronounced

courageous correctly. There were frequent /kɑː-/ and /koʊ-/ in the first syllable and

/-re-/ in the second syllable.

Three students pronounced the word courteous [ˈkɜː.ti.əs, US ˈkɝː.t̬i-]

correctly aside from the fact that this word was troublesome for the other 91

students. Two students skipped the word. The most prevalent mispronunciations

were [ˈkɔːr.tʃəs], [ˈkɔːr.təs], and [ˈkɔːr.te.ʊs]. As many as 78 students stressed it


50

correctly whereas fifteen students stressed the penultimate syllable and one student

stressed the last syllable. Students who stressed the penultimate syllable assumed

that every eous-suffixed word had its penultimate syllable stressed as in

advantageous and courageous. The number of students that pronounced it correctly

was only three.

The next word, disadvantageous, has several correct variations realized as

[ˌdɪsˌæd.vənˈteɪ.dʒəs, -əd-, -vɑːnˈ-, -vænˈ- dɪˌsæd-, US ˌdɪsˌæd.vænˈ-, -vənˈ-].

Most students in this research had a hard time pronouncing the English consonant

/v/ since only twenty-six students managed to pronounce disadvantageous

correctly. The other twenty-six, who also stressed the word correctly, failed to

articulate vowels and/or consonants, hence they pronounced [ˌdɪs.ed.fenˈteɪ. dʒəs],

[ˌdɪs.æd.fənˈtiː.dʒəs], or [ˌdɪs.æd.fɑːnˈte.dʒəs].

Students who pronounced courteous correctly managed to pronounce

discourteous appropriately. The correct pronunciations of discourteous are

[dɪˈskɜː.ti.əs, US -ˈskɝː.t̬i-]. In total, only three correct pronunciations prevailed

because as previously proven, some students stressed the penultimate syllable as in

discourˈteous. In addition, one student skipped this word. However, there was a

slight increase from seventy-eight to eighty-three correct stress placement.

Common mistakes included a syllable shortening in the third and the fourth

syllables and also a vowel substitution such as /ɔː/ for /ɜː/ in the second syllable.

Diphthong substitution appeared in the next word, erroneous in which many

students substituted the diphthong /əʊ/ or /oʊ/ for /ɔː/, /o/, /ə/ or even /ɑː/ in the


51

second syllable. The appropriate pronunciations are [ɪˈrəʊ.ni.əs, erˈəʊ-, US əˈroʊ-,

erˈoʊ-, ɪˈroʊ-]. The common mistakes in pronouncing the third syllable /-ni-/

included /ne-/, /-nəs/, /-njəs/, and /-niː-/. It means that syllable shortening mainly

coexisted with mispronunciations that included a vowel, a diphthong, or a

consonant substitution. Erroneous should have been pronounced antepenultimately

by stressing the second syllable. There were only nine correct pronunciations out

of seventy-two appropriate stresses. Thus, the other 63 students either shortened the

syllable; making the word penultimately stressed or they articulated it the wrong

way.

Some students who correctly articulated the word extemporaneous shortened

the syllables, making it sound extemporaness. The appropriate pronunciations of

this word are [ɪkˌstem.pəˈreɪ.ni.əs, ek- ˌek.stem-, US ɪkˌstem.pəˈ-, ek-]. Stress

placement was of little difficulty for 71 students as they stressed the fourth syllable.

However, only four students managed to stress and articulate it correctly. The most

common mistakes occurred in the third and the fourth syllables. Students tended to

pronounce /-po-/ in the third syllable and /re-/, /-ræ-/, /-riː-/, or /-rʌ-/ in the fourth

syllable. Another common mispronunciation of extemporaneous included /-ne-/ in

the fifth syllable and /-ʊs-/ in the last syllable.

The subtle problem that still happened in the word courteous, namely

stressing the penultimate syllable, reoccurred in the word extraneous. Its correct

pronunciation variations are [ɪkˈstreɪ.ni.əs, ek-]. Nineteen students stressed the

penultimate syllable of extraneous. As what has been suggested by Burzio (1996),

the final syllable containing a semi vowel or a null vowel can attract stress if it is


52

added with -eous suffix (pp. 288-289). That is why the stress of extraneous is

antepenultimate. However, most students who stressed it correctly mispronounced

three syllables, hereby pronouncing it [ɪkˈstrɑː.ne.ʊs]. Syllable shortening remained

common since some students pronounced it [ekˈstrɑː.nəs]. In total, two correct

pronunciations were available out of 66 correct stress placements.

Among other words under -eous category, gorgeous [ˈɡɔː.dʒəs, US ˈɡɔːr-],

was the easiest word to pronounce since there were 35 accurate pronunciations.

Ninety-three students stressed it appropriately while the other three stressed the

second syllable. Common mistakes included the replacement of consonant /g/ with

/ʤ/ in the first syllable. In contrast to the previous words that had been shortened,

this word underwent a syllable extension by having its second syllable divided into

two more syllables, namely /-ʤɪ-/ and /-ʊs-/.

Compared to gorgeous, the word heterogeneous was one of the most

problematic words under -eous category because there were cases where students

did not articulate the third syllable, hence only pronounced /-ro-/ instead of /-roʊ-/

or /-rəʊ-/. Heteregeneous should have been pronounced as [ˌhet.ər.əʊˈdʒiː.ni.əs, US

ˌhet̬.ə.roʊˈ-, -ɚ.əˈ-]. The correct pronunciations and the correct stresses were four

to sixty-four in comparison. The most apparent problem was vowel replacement,

from /ə/ to /ʊ/ in the last syllable. In addition, one student pronounced

heteronegeneous and stressed the fifth syllable of that word. It seemed that most

students were not aware of how English pronunciation worked since they tended to

pronounce the way they pronounce Indonesian words, i.e. pronouncing the same

way according to its spelling.


53

Indonesian way of pronouncing English words remained obvious in the next

word, homogeneous. Its correct pronunciations are [ˌhɒm.əˈdʒiː.ni.əs, ̩ həʊ.mə-, US

ˌhoʊ.moʊˈdʒiː-, ˌhɑː-, -məˈ-]. Most students pronounced the first syllable /ho-/, the

second syllable /-mo-/, the third syllable /-dʒə-/ or /-gen-/. This happened because

they did not know how to articulate English sounds appropriately. From seventy

appropriate stresses, only two correct pronunciations were found. This phenomenon

was due to inaccurate articulation of English sounds or a syllable shortening, as

many students shortened the last two syllables into /-njəs/, /-nʊs/ or other variations.

An interesting phenomenon occurred when students pronounced the word

instantaneous [ˌɪnt.stənˈteɪ.ni.əs], as there were three evenly distributed stress

placements. The number of students who stressed the second or the third syllable

was equal: thirty-three students for each one. The least favored stress placement

was the fourth syllable, containing only twenty-nine responses. This means that

instantaneous was the least familiar word since the number of stresses assigned for

the second, the third, and the fourth syllables was of proximity. Common errors

besides wrong stress placement included syllable shortening and inaccurate

articulation. One of the errors was putting a consonant /j/ after a consonant /n/ in

the last syllable, which of course, sounded unnatural in English. The reason for this

was that students knew little about how a syllable is phonologically constructed.

As stated by Katamba (1996), determining how to arrange phonemes

depends on the phonotactic rules. These rules govern the way each phoneme is

arranged to become a syllable or a word. In relation to this matter, most students

were unaware that they violated the rules by pronouncing the words the Indonesian


54

way, especially the word miscellaneous. Its correct pronunciations are realized as

[ˌmɪs.əlˈeɪ.ni.əs, -ɪˈleɪ-]. Some of the students still shortened the last syllable and

pronounced /-njəs/. This form was impermissible since the phoneme /j/ should not

have been preceded by a phoneme /n/. Twenty-one disyllabic stresses proved that

students were unaware of the antepenultimate stress in four or more syllables. Fifty-

three students stressed the third syllable, but many students shortened the syllable

all the same and made it a penultimate stress instead of an antepenultimate one. The

number of students who pronounced accurately was only six. The third syllable was

often mispronounced as /-le-/.

For outrageous, /ɔːt-/ and /ot-/ were the common syllabic errors found in the

first syllable. Errors like /-ræ-/ and /-re-/ were found in the second syllable. Many

students extended the last syllable by adding /-əs/ or /-ʊs/ after the syllable /-dʒi-/

or /-dʒe-/. Fifteen students stressed ultimately while 27 students stressed

antepenultimately. Since there was a syllable extension, the appropriate stress that

should have been penultimate became antepenultimate. As a result, only nine

students managed to pronounce it correctly with appropriate stress. The correct

pronunciation is [ˌaʊtˈreɪ.dʒəs].

The word righteous can be disyllabic or trisyllabic and both have exactly the

same meaning and stress. The appropriate pronunciations for this word are

[ˈraɪ.tʃəs, -ti.əs, US -tʃəs]. The stress itself always falls on the first syllable, which

means that if the speaker prefers the trisyllabic word, the stress is antepenultimate

but it will be penultimate if the speaker prefers the disyllabic version. In this

research, [ˈraɪk.təs], [ˈraɪk.tʃəs], and [ˈraɪ.toʊs] were the common disyllabic


55

mispronunciations. For the third-syllable version, [ˈre.ti.əs] and [ˈraɪk.te.ʊs] were

the common mispronunciations. Only six correct third-syllable pronunciations

prevailed among the entire 31 third-syllable pronunciations. Errors included wrong

stress and articulation. There were two anomalies happening when one student

mistakenly added one more syllable from the previous trisyllabic version so that the

student made it sound as [ˈraɪ.tɪ.tɪ.əs]. Another mistake was when another student

pronounced rightness, a noun. The total correct pronunciations were seventeen and

there were eleven correct disyllabic pronunciations. Overall, the number of correct

stress was seventy-five.

Two students skipped sanguineous [sæŋˈɡwɪn.i.əs] so that there were only

94 respondents pronouncing it. Similar to consanguineous, this word had various

mispronunciations. In total, 41 students pronounced it as a four-syllable word while

53 others pronounced it as a trisyllabic word sounding as consanguiness, for the

most part. What should have been a correct stress became a less accurate stress

since there were only 24 correct stresses out of 57 disyllabic stresses. This

reoccurring phenomenon happened because students knew little about the nature of

-eous suffix. When -eous is added to Latinate bases, it lengthens the syllable as in

courteous. Interestingly, mispronunciations such as [seŋˈjʊ.ɪ.nəs], [sæŋ.ʤɪnˈiː.əs],

[sʌŋˈgʊɪ.nəs.əs], and [sʌŋˈgen.ʊ.əs] showed that this word had not been stored in

students’ mental dictionary, which forced them to guess without recognizing its

morphology.

Trisyllabic pronunciations were still common among students as found in the

mispronunciations of spontaneous. Hardly did the students manage to pronounce it


56

correctly since there were 89 mispronunciations out of 94 total pronunciations. Two

students opted out of pronouncing spontaneous. A five-syllable version of the word

spontaneous prevailed among three students who pronounced it. This was due to

the lack of speed when pronouncing the first syllable, which influenced the syllable

division. Thus, instead of /spɒn-/, they pronounced /sə.pɒn-/. Other irregular

mispronunciations such as spontanuous – [spɒnˈte.nʊ.əs] and spontanuiness –

[ˈsponˈteˈnjʊi.nəs] also existed. By way of comparison, the number of penultimate

stress was 31 while antepenultimate stress was 42. Spontaneous should have been

pronounced as [spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs, spən-, US spɑːn-].

What seemed to be a simple and pronounceable word, namely unrighteous,

troubled a few students since there were mispronunciations such as outrightness,

unrightneous, uprightious, etrytess, unrightness, unrigtenous, at right news, even

righteous. The aforementioned mispronunciations were what made the word

unrighteous a problematic word. The correct pronunciations are [ʌnˈraɪ.tʃəs, -ti.əs,

US -tʃəs]. It is very clear that there is only one way to pronounce the prefix un- and

that is /ʌn/. As Giegerich (1992) proposes, affixes and roots affect the stress

placement. Had students known about the way these two parts were connected, they

would have been able to tackle their doubts about pronouncing unrighteous. Sixteen

accurate pronunciations consisted of eight trisyllabic versions and eight four-

syllable versions. Most mispronunciations, whether of trisyllabic or four-syllable

version, occurred due to students’ inaccurate articulation and wrong stress

placement.


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2. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ic Suffix

The -ic suffix category was the most problematic suffix among all other three

suffixes in this research. This category covered 20 words in the oral test. These

included academic, alcoholic, artistic, basic, chronic, classic, democratic,

domestic, economic, enthusiastic, genetic, graphic, historic, iconic, idiomatic,

magnetic, narcissistic, phonemic, problematic, and systematic.

Very common were wrong stress placements for most words. For instance,

in the word academic, the stress should have been penultimate but 43 students

stressed antepenultimately. Therefore, the correct pronunciation is [ˌæk.əˈdem.ɪk].

Those who stressed antepenultimately thought that the word retained the stress from

its base, namely academy. As ELESP final year students, they should have taken

into account the derivation that shifts the stress. Fifty accurate stresses did not

guarantee accurate pronunciations, for many mispronunciations included

[ək.eˈdeɪm.ɪk], [ek.eˈdem.ɪk] or [æk.æˈdem.ɪk]. There were fourteen correct

pronunciations for this word.

Just as nearly half of the students misplaced the stress in academic, 53

students did the same thing while stressing alcoholic since they stressed the

antepenult. Many of the errors involved inaccurate articulation of the first, the

second, and the third syllable. Thus, mispronunciations such as /al-/, /-kɔː-/, and

/hoʊ-/ were apparent for the first, the second and the third syllable respectively.

Among 35 penultimate stresses, only 12 were correct. The correct pronunciations

of alcoholic are [ˌæl.kəˈhɒl.ɪk, US -ˈhɑː.lɪk].


58

Antepenultimate stresses outnumbered penultimate stresses in the third word

under the -ic suffix category, namely artistic [ɑːˈtɪs.tɪk, US ɑːr-]. In comparison,

the number of antepenultimate stress was 49 while penultimate stress was only 47.

Students thought that it had the same stress as its original base, artist, in which its

first syllable was stressed. Since artistic is the non-deverbal adjective formed by

derivation, the stress shifts to the second syllable. Indonesian way of pronouncing

the first syllable remained obvious since there were some students who pronounced

/ar-/ instead of /ɑːr-/. Second syllable mispronunciations included the use of a long

/iː/ instead of an /ɪ/. Also common was a vowel reduction in the first syllable as seen

in the use of a schwa /ə/ that should have been replaced by a full vowel /ɑː/. Despite

previous facts, 37 students succeeded in pronouncing artistic accurately.

No matter how simple the word basic seemed to students, it was surprisingly

taken far too lightly because of some subtle errors such as the use of a vowel /e/,

/æ/ or /ʌ/ in the first syllable. The base from which basic is derived is base [beɪs].

Students reduced the vowel quality of the first syllable as they knew little about the

nature of relational suffixes that do not reduce the vowel quality. Among 95

students who stressed penultimately, one student stressed ultimately. Students who

pronounced it correctly were only 14 in numbers. They managed to pronounce it as

[ˈbeɪ.sɪk], the correct pronunciation.

The easiest word to pronounce under the -ic suffix category was chronic

because it had the most correct pronunciations – 80 pronunciations out of total 96

pronunciations. The correct pronunciations are [ˈkrɒn.ɪk, US ˈkrɑː.nɪk]. There was

no mistake in the stress placement since all students stressed it correctly. Even


59

though this was the case, there were apparent pronunciation errors – most of which

were first syllable mispronunciations. These involved the use of vowels /ɔː/, /ɔ/, a

silent vowel /ᵊ/ preceding /r/, a consonant /h/ replacing /k/, even a diphthong /oʊ/.

A second syllable error included the replacement of vowel /ɪ/ with /i/.

The second most accurate pronunciation under the -ic suffix category was

classic [ˈklæs.ɪk] since there were 69 correct pronunciations. All students stressed

it appropriately although many of them mispronounced the first syllable as /kles-/,

/klɑːs-/, /klʌs-/, /klæʃ-/, /klɒs-/, /kleɪʃ-/, or /klæz-/. Such mispronunciations were

caused by students’ unawareness of preserving the vowel quality. Both chronic and

classic are of Latinate origin that had been attested from Greek, as are many ic-

suffixed English words. Miller (2006) and Plag (2003) confirm that -ic suffix is a

suffix that forms adjectives from non-adjectival bases.

The most intriguing phenomenon in the word democratic [ˌdem.əˈkræt.ɪk,

US -ˈkræt̬-] was the disyllabic stress placement, as done by 67 students. A

trisyllabic stress placement was common among 28 students, while a first-syllabe

stress placement was normal for one student. Most students tended to use an

Indonesian vowel /o/ to replace an English vowel /ə/ in the second syllable. This

proves that most students knew little about when to maintain the vowel quality. A

vowel reduction can occur if the syllable in which the vowel resides is not stressed

(Crosswhite, 2004: 191). Since the stress is on the third syllable, the second syllable

does not maintain a vowel quality and is replaced by a schwa. It seemed that many

students were confused about this concept since the third syllable of democratic, on

the other hand, underwent a vowel reduction, which should have not. That is due to


60

the fact that in the word democratic, the third syllable is a heavy syllable and a

heavy syllable should bear primary stress. This means that the syllable has to

maintain its vowel quality. Other unique phenomena included the pronunciations /-

tret-/ and /krəst-/ in the second syllable and /-θɪk/ in the last syllable.

Errors in maintaining the vowel quality also occurred in most pronunciations

of domestic since 32 students stressed the first syllable, which should have been left

unstressed. This improper stressing made its vowel tense. Some of the tense vowels,

which should have occurred in open syllables, included /oː/, /ʌ/, /o/ and /ɔ/.

However, many students who stressed it correctly also used a tense vowel in the

first syllable and that was why the researcher found only 28 accurate pronunciations

of domestic among 64 penultimate stresses. Common mispronunciations of the

second syllable included the use of a vowel /ɪ/ or /o/ to replace /e/. The correct

pronunciation of domestic is [dəˈmes.tɪk].

While one student stressed the first syllable of the word economic, 66

students stressed the second syllable so that it received the most stresses among the

other syllables. In other words, 29 students stressed it appropriately although only

24 of them pronounced it correctly. The correct pronunciations included

[ˌiː.kəˈnɒm.ɪk, ˌek.əˈ-, US -ˈnɑː.mɪk]. A diphthong /eɪ/ was prevalent in the first

syllable, where it should have been a tense vowel /iː/. Most students preferred to

use an /e/ instead of an /iː/ and this was permissible. An apparent mistake in

pronouncing this word was the use of vowels such as /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /o/, /əː/, or /oʊ/ to

substitute the schwa in the second syllable, which should have been unstressed.

Those who mistakenly substituted the vowel also stressed the antepenultimate


61

syllable. Indonesian way of pronouncing English sounds still prevailed as there

were variations of the third syllable that included /-nəm-/, /-naʊm-/, and /-nom-/.

By Indonesian way of pronouncing, the researcher meant students’ inability to

produce appropriate English sounds.

To compare with, there were more inaccurate vowel articulation in the word

enthusiastic [ɪnˌθjuː.ziˈæs.tɪk, en-, -ˌθuː-, US enˌθuː-, ɪn-, -ˌθjuː-]. Most students

could not address this issue since they kept pronouncing it their own way, which

resulted in incorrect pronunciation. For example, pronunciations such as

[en.tʊ.siˈɑːs.tɪk], [en.tʊsˈæs.tɪk], and [en.θuː.seˈes.tɪk] were normal for them.

Penultimate stress was the highest in rank since 69 students stressed penultimately

although evidence suggested that there were some who shortened the syllable as in

[en.tʊsˈæs.tɪk]. In this case, the syllable shortening did not affect the stress but it

affected students’ intelligibility. Disyllabic stress ranked second since 20 students

preferred it. Students who did this might have gotten the impression that the stress

should have been the same as enthusiast, which is on the second syllable. To the

other six students, enthusiastic was unfamiliar, as they stressed the third syllable.

Surprisingly, 77 students stressed the antepenultimate syllable of the word

genetic [dʒəˈnet.ɪk, dʒɪ-, US -ˈnet̬.ɪk]. It was caused by the effect the word gene has

– there is no stress so that the stress is automatically assigned to such monosyllabic

word. Katamba (1996) points out, a monosyllabic word receives its stress on the

first and only syllable (p. 234). It is safe to conclude that genetic should not be

stressed antepenultimately. Eighteen correct pronunciations emerged as the other


62

ones failed to show students’ intelligibility. Common mistakes included the

syllables /dʒe-/ or /dʒiː-/ to replace the original /dʒə-/ and /-nət-/ to replace /-net-/.

The correct pronunciation of the next word, graphic, is realized as [ˈɡræf.ɪk].

An awkward stress placement for the word graphic occurred once. One student

stressed the last syllable and thus it sounded [grefˈɪk]. Another awkward result in

pronouncing graphic involved the variations of the first syllable, to wit: /græpʰ-/,

/gref-/, /grep-/, /grʌp-/, /grɑːf-/, /grʌf-/, and /gᵊrʌp-/. Again, this was similar to the

aforementioned finding of the pronunciation of economic – most students

articulated the first syllable according to how it was written in English.

The same antepenultimate stress placement for ic-suffixed words remained

apparent when 76 students stressed the antepenultimate syllable of historic. Had the

word been history, this antepenultimate stress would have been correct. It was

highly likely that the word history was very familiar to students who stressed

antepenultimately because these students did not shift the stress although they knew

that history and historic were different. From 20 correct stresses, there emerged 20

accurate pronunciations. Up to this point, students who performed well during the

last few words managed to pronounce historic accurately. One student actually

mispronounced it as history. There were three mispronunciations of the penultimate

syllable, namely /stər/, /stʊr/, and /stᵊr/. The appropriate pronunciations of historic

are [hɪˈstɒr.ɪk, US hɪˈstɔːr.ɪk].

Fourteen students who pronounced historic accurately also pronounced

iconic [aɪˈkɒn.ɪk, US -ˈkɑː.nɪk] accurately. In total, there were 28 accurate stresses


63

and 68 inaccurate stresses. Ironically, one student mispronounced it as ironic

[ˈaɪ.rɔn.ɪk] with an inappropriate stress and an inappropriate phoneme. Variations

in the first and the second syllable included /i-/ and /ɪ-/ and /-kon-/, /-kən-/, and

rounded /-kən-/. Students’ familiarity with the base, icon, caused them to stress

iconic antepenultimately.

The word stress of the word idiom is always antepenultimate but if it is

supplemented with -ic suffix, the stress becomes penultimate. Thus, idiomatic is

realized as [ˌɪd.i.əʊˈmæt.ɪk, US -əˈmæt̬-]. However, 38 students in this research

stressed the antepenultimate syllable of idiomatic, which was incorrect. Five

students stressed the first syllable while the other four stressed the second syllable.

The fact that there were only twelve accurate pronunciations from 49 appropriate

stresses showed that inaccurate articulation of English sounds remained a problem

for most students. The third and fourth syllables were the commonly

mispronounced syllables since in the third syllable there were variations that

included /-o-/, /-ɒ-/, and /-oʊ-/ while in the fourth syllable there were /-met/, /-mɑːt/,

and /-məθ-/. Another interesting fact was the use of a diphthong /aɪ/ in the first

syllable, which indicated that some students tried to spell the alphabet instead of

realizing it as a part of a word. One student pronounced idiomatic as [ˌɪd.əˈmæt.ɪk].

Most of the students in this research (77 students) stressed the

antepenultimate syllable of the word magnetic. They did not realize that the word

had been suffixed. Thus, they should have stressed penultimately. It was due to the

impression that magnet and magnetic had the same stress. In fact, they did not. The

word magnet has its first syllable stressed [ˈmæɡ.nət, -nɪt] while magnetic has its


64

second syllable stressed [mæɡˈnet.ɪk, məɡ-, US mæɡˈnet̬-]. Since there were four

correct pronunciations from 18 appropriate stresses, it means that most students

stressed inappropriately and/or mispronounced the word. The researcher found out

/meg-/, /mek-/, /mʌg-/, /mʌk-/, /mæ-/, /mæʰk-/, /mah-/, /meh/, and /maɪk-/ as the

variations of the first syllable. It was obvious that pronouncing the vowel /æ/ was

difficult for most students, which led them to merely guess. As a result, they

substituted it with another phoneme. In the second syllable, there were also

variations that included /-nət-/, /-neθ-/ and /-nek-/ although only the first one that

appeared more frequently than the other two. One student stressed the last syllable.

Narcissistic [ˌnɑː.sɪˈsɪs.tɪk, US ̩ nɑːr-] was perhaps the only word that caused

the students to slip their tongue incidentally, which resulted in mispronunciations.

This also caused them to shorten the word, making it trisyllabic. For instance, the

pronunciation [ˈnɑːr.sɪs.tɪk] was very common besides other unique variations such

as [nɑːrˈcɪs.tɪk] and [nɑːrˈsiːsɪs.tɪk]. The base of the word, namely narcissist,

requires that its first syllable be stressed. While that may hold true, if it is

narcissistic, it should be stressed penultimately because of the effect suffix -ic has.

Nineteen students stressed the first syllable while 58 others stressed the second

syllable. Among those 19 students who stressed the first syllable, 18 students

shortened the word so that it became a trisyllabic word. In addition, 23 students

who were part of the 58 students shortened the syllable and technically, stressed

penultimately. However, this penultimate stress was incorrect since the word was

shortened. Sixteen accurate pronunciations prevailed among nineteen appropriate

stresses.


65

While narcissistic received only sixteen accurate pronunciations, phonemic

[fəʊˈniː.mɪk, US foʊ-, fə-] received no correct pronunciation. This was due to

students’ inability to recognize the base quite well, namely phoneme. In Phonetics

& Phonology subject, students were required to go over some terms related to

phonetics and phonology; one of them was phonemic. Had the students cared more,

they would have been able to determine the appropriate diphthong in the first

syllable, to wit: /əʊ/, /oʊ/, or /ə/. Instead of those, students mispronounced it as /fɑː-

/, /fo-/, /fɔ-/, /pʰɒ-/, /pæ-/, /pʰo-/, /no-/ or /pə-/ for the first syllable. Phonetic,

phenomenic, and nomenic were the most awkward mispronunciations since the

word phonemic should have been quite readable for final-year students. Errors in

the second syllable included, but not limited to /-nəm-/ and /-nem-/. Even though

the number of correct stress was 25, none managed to pronounce it accurately. The

total of the first-syllable stress was 71.

In the word problematic, 21 correct pronunciations emerged among 45

penultimate stresses. The other 24 pronunciations were actually mispronunciations,

as there were many examples of /-met-/ in the third syllable. The primary cause of

students’ inaccuracy was the way they pronounced the third syllable, as there were

instances where they pronounced it as /-met-/, /-mət-/, /-mɑːt-/, /-mek-/, /-məθ-/, or

/-mʌt-/. In regard to these instances, the antepenultimate stress also occurred 40

times. Forty students who misplaced the stress also mispronounced the word, and

the other eleven students did the same by placing the stress on the first syllable. Not

only the third, but also the first syllable was mispronounced as /-pro-/. The cause

was, the vowel /ɒ/, which was difficult to pronounce for many EFL learners, was


66

substituted with the Indonesian vowel /o/, which resembled it. Based on CEPD

(2011), the pronunciation variations are [ˌprɒb.ləˈmæt.ɪk, -lɪˈ-, -lemˈæt-, US

ˌprɑː.bləˈmæt̬-].

Equally interesting was the fact that the word systematic received 15 initial

stresses, 38 antepenultimate stresses, and 43 penultimate stresses. In numbers, there

were only 25 correct pronunciations realized as [ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪk, -tɪˈ-, US -təˈmæt̬-]

from 43 pronunciations with an appropriate stress. This shows that the other 18

students were unaware of their poor articulation. Moreover, those who stressed

inappropriately also articulated the word poorly since there were instances where

they pronounced the penultimate syllable as /-met-/, /-mʌt-/, /-məθ-/, /-mæθ-/, /-

meə-/, and even /-mɪk/. One can see that the vowel /æ/ still remained a challenging

vowel to pronounce for most students in this research. It was so challenging that

one student completely misread and therefore mispronounced it as [ˈsɪs.tə.mɪk].

Many students who had a difficult time stressing the words under -eous

category also had the same problem when stressing the words under -ic category.

Three of these students, who in response to the questionnaire chose to believe that

English suffixes -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion shift the stress, affirmed that they still

found difficulties in stressing. Since the researcher did not allow test takers to check

the dictionary during the test, they relied on the information stored in their lexicon.


67

3. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ity Suffix

From this point onward, two students withdrew from the oral test because

they simply did not realize that the test items were divided into four suffixes.

Twenty ity-suffixed words appeared in the oral test. These words were activity,

authority, capability, clarity, community, divinity, equality, fraternity, gravity,

humanity, infinity, maturity, necessity, originality, penalty, reality, royalty,

simplicity, sustainability, and unity.

The problem that still persisted until this point was the substitution of the

vowel /æ/ with /e/ in many examples of ity-suffixed words, as was the case in the

word activity [ækˈtɪv.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i]. Besides, they were unable to articulate /ɪ/

properly so that they used /iː/ and/or /i/ instead, as seen in the mispronunciations of

the second and third syllables. Nineteen students pronounced it accurately while the

other 75 students mispronounced it and/or misplaced the stress. Nine students

stressed the first syllable whereas three students stressed the penultimate syllable.

One thing to note is that -ity suffix always places the stress antepenultimately. It

means to say that the other 82 students stressed activity appropriately although only

19 managed to pronounce it correctly. In addition, four students did not pronounce

the first syllable at all, thus making it sound [ˈtɪv.ə.t|i].

In the next word, authority, the researcher discovered that there was a

reoccurring mistake the students made, as in the use of /aʊ/ or /oʊ/ in the first

syllable instead of /ɔː/, /ɑː/ or /ə/. This case was very similar to the previous ones

where they pronounced it by mimicking the closest sound of their first language.


68

This Indonesian way of pronouncing did not stop here because the researcher found

out that many students, except the 19 students who pronounced it correctly, could

not pronounce the consonant /θ/. What many students did was unsurprising – they

used a consonant /t/ instead, to compensate what they could not pronounce.

Silencing the first syllable also occurred here, although the researcher discovered

only one instance. Most students, 89 in numbers, stressed authority appropriately,

while four students stressed the initial syllable. The correct pronunciations of

authority are [ɔːˈθɒr.ə.t|i, ə-, -ɪ.t|i, US əˈθɔːr.ə.t̬|i, ɑː-, ɔː-].

Stress was not a problem for most students, as proved by 72 of them when

they stressed capability [ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i]. This does not mean that

the word was readable because there was no correct pronunciation at all. The cause

was, students were unable to articulate capability properly. Among those who

stressed antepenultimately, none paid attention to what the word represented

phonologically. In a word, none was able to articulate the first syllable properly, as

it was mispronounced as /ke/ or /kæ/ most of the time. Three students misplaced the

stress by assigning it to the fourth syllable; three others assigned the stress to the

first syllable while 15 others stressed the second syllable. Other poor

mispronunciations included [kæˈbəl.ɪ.ti], [ke.bɪl.iː.ti], and even [kəˈpæs.ə.ti], which

was realized as capacity.

In contrast to capability, the word clarity received 63 correct pronunciations

– the highest among all words under the -ity suffix category. Students managed to

pronounced it correctly as [ˈklær.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US ˈkler.ə.t̬i, ˈklær-]. The number of the

antepenultimate stress was 91, while the number of the penultimate and the ultimate


69

stress was two and one respectively. Mispronunciations were mostly on the first

syllable, where students pronounced /klɑːr-/, /klɒr-/, /klʌr-/, or /kleːr-/. One student

mistakenly muffled the penultimate syllable; as a result, [ˈkler.ti] existed. In

addition, several minor mistakes occurred in the second syllable, in which students

replaced the /ə/ with the /i/ or with the silent schwa /ᵊ/.

The second highest in number in terms of correct pronunciation was

community [kəˈmjuː.nə.t|i, -nɪ-, US -nə.t̬|i], in which 62 students succeeded in

pronouncing it accurately. Stress placement was not a big issue since 86 students

stressed appropriately while seven others stressed penultimately and one student

stressed the initial syllable. Minor articulation mistakes included the use of vowel

/ɒ/ or /ɔ/ in the first syllable and /ʊ/ or /j/ insertion in the second syllable. The

penultimate syllable also had its vowel replaced with /i/ in some recordings. Thus,

mispronunciations such as [kɒˈmjə.nə.ti], [kɔˈmjuː.ni.ti], and [kəˈmʊ.ni.ti] were

common among 32 students.

A major difference in quality surfaced when only eight students succeeded

in pronouncing divinity [dɪˈvɪn.ə.t|i, də-, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i]. The number of correct

pronunciation compared to community, was much lesser. This happened due to the

change of vowel quality in which there was a tense diphthong /aɪ/ in the

antepenultimate syllable of divinity. Compared to the word divine in which its

ultimate syllable is of a tense vowel, divinity has a less tense vowel, namely /ɪ/, a

vowel that occurs in the mid position. Most students pronounced [dɪˈfaɪn.nɪ.ti],

substituting consonant /v/ with /f/. They did this because they were unable to

articulate a voiced consonant /v/ and instead, replaced it with an Indonesian /v/ that


70

was voiceless and was similar to English /f/. Other common mispronunciations

included [daɪˈfɪn.ni.ti] and [dɪˈvaɪn.nɪ.ti]. Eighty-six students stressed the

antepenultimate syllable while three others each stressed the first and penultimate

syllable.

Pronouncing equality was rather problematic for most students since there

were only 29 of them who pronounced it accurately. Many mistakes such as stress

misplacement, syllable shortening, syllable extension, and of course,

mispronunciation of English sounds occurred. For example, four students stressed

antepenultimately but with a separation of the second syllable. Thus, they made it

into a five-syllable word [i.kʊˈɑː.li.ti]. Another syllabic problem that occurred was

silencing the penultimate syllable done by three students. It was as if it had been

written as equalty, without the letter i. Clearly, equality is very different in spelling

and pronunciation from quality but one student did not articulate the first syllable

so that the word became [ˈkwɑː.lə.ti].

Since there were 88 appropriate stresses of equality – from which there were

seven invalid stresses due to syllabic problems mentioned earlier, one can infer that

the remaining 81 students knew about the stress shift. Equality’s base is none other

than equal, which has a penultimate stress. There is a change of vowel quality in

equality where the first syllable has an /i/ instead of an /iː/ although some speakers

would still prefer to maintain the /iː/. Equality should have been pronounced

[iˈkwɒl.ə.t|i, iː-, -ɪ.t|i, US -ˈkwɑː.lə.t̬|i, -ˈkwɔː-]. In normal conditions, according to

Roach (1998), stress falls on syllables having the most distinctive vowel quality (p.

86). That is why the antepenultimate syllable of equality bears the primary stress.


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What most students could not pronounce was the antepenultimate syllable, as there

were several common variations of it such as /-kwæ-/, /-kwəl-/, /-kʊal-/, /-kɒl-/,

/kjʊa-/, /-kwel-/, /kʊɑː-/, and /-kʊəl-/.

The word fraternity [frəˈtɜː.nə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ˈtɝː.nə.t̬|i] is of Latinate origin.

Therefore, the base does not exist in English. However, one can assure that

fraternity is a suffixed word because its root is fraternus, which means ‘fraternal’

(Miller, 2006: 30). As with the previous articulation problem, fraternity was

pronounced based on its spelling. Almost all students were unaware of its

phonological element. Consequently, they did not pronounce the first syllable as

/frə-/. Instead, most students mispronounced it as /frʌ-/, /fre-/, or /fræ-/ and some of

them mispronounced the second syllable mostly as /-tər-/ or /-tʃər-/. The number of

first-syllable and penultimate stress was five and eight respectively, while the

antepenultimate stress was 79 in total – although one student silenced the first

syllable when stressing the antepenultimate syllable. Against all odds, one student

pronounced this word successfully with the appropriate stress.

Students had a hard time pronouncing the initial syllable that consisted of a

vowel /æ/ because only ten accurate pronunciations prevailed among 91 appropriate

stresses in gravity [ˈɡræv.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i]. In Indonesian, there is no difference in

how /a/ and /æ/ sound because they all represent the same vowel. Almost all

students mispronounced the antepenultimate syllable as /grev-/, /gref-/ or /græf-/.

Again, another problem that persisted was the improper articulation of /v/, which

most students regarded as a voiceless consonant. Two students stressed the

penultimate syllable so that it sounded like graffiti [grəˈfiː.ti].


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Like what happened before, students misarticulated the first syllable of

humanity since they merely pronounced it according to how it was spelled, which

was realized as [hʊ]. Some even muffled the /h/ and replaced it with /j/ so that

[juːˈmæn.ə.ti] was somewhat common. Poldauf (1984) regards this as the exception

in which an unstressed syllable maintains its vowel quality (p. 15). The

antepenultimate syllable had 85 students stressing it, even though most of them

mispronounced it as /-men-/ or /-mən-/. The penultimate syllable had six students

stressing it while the other three stressed initially. Students should have pronounced

it [hjuːˈmæn.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i].

So far, students who managed to stress correctly continued to do so when

they encountered the word infinity [ɪnˈfɪn.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i]. The number of the

antepenultimate stress was 88, while the initial and the penultimate syllable gained

three responses each. Among these 88 students, 57 students pronounced it properly

although one student under this category muffled the initial syllable so that it

sounded [ˈfɪn.ɪ.ti]. The base is infinite, which has less than five pronunciations

depending on the preference of the speaker. One of the pronunciations of infinite as

a noun – church music, is realized as [ˈɪn.faɪ.naɪt] but infinity does not use /-faɪ-/ in

the second syllable and is not connected to church music. Therefore, students who

articulated the second syllable as /-faɪ-/ were less aware that they were

mispronouncing. Other mispronunciations of the second syllable included /-fiːn-/,

/-vɪn-/, /-fen-/, which showed that many students mistakenly used /v/ to replace /f/.

This happened because students could not identify what appropriate sound


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belonged to the word. Besides, the researcher discovered that a few students

mispronounced the first syllable as /en-/.

The same problem also occurred in the word maturity since there were

variations of the initial syllable such as /me-/, /mʌ-/, /mæ-/ and even /tʃər-/. One can

see that there was /tʃər-/ as the initial syllable. This was the mispronunciation

uttered by one student, in which the student mispronounced maturity as

[tʃərˈtʃə.rə.ti]. Not only did some students mispronounce the initial syllable, they

also mispronounced the antepenultimate syllable, of which its phonemes were

substituted with /o/, /dʒ/, /e/, or /uː/. Originally, it should have been /tʃʊə/ for the

common British version or /tʊr/ for the common American version. A unique

mispronunciation prevailed among other mispronunciations. This unique

mispronunciation – [mʌ.tʃʊˈə.rə.ti] - involved both syllable extension and poor

articulation that resulted in a wrong stress placement. Twenty-three students

pronounced the word correctly although finding suggested that there were 89

antepenultimate stresses. Four students stressed the initial syllable while one

student who extended the syllable assigned the stress on the third syllable. Correct

pronunciation variations of maturity include [məˈtʃʊə.rə.ti, -ˈtʃɔː-, -ˈtjʊə-, -ˈtjɔː-, -

rɪ-, US -ˈtʊr.ə.t̬i, -ˈtjʊr-, -ˈtʃʊr-].

The next finding suggested that there were four distinctive

mispronunciations of necessity uttered by five students in total. These examples

included [ne.sərsˈʊr.i.ti], [nəˈtʃes.ɪ.ti], [neˈtʃəs.ti], and [nəˈseʃ.ɪ.ti]. These implied

that the second syllable was the syllable mostly mispronounced likely due to

students’ incautious way in reading and pronouncing necessity. Most students failed


74

to pronounce it correctly, as there were only seven accurate pronunciations. The

correct pronunciation variations of necessity include [nəˈses.ə.t|i, nɪ-, -ɪ.t|i, US

nəˈses.ə.t̬|i]. The initial and the penultimate syllables both received seven stresses

while the antepenultimate syllable received 80 stresses. Among these 80 stresses,

there was a penultimate stress due to syllable shortening.

Most but twenty-four students failed to pronounce originality

[əˌrɪdʒ.ənˈæl.ə.t|i, ɒrˌɪdʒ-, -ɪˈnæl-, -ɪ.t|i, US əˌrɪdʒ.ɪˈnæl.ə.t̬|i] accurately.

Technically, there were 73 antepenultimate stresses but three students shortened the

word into originalty. Thus, they stressed penultimately. The base of originality is

original, which has a penultimate stress. This instance affected three students since

they stressed the second syllable, namely /-rɪdʒ-/. The root itself is origin, where

the stress falls on the antepenult. This might have caused three other students to

stress the initial syllable. Six students stressed penultimately but this number

increased because there were three others who mistakenly shortened the syllable

and stressed penultimately. What surprised the researcher the most was the fact that

nine students stressed the third syllable.

It was quite a surprise when 44 students stressed penalty [ˈpen.əl.t|i]

penultimately. They should have stressed it antepenultimately like what 55 other

students did. However, among these 55 appropriate stresses, there were 16 correct

pronunciations. Most of their mistakes covered the mispronunciations of the

antepenult and the penult. These included a closed /e/ instead of an open /e/ in the

syllable /pen-/, which resulted in inaccuracy. Other variations of the first syllable

included /pɪn-/, /piːn-/, /paɪn-/, /pən-/, /peːn-/, and /fen-/ while the variations of the


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second syllable covered /-al-/, /-ɑːl-/, and /-el-/. One can see that there was /paɪn-/

version, which showed that students who pronounced it this way might have falsely

confused themselves with the word pine.

On the contrary, 40 students pronounced reality [riˈæl.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i]

correctly. This does not mean that reality was easy to pronounce. In fact, many

students failed to recognize its sounds and six students even pronounced it very

differently. These distinctive mispronunciations included [reˈɑːl.ti], [ˈre.ɑːl.ti] and

[ˈrɑːl.ɪ.ti]. One can infer that syllable recognition remained a problem for a few

students. However, almost all students (91 students) knew where to stress, except

those who stressed the first syllable or shortened the syllable. It is clear that these

91 students regarded the second syllable as heavy. Therefore, they stressed it. What

makes a syllable heavy is its high sonority, according to McMahon (2002) and

Kager (2007).

A seemingly easy and pronounceable word like royalty was in fact a

troublesome one for almost all students. Only eight among 48 students who stressed

antepenultimately succeeded in pronouncing it accurately. It means to say that 46

students misplaced the stress. The subtle error most students made was using /j/ to

replace /ɪ/ in the first syllable that read /rɔɪ/. The reason for this was the influence

of students’ natural response to the letter ‘y’, as what happened when most students

naturally inserted /j/ to connect /ɔ/ in the first syllable and /ə/ in the second syllable.

Some students who used /j/ sounded as if they read royal tea instead of royalty

because they articulated the letter ‘y’ very clearly. Two students even


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mispronounced it as [roˈjaːl.i.ti] and one student mispronounced it as [ˈrjɔl.ti]. The

appropriate pronunciation variations include [ˈrɔɪ.əl.t|i, ˈrɔɪəl-, US ˈrɔɪ.əl.t|i].

Among 85 antepenultimate stresses in simplicity, two students stressed the

penultimate syllable of simplicity since they shortened the syllable. Therefore, the

mispronunciation [sɪmˈplɪs.ti] prevailed although it should have been [sɪmˈplɪs.ə.ti,

-ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i]. It means that there were 83 correct stresses. Fifty-one correct

pronunciations had been accounted for. First syllable mispronunciations included

/ʃɪm-/ and /sim-/ where students replaced consonant /s/ with /ʃ/ and vowel /ɪ/ with

/i/. The most frequently mispronounced syllable was the second syllable, where

students substituted the vowel /ɪ/ with /e/, /i/, /iː/, /aɪ/ or /ə/. One student even

substituted the consonant /s/ of the second syllable with /ʃ/.

The word sustainability [səˌsteɪ.nəˈbɪl.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i] was perhaps the

most confusing and challenging one to pronounce as it had six variations of

mispronunciation. These included [steɪ.nəˈbɪl.ə.ti] that could be realized as

stainability, [sʊ.stenˈbɪl.ɪ.ti], [sʌb.stei.nəˈbɪl.ə.ti], [sɪ.sɪ.niˈbɪl.ɪ.ti],

[sʌbˈsteɪ.nə.bɪl.ə.ti], and [sə.steɪ.nəˈbɪl.ti]. A student uttered each of these

mispronunciations except for [sʊ.stenˈbɪl.ɪ.ti], which was uttered by two students.

Considering that four students failed to recognize the stress since they absurdly

shortened the syllable, the number of the appropriate stress was 67 including two

mispronunciations mentioned earlier i.e. substainability and sisinibility. Nine out of

67 students who stressed properly pronounced this word correctly. It was also

surprising when 21 students regarded that the stress was the same as that of sustain.


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They stressed the second syllable likely because they had known the stress

placement of sustain, which is always on the second syllable.

Same problem reoccurred in the pronunciation of the last word, unity where

twelve students mistakenly regarded it as phonologically related to unite. The word

unite itself has its second syllable consisting of the diphthong /aɪ/ stressed. Thus,

they mispronounced it as [juːˈnaɪ.ti]. In total, there were 17 penultimate stresses and

76 antepenultimate stresses. The student that previously preferred to use /θ/ in final

syllables still used it until now. One student opted out of pronouncing unity. The

correct pronunciations were 54 in total. Those included [ˈjuː.nə.t|i, -nɪ-, US -nə.t̬|i].

As previously inferred from Figure 4.3, four students emphasized the

importance of stressing English words properly since stressing changes the meaning

or the lexical category. Their lexicon allowed them to respond to the last item of

the questionnaire in such a way that increased their awareness, as seen during their

oral test performance. They stressed the words under the -ity category well.

4. Students’ Pronunciation of Words with -ion Suffix

The suffix -ion attaches itself mostly to verbal bases (Plag, 2003; Miller,

2006). These verbal bases are generally from Latin. This -ion suffix shifts the stress

of the base. As a result, the noun form has a different stress placement. There were

20 words under this category, to wit: action, attraction, collection, communication,

decoration, demonstration, election, graduation, imagination, intention,


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justification, location, notification, option, pollution, protection, region, selection,

submission, and translation.

The first word to appear under the -ion suffix category was action [ˈæk.ʃən].

All 94 students stressed it properly but only 43 of them pronounced it accurately. It

was due to the mispronunciation of either the penultimate or the ultimate syllable.

Another reason why only 43 students pronounced it accurately was that many

students mispronounced both syllables. The penultimate syllable should have been

/æk-/ and the ultimate syllable should have been /-ʃən/. What students failed to do

was pronouncing /æ/ because they substituted it with /e/. In addition, most students

were unable to produce /ʃ/ because they replaced it with /sj/. As a result, the

mispronunciation [ˈek.sjən] was very common.

Ultimate syllable mispronunciations were also common for the rest of the

words under -ion suffix category. For instance, in the word attraction, 26 out of 94

students mispronounced the word. They either replaced /æ/ with /e/ or replaced /ʃ/

with /sj/. Students’ stress placement of this word was quite good since only one

student stressed the antepenultimate syllable. This student always stressed the initial

syllable when it came to pronounce the rest of the words under -ion suffix. One

student apparently did not manage to read and pronounce attraction carefully

because the student added the vowel /s/ in the ultimate syllable so that it sounded

as [əˈtrek.ʃəns]. Later, this particular student kept adding /s/ in the ultimate syllable

of some words. According to LPD (2008), attraction is realized as [əˈtræk.ʃən].


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Even though the word collect is the base of collection, collection retains its

schwa in the first syllable. It means that the first syllable is a relatively weak one.

Most of the students in this research understood this, as shown by the 65 students

who pronounced it correctly. However, one student separated the ultimate syllable,

so that the mispronunciation [kəˈlek.ʃɪ.ən] prevailed. Therefore, only 92 students

stressed it correctly. The right pronunciation is [kəˈlek.ʃən].

It seems unbelievable that final-year ELESP students could not manage to

properly articulate the first, the fourth, or the fifth syllable of communication. This

word appears often in every-day situations and should be pronounced

[kəˌmjuː.nɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -nəˈ-]. However, the fact that only 23 students pronounced it

correctly was surprising. The penultimate stress gained the most numbers, seventy-

seven. Even so, one student stressed both the second and the fourth syllable. Until

now, the problems that remained were syllable shortening, syllable extension, and

English sounds articulation.

Phonemic errors such as the use of /ɔ/ and /ʌ/ in the first syllable and /e/ in

the fourth syllable of communication prevailed. Not only these, most errors also

occurred in the ultimate syllable such as /-ʃɪn/, /-ʃəns/, /-ʒən/, /-sjən/, and /-ʃjən/.

Most students mispronouncing the final syllable happened to add /j/ in it. As it

happened, a mispronunciation caused by a syllable shortening prevailed, for

example [kɔm.nɪˈke.sjən]. The student that previously extended the syllable of the

word collection did the same thing here since that student made communication into

a six-syllable word. Thus, the mispronunciation [kəˌmjuː.nɪˈke.ʃɪ.ən] existed. Eight


80

students stressed the antepenult, six students stressed the second syllable and two

students stressed the first syllable. This implied that roughly sixteen students

appeared nonchalant regarding the appropriateness of the stress placement of a

common word.

The student that double stressed communication also double stressed the

word decoration so that it appeared as [ˈdek.əˈreɪ.ʃən]. This student might have

intended to put primary and secondary stress, but it turned out to be double primary

stresses. The secondary stress of decoration is indeed on the first syllable but it is

definitely weaker than the primary stress. Another student extended the syllables of

the word, which was realized as [dek.oˈre.ʃɪ.ən]. What surprised the researcher was

the mispronunciation uttered by a student that sounded as democration. The word

democration does not exist since the base is not a Latinate verb. Although 75

students managed to stress the word correctly, only seven pronounced it accurately.

Their accurate pronunciations were realized as [ˌdek.əˈreɪ.ʃən]. The student that

stressed the word twice was not admitted. Therefore, the total number of students

who performed was 93. Fifteen students stressed the antepenultimate syllable while

three students stressed the initial syllable.

Vowels of the second, the third, and the fourth syllables of decoration were

often replaced by the students. For example, many students could not appropriately

articulate the third syllable since they did not pronounce the diphthong /eɪ/. Instead,

they only pronounced the /e/, which caused mispronunciation. The schwa that

should have been on the second syllable was replaced by an /o/ or an /ɒ/. This shows


81

that the students participating this research were unaware of the vowel quality they

should have known. As a result, they pronounced decoration the Indonesian way.

Most students, when pronouncing demonstration [ˌdem.ənˈstreɪ.ʃən], did

too. They did not articulate each syllable as a unit. Consequently, there were many

mispronunciations such as [dem.ɒnˈstre.ʃjən] or [dem.ɔnˈstre.ʃjən]. These two

examples are the ones occurred frequently among students that stressed the penult.

Other mispronunciations included [demˈɒn.stre.ʃjən], [dem.əsˈstreɪ.ʃjən],

[dem.ɔsˈstre.ʃjən], and so on. Penultimate stress placement dominated, with 74

stresses while antepenultimate and initial stress placement received 18 and two

respectively. In the end, seven students were able to pronounce demonstration

correctly.

The majority of the participants, 89 students, stressed the penultimate

syllable of election [iˈlek.ʃən]. Among these, 29 students succeeded in pronouncing

it. Thirty-nine students, although they stressed penultimately, mispronounced the

ultimate syllable as /-ʃjən/. The number of the antepenultimate stress was four while

the number of the ultimate stress was one. Four students who stressed penultimately

silenced the antepenult so that the word sounded as [ˈlek.ʃən]. Students’ muffled

voice caused this to happen. One student mispronounced the vowel /e/ in the

penultimate syllable. The vowel, which should have been an open /e/, was

pronounced as a relatively closed one. The result was obvious; the vowel /e/ became

similar to the /e/ in the Indonesian word korek [ko.rek]. Some students even

mispronounced the antepenultimate syllable as /e-/, /ɪ-/ or /ə-/ instead of /i-/, the

correct one.


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Pronouncing the vowel /æ/ remained troublesome for almost all of the

students. Only two students in this research successfully pronounced graduation

[ˌɡrædʒ.uˈeɪ.ʃən, ˌɡræd.juˈ-, US ˌɡrædʒ.uˈ-]. Almost all students were unsuccessful

in pronouncing the /æ/ located in the initial syllable. These students mispronounced

it as /e/ since it was the closest equivalent of /æ/ in Indonesian. Thus, the

mispronunciation [ˌgred.uˈeɪ.ʃən] was often heard. Many students also missed

pronouncing /dʒ/ in the initial syllable; they only pronounced the /d/ as in the

example. One student, who added an /s/ in the ultimate syllable of some words

previously, added an /s/ to the ultimate syllable of graduation so that it became

graduations.

Other ultimate syllable mispronunciations of graduation included, but were

not limited to /-ʃjən,/ /-ʒən/, and /-ʃjənt/. In addition, most students failed to

articulate the penult since they pronounced it as /-e-/. Such was the case that most

students did not realize the vowel quality that should have been maintained in the

penultimate syllable, namely /eɪ/. Fifteen students that stressed antepenultimately

lengthened the vowel /u/. Thus, it became /uː/. Eleven students abruptly stressed the

initial syllable as if they had been too hasty to pronounce. Despite all

mispronunciations that prevailed, 67 students knew where the stress was, i.e. on the

penult. An invalid stress placement was found because there was one student that

stressed both the initial and the third syllable.

Students’ failure of pronouncing /æ/ seemed to continue during the

pronunciation of imagination [ɪˌmædʒ.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən, -əˈ-]. Not only this, failure of

articulating a diphthong also became the issue. Most students often mispronounced


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the diphthong /eɪ/ in the penult as /e/. Therefore, [ɪ.medʒ.ɪˈne.ʃjən] emerged more

frequently than the other mispronunciations of imagination. As the result suggests,

there was one student who kept stressing the initial syllable in previous words. This

student continued doing so when pronouncing imagination. A particular student

that extended the syllables of some words previously also did the same when

pronouncing imagination, making it [ɪ.medʒ.ɪˈne.ʃɪ.ən]. Double stressing still

happened here, where one student abruptly stressed both the second and the fourth

syllable. Among 78 students stressing penultimately, only two managed to

pronounce it accurately. Three inaccurate vowel variations of the second syllable

included /e/, /ɑː/ and /ɪ/. Seven students stressed the second syllable while six others

stressed the third syllable.

The number of students stressing the initial syllable did not cease to exist.

Six students did so when they pronounced intention [ɪnˈten.tʃən]. These students

were not part of those who stressed correctly in previous words. The number of

appropriate stress was 87 in total. An example of an irrelevant pronunciation was

realized as [ɪnˈteːn.e.ʃjən]. This example suggests a second-syllable stress as well

as a syllable extension. Thus, the stress was inappropriate. A student muffled the

antepenultimate syllable that resulted in an incorrect word, namely [ˈten.ʃən].

Tension has its initial syllable stressed and is not the base of intention.

As suggested by Plag (2003) and Miller (2006), -ion attracts verb bases and

shifts the stress. In this case, the verb base of intention is intend, which has an

ultimate stress. Although the stress seems to be preserved because it falls on the

second syllable of both words, it actually moves from the ultimate syllable to the


84

penultimate one. That is why, according to Kenworthy (1987), one needs to address

this issue so that understanding how stress and intonation work comes at ease (pp.

13-14).

Twenty-two students understood how word stress worked and they were able

to pronounce intention properly. The ultimate syllable was the syllable mostly

mispronounced since it had some mispronunciations such as /-ʃjən/, /-e-/, /-ʃɪən/,

/ʃjəns/, and /-ʃjənd/. The researcher found that /-ʃjəns/ was pronounced by the same

student that previously added an /s/ to the ultimate syllable even when there was no

addition of letter ‘s’ to the ultimate syllable. The most common ultimate syllable

mispronunciation was /-ʃjən/.

It would seem that the more syllables a word had, the more challenging it

became for students to arrive at a decision to stress it properly. This was what

happened during students’ performance in pronouncing justification and other

words having more than two syllables later on. Even though 81 students were able

to stress justification properly, only nine students were able to pronounce it

correctly. Both the first and the third syllable had five students stressing them.

Those who stressed the first syllable thought that the first syllable was the heaviest

syllable while in fact, the heaviest was the penult /-keɪ-/. The correct pronunciation

variations are [ˌdʒʌs.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -tə-, -fəˈ-, US -tə-, -tɪ-].

Katamba (1996) suggests that a heavy syllable contains a long vowel or a

diphthong although it also contains a short vowel followed by a consonant (pp. 176-

177). It is clear that the first syllable, to wit /dʒʌs-/, contains a short vowel followed


85

by a consonant. However, there is a heavier syllable and that is the penult. The first

syllable bears the secondary stress while the penult bears the primary stress. Those

five students should have placed the primary stress on the penult. This was caused

by the impression that the verb base, justify, always bears its primary stress on the

first i.e. the antepenultimate syllable.

It was unclear why three students stressed the second syllable of justification.

They made the vowel of the second syllable longer. As a result, mispronunciation

[ˌdʒʌsˈtiː.fɪ.ke.ʃjən] prevailed. Five other students, who stressed the antepenult,

lengthened the vowel so that the word sounded as [ˌdʒʌs.tɪˈfiː.ke.ʃjən]. Most

students also failed to articulate the diphthong of the penultimate and substituted it

with an /e/ instead.

Poor pronunciations continued to prevail when students had to pronounce

location [ləʊˈkeɪ.ʃən, US loʊ-]. Surprisingly, only four out of 94 students

pronounced it correctly. Despite the fact that 88 students stressed the penultimate

syllable, mispronunciations did not stop to cease because almost all of them could

not articulate the diphthong of the penultimate syllable. Even so, these students did

not fail to notice the diphthong of the antepenultimate syllable, namely /əʊ/ or /oʊ/.

With regard to this, five students preferred the American version of the first syllable

and one student preferred the British version. Some of them substituted the weak

diphthong with an /o/ or an /ɔ/. The researcher used the term ‘weak diphthong’

because the diphthong of the antepenultimate syllable consisted of a nuclei or a

schwa /ə/. Poldauf (1984) argues that in an unstressed syllable, the vowel become

a nuclei or a short vowel for most of the time (p. 15).


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As what happened before, one student extended the syllable of location and

made it into a four-syllable word, hence [loˈkeː.ʃɪ.ən]. Another poor representation

of this word was [lo.ka.lɪˈʃɪ.ɔn] uttered by one student that seemed unsure of how

to read it. This syllable extension would have never happened if students had known

about the role syllables play in regulating pronunciation, as proposed by Katamba

(1996: 164-166) An intriguing phenomenon that interested the researcher was the

mispronunciation of the ultimate syllable. This mispronunciation, realized as /-ʒən/,

existed in communication, demonstration, graduation, imagination, justification,

and location. This particular student might have regarded the words ending with -

ation as /-ʒən/. However, this particular student did the same thing when

pronouncing notification, option, pollution, protection, and translation. It was still

unclear why this was the case.

In contrast, it was clear that 93 students could not determine the appropriate

sound of the initial syllable of notification because only one student pronounced it

correctly. This might be unbelievable, but it was true that the other 93 students

ignored the diphthong of an unstressed syllable. What they did was replacing it with

an /ɒ/ or an /ɔ/. Other reoccurring errors were of the diphthong quality of the

penultimate syllable, where most students mispronounced it as /-ke-/. Moreover, all

but one student failed to pronounce the ultimate syllable correctly since most of

them mispronounced it as /-ʃjən/. This fact contradicts the previous evidence of

correct pronunciations where some students could pronounce /ʃən/.

This new phenomenon suggests that some students might have been unable

to pronounce the phoneme /ʃ/ due to the difficulty in connecting it to the diphthong


87

of the penultimate syllable /eɪ/. It was easier for them to link /eɪ/ or /e/ to /j/ hence,

/-keɪ.ʃjən/ and /-ke.ʃjən/ existed. Five students stressed the initial syllable possibly

because they believed notification had the same stress as notify although they did

not pronounce the initial syllable as /nəʊ/ or /noʊ/. Six students stressed the

antepenultimate syllable. As a consequence, they replaced the vowel /ɪ/ with /iː/.

There were 83 students that stressed penultimately. Two appropriate variations of

notification include [ˌnəʊ.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -tə-, -fəˈ-, US ˌnoʊ.t̬ə-].

Eleven correct pronunciations of option [ˈɒp.ʃən, US ˈɑːp-] shows that most

students still made the same mistake, namely mispronouncing the ultimate syllable.

The most common mispronunciations were [ˈɒp.ʃjən] and [ˈɔːp.ʃjən]. Other

ultimate syllable mispronunciations included [-ʒən], [-ʃjəns], [-ʃjənt], and [-ʃjənd].

There was no syllable shortening or extension during the pronunciation of option.

Stress misplacement did not occur since all students successfully stressed the

penultimate syllable.

In the word pollute, the stress falls on the ultimate syllable because it has a

heavy syllable, namely a long vowel /uː/. The initial syllable itself remains weak

since it has no full vowel. Thus, the same thing goes for pollution, in which its first

syllable is weak and its penultimate syllable bears the stress as in [pəˈluː.ʃən, -ˈljuː-

, US -ˈluː-]. Among 86 penultimate stresses, five correct pronunciations prevailed.

There were six antepenultimate stresses where its antepenult bore a full vowel /ɔ/.

However, this kind of full vowel also prevailed in examples where the stress was

on the penult, such as [pɔˈluː.ʃən] and [pɔˈluː.ʃjən]. Students mispronouncing the

initial syllable did not realize that the base itself, pollute, never maintains a full


88

vowel in its initial syllable. Their mere assumption led them to mispronounce the

initial syllable of pollution. Uncommon ultimate syllable mispronunciations such

as /-ʃjən/, /-ʒən/, /ʃjəns/, /-ʃjənt/, and /-ʃjənd/ were pronounced by one student each.

Ninety-one students stressing the penultimate syllable of protection seemed

aware that it had the same stress as the base protect in terms of syllabic property.

Phonologically, the stress is of different syllable due to the effect of stress-shifting

attribute suffix -ion has. However, what most students failed to achieve was

pronouncing the initial and the ultimate syllables properly. That was why only five

students managed to pronounce it accurately as in [prəˈtek.ʃən, US prə-, proʊ-].

Almost all students regarded the initial syllable as having a full vowel /o/ while in

fact it has only a reduced vowel /ə/ or diphthongs /əʊ/ or /oʊ/. Two students

stressing the antepenultimate syllable used an /o/ instead of a reduced vowel. Two

unintelligible pronunciations of the penultimate syllable containing a seemingly

similar phoneme to Indonesian /e/ prevailed. Another awkward mispronunciation

existed because it sounded as [pro.tekˈʃjən]. Even though most common mistakes

were due to inappropriate pronunciations of the first and the last syllable, some

mistakes happened due to the mispronunciations of the penultimate syllable. These

included /-tɪk-/, /-teːk-/, and /-θek-/. In addition, ultimate syllable

mispronunciations as in the previous examples were also found.

Since stress is a part of a syllable, it is natural that a vowel, a consonant or a

diphthong does not carry the stress (Hayes, 2009: 272). This notion seemed

congruent with what occurred so far. Students were able to assign stress to its

corresponding syllable, not phoneme. However, three students were unaware of


89

their stress misplacement when they pronounced the word region because they

stressed the ultimate syllable. One student opted out of pronouncing it. Ninety other

students stressed the first syllable although 39 of these students mistook the word

for having three syllables. Thus, there were 42 inappropriate stresses and 51

appropriate stresses. Among these 51 appropriate stresses, only seven were

regarded as correct pronunciations. These seven correct pronunciations were

realized as [ˈriː.dʒən].

The main problem faced by students besides their inability to recognize the

number of syllable was articulation. Most students could not articulate the ultimate

syllable of region properly. As a result, mispronunciations such as /-gjən/, /-dʒjən/,

and /-dʒənd/ existed. Another problem was separation of the ultimate syllable by

39 students. This made the stress placement invalid since what should have been a

disyllabic word became a trisyllabic word. Therefore, there were 39

antepenultimate stresses. A student even went as far as mispronouncing it as

religion. The syllable separation was realized as /-dʒi-/ for the second syllable and

/-ən/ or /-ɔn/ for the last syllable. In addition, the penultimate syllable was where

many students failed to recognize its sound. They mispronounced the penultimate

syllable as /re-/.

Kager (2007) claims that stress stays within the frame of a syllable weight

and usually exists in the most sonorous syllable (p. 198). In the word selection

[sɪˈlek.ʃən, sə-, US sə-], the most sonorous syllable is the antepenult /-lek-/. By way

of comparison, the totals of correct British pronunciation and American

pronunciation were 19 and 37. That made 56 correct pronunciations. The number


90

of the appropriate stress was 92 while the antepenultimate and the ultimate stress

had one student each. Most students were unable to articulate the ultimate syllable

properly, which resulted in mispronunciations such as /-ʃjən/, /-sən/, /-ʃjəns/, /ʃjənt/,

/-ʃjɔŋ/, and even /-ʃjɔn/. One can see that there were /-ʃjɔŋ/ and /-ʃjɔn/ indicating

students’ unawareness of how to properly read the test item. Although there were

92 penultimate stresses, some students mispronounced the vowel of the penultimate

syllable that became an /eː/.

It appeared that the word submission [səbˈmɪʃ.ən] was one of the most

challenging words to pronounce under the -ion suffix category since only one

student was able to pronounce it accurately. Eighty-seven students failed to

pronounce the ultimate syllable correctly because most of them mispronounced it

as /-jən/. Six students managed to pronounce the ultimate syllable properly,

although they failed to pronounce the initial syllable. Instead of pronouncing it as

/səb-/, they confidently pronounced it as /sʌb-/. Besides, there were two four-

syllable versions of submission realized as [səbˈmiː.sɪ.ən] and [səbˈmiː.ʃɪ.ən]. Most

students were under the impression that the first syllable contained the vowel /ʌ/

even though it is considered incorrect by CEPD (2011). Another intriguing fact was

the number of the antepenultimate stress that reached 21 students. It means to say

that only 73 students stressed the penultimate syllable.

Twenty-three students were under the impression that the word translation

had its first syllable stressed as is the case in translate, in which the first syllable

bears a primary stress. Nevertheless, the stress in translation and translate is

different because the suffix -ion affects the stress placement of the base and puts it


91

in the penultimate position (Plag, 2003: 91). The other 71 students successfully

stressed the penultimate syllable although only six students were able to pronounce

it correctly. One student stressing the antepenultimate syllable made a mistake in

reading the item since this student mispronounced it as a very different word, to wit

transation - [transˈeɪ.sjən]. Another student even mispronounced it as

[trensˈklɪ.ʃjən], which was a total absurdity. Syllable extension also prevailed and

was carried out by one student. Therefore, [trensˈleː.ʃɪ.ən] existed. The appropriate

pronunciation variations of translation are [trænzˈleɪ.ʃən, trɑːnzˈ- træntˈsleɪ-,

trɑːntˈ-, US trænˈsleɪ-, US trænzˈleɪ-].


92

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter discusses three major sections, to wit conclusion, implication,

and recommendation. The conclusions drawn are based on the findings of this

research. The researcher made the recommendations by connecting them to the

findings and the research benefits. These recommendations include those of ELESP

lecturers, ELESP students, English teachers, and future researchers.

A. Conclusions

The researcher formulated two questions in this research. The first research

question inquires how students see English word stress as part of pronunciation and

its relation to -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion suffixes. The second research question

inquires into students’ mastery of English words ending in -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

suffixes.

1. Students’ Perception of English Word Stress and English Words Ending

with -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion Suffixes

Most students in this research (53%) strongly agreed that word stress is an

integral part of English pronunciation. Some students decided to agree as shown by

the 39% of the sample. Even so, this did not mean that their performance in

pronouncing English suffixed words was satisfactory. Almost all students (73%)


93

believed that all English suffixes had their own rules regarding the stress placement

of English words. However, some of them could not determine which suffix had

what stress.

Nearly half of the target sample (45%) believed that -eous, -ic, -ity, and -ion

suffixes did not change the stress placement of the base while 41% believed the

opposite. This proves that most students that belonged to the 45% proportion were

unaware of the stress-shifting attribute those suffixes had and so were most students

that belonged to the 41% proportion because there were many mistakes in their

actual pronunciation. Furthermore, many students who did not retake a single

subject were surprisingly unable to pronounce most words under -eous and -ic

suffixes correctly. The percentage of the students that retook no subject was 82%.

2. Students’ Mastery of Stress Placement of English Words Ending with -

eous, -ic. -ity, and -ion Suffixes

One of the most obvious problems in the pronunciation of eous-suffixed

words was syllable shortening and the others were phonetic errors. Most eous-

suffixed words were challenging for the students since they mispronounced many

words. Compared to the -eous suffix, the -ic suffix is the most challenging one

because there were many stress misplacements and phonetic errors. Most students

could not predict the stress in most words. Therefore, they stressed the words

antepenultimately. Students who were troubled by the eous-suffixed words were

also troubled by the words under the -ic suffix category.


94

Even though most students could locate the stress in most ity-suffixed words,

they failed to articulate the vowels or consonants accurately. No more than twelve

students could pronounce most words under this category successfully. The most

obvious problem for almost all of the students when they pronounced ion-suffixed

words was the use of double phonemes /ʃj/ in the last syllable of most words. Half

of the sample, more than 55 students in average, could stress properly although

many could not articulate the sounds well.

B. Implications

In connection with English language learning, this research could indicate

the language proficiency level of each ELESP student. By assessing how good their

pronunciation is, they are able to assess their own progress in acquiring a new

language. In addition, understanding how the appropriate pronunciation works in a

language can help them get a better score in the speaking section of a language

proficiency test, i.e. TOEFL iBT or IELTS. Furthermore, the researcher believes

that a pronunciation dictionary is one of the best learning resources for ELESP

students as it features a more specific note explaining how certain combinations of

letters can result in different pronunciation.

C. Recommendations

There are several recommendations that are based on the research benefits.

These include recommendations for ELESP lecturers and students, English teachers

in elementary school and future researchers.


95

1. For English Language Education Study Program Lecturers

The researcher believes that lecturers need to develop a more engaging

approach when teaching Pronunciation subjects and Phonetics & Phonology

subject. A more engaging approach is needed so that lecturers could accommodate

students’ needs, which usually vary. In the end, this would benefit ELESP students

too because they would be able to tackle upcoming tasks requiring productive skills.

2. For English Language Education Study Program Students

ELESP students, regardless of how they view the English word stress and

the stress placement in suffixed words, should at least recognize English sounds.

This can be done by frequently listening to a recorded pronunciation and mimicking

it. It is crucial that students be more willing to optimize the available resources

provided by the study program and the university library.

3. For English Teachers in Elementary Schools

English teachers need to understand each student’s auditory and articulatory

abilities in order to attend to their needs. If this were the case, the learning process

would be rewarding because students could get the most out of their own capacity

in learning English pronunciation. It is recommended that English teachers give

pronunciation drills in class.


96

4. For Future Researchers

The researcher believes that this work still has flaws. Thus, it is essential that

future researchers be able to cover other related topics, especially those of prosodic

phonology. It is also hoped that there would be in-depth research in the

morphological properties of a word that can regulate stress placement.


97

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APPENDICES


101

Appendix A: The Oral Test

ENGLISH SUFFIXED WORDS TEST

Direction: Below are listed English words that belong to four suffixes, to wit -eous,

-ic, -ity and -ion. Your task is to pronounce every word precisely. Be aware of the

stress placement.

A. –EOUS SUFFIX

1. Advantageous

2. Consanguineous

3. Contemporaneous

4. Courageous

5. Courteous

6. Disadvantageous

7. Discourteous

8. Erroneous

9. Extemporaneous

10. Extraneous

11. Gorgeous

12. Heterogeneous

13. Homogeneous

14. Instantaneous

15. Miscellaneous

16. Outrageous

17. Righteous

18. Sanguineous

19. Spontaneous

20. Unrighteous

B. –IC SUFFIX

1. Academic

2. Alcoholic

3. Artistic

4. Basic

5. Chronic

6. Classic

7. Democratic

8. Domestic

9. Economic

10. Enthusiastic

11. Genetic

12. Graphic

13. Historic

14. Iconic

15. Idiomatic

16. Magnetic

17. Narcissistic

18. Phonemic

19. Problematic

20. Systematic


102

C. –ITY SUFFIX

1. Activity

2. Authority

3. Capability

4. Clarity

5. Community

6. Divinity

7. Equality

8. Fraternity

9. Gravity

10. Humanity

11. Infinity

12. Maturity

13. Necessity

14. Originality

15. Penalty

16. Reality

17. Royalty

18. Simplicity

19. Sustainability

20. Unity

D. –ION SUFFIX

1. Action

2. Attraction

3. Collection

4. Communication

5. Decoration

6. Demonstration

7. Election

8. Graduation

9. Imagination

10. Intention

11. Justification

12. Location

13. Notification

14. Option

15. Pollution

16. Protection

17. Region

18. Selection

19. Submission

20. Translation

Stop recording. This is the end of the test.


103

Appendix B: Data Summary of eous-suffixed Words

-eous Suffix

WORD CAMBRIDGE & LONGMAN

PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING

CERTAIN SYLLABLE(S)*

(the syllables are indicated

by the ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS PER

SYLLABLE* (the syllables are

indicated by the ordinal

numbers)

Advantageous

[ˌæd.vənˈteɪ.dʒəs, -vɑːnˈ-, -vænˈ-, US -vænˈ-, -vənˈ-] 1st: 2

2nd: 40

3rd: 54

4th: 3

1st: ed-, ad-

2nd: -ven-, -fan-, -fen-

3rd: -te-, -tiː-, -teː-, -tɪ-

4th: -ʤʊs, -ʤɪ-, -ʤe-, -ʤi-

5th: -əs, -ʊs

Consanguineous

[ˌkɒn.sæŋˈɡwɪn.i.əs, US ˌkɑːn.sæŋˈ-] 1st: 1

2nd: 31

3rd: 59

4th: 4

1st: kən-, kɔn-

2nd: -sen-, -sʌŋ-, -se-, -sɪŋ-, -sæ-

3rd: -wiː-, -ne-, -gwe-, -jui-, - jue-,

-ʤiː-, -ʤeː- -iː-, -wæ-, -ŋə-

4th: -nəs, -njəs, -us, -nʊ-

5th: -es


104

-eous Suffix (continued)


PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the

syllables are indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

Contemporaneous [kənˌtem.pᵊrˈeɪ.ni.əs, kɒn- ˌkɒn.tem-, US kən-] 1st: 3

2nd: 18

3rd: 16

4th: 53

5th: 5

1st: kon-

2nd: -təm-, -te-, -tæ

3rd: -po-, -por-, -poː-, pʰɒ-

4th: -reː-, -ræ-, -ne-

5th: -nes, - nəs, -njəs, -ne-, -nʊs,

-njʊs, -re-

6th: -us, -njəs

Courageous [kəˈreɪ.dʒəs] 1st: 29

2nd: 61

3rd: 5

1st: kɑː-, koʊ-, kaʊ-, ko-, kɪ-

2nd: -re-, -reʊ-, -ret-, -rɪdʒ-, -ræ-

, -rek-

3rd: - dʒɪ-, -ʤe-, -gəs, -dʒʊs, -

ʤi-, -nəs

4th: -əs, -us


105


WORD CAMBRIDGE & LONGMAN PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER

OF STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)*

(the syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal

numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CON-

SONANTS PER

SYLLABLE* (the

syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

Courteous

[ˈkɜː.ti.əs, US ˈkɝː.t̬i-] 1st: 78

2nd: 15

3rd: 1

1st: kɑːr-, kɔːr-, kʊr-,

ko-

2nd: -təs, -tʃəs, -te-, -

tiː-, -tə-, -tʊs -toʊs, -

sɪ-, -tʊ-, -tʃe-, -ʃɪ-

3rd: -ʊs, -dʒəs, -səs, -

əs, -jəs

Disadvantageous

[ˌdɪsˌæd.vənˈteɪ.dʒəs, -əd-, -vɑːnˈ-, -vænˈ- dɪˌsæd-, US ˌdɪsˌæd.vænˈ-, -vənˈ-]

2nd: 7

3rd: 33

1st: dɪds-, des-, dɪd-

2nd: -ʌd-, -ʌt-, -en-, -

ed-

3rd: -və-, -fen-, -fæn-,

-ven-, -fən-


106


WORD CAMBRIDGE & LONGMAN PRONUNCIATION THE NUMBER

OF STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)*

(the syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CON-

SONANTS PER

SYLLABLE* (the

syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

Disadvantageous [ˌdɪsˌæd.vənˈteɪ.dʒəs, -əd-, -vɑːnˈ-, -vænˈ- dɪˌsæd-, US ˌdɪsˌæd.vænˈ-, -vənˈ-] 4th: 52

5th: 4

4th: -tiː-, -teː-, -tɪ-, -

tæ-

5th: -dʒʊs, -ʤɪ-, -

ʤeː-, -dʒʊ-, -dʒɪs, -

gəs

6th: -əs, -ʊs

Discourteous

[dɪˈskɜː.ti.əs, US -ˈskɝː.t̬i-] 1st: 2

2nd: 83

3rd: 10

2nd: -kɔːr-, -kor-, -

kʊr-, -kɑːr-, -kʌ-

3rd: -tʰe-, -təs, -tɪs, -

te-, -tʊs, -θəs, -re-, -

t̬əs, -toʊs

4th: -us, -tʃəs, -dʒəs,

-təs


107



THE NUMBER

OF STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)*

(the syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT VOWELS/CONSON-

ANTS PER SYLLABLE* (the

syllables are indicated by the ordinal

numbers)

Erroneous [ɪˈrəʊ.ni.əs, erˈəʊ-, US əˈroʊ-, erˈoʊ-, ɪˈroʊ-] 1st: 13

2nd: 72

3rd: 10

1st: æ-, ɔː-

2nd: -rɔː-, -rɑː-, -ro-, -rə-, -rəɪ-

3rd: -ne-, -nəs, -njəs, -niː-, -nʊs, -nɪs, -no-

4th: -ʊs, -dʒəs

Extemporaneous [ɪkˌstem.pəˈreɪ.ni.əs, ek- ˌek.stem-, US ɪkˌstem.pəˈ-, ek-]

2nd: 6

3rd: 13

4th: 71

5th: 5

1st: ɪgz-

2nd: -stəm-, -strəm-

3rd: -po-, -pʰɒ-, -pʰo-

4th: -re-, -ræ-, -riː-, -rə-, -rʌ-, -rɔː-

5th: -nʊs, -nəs, -ne-, -njəs, -njʊs, -nɪs

6th: -ʊs


108



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the

syllables are indicated

by the ordinal

numbers)

INCORRECT



indicated by the ordinal numbers)

Extraneous

[ɪkˈstreɪ.ni.əs, ek-] 1st: 10

2nd: 66

3rd: 19

2nd: -strʌ-, -strɑː-, -stræ-, -strɔː-, -

stre-, -strə-

3rd: -nəs, -njəs, -ne-, -nʊs

4th: -ʊs

Gorgeous

[ˈɡɔː.dʒəs, US ˈɡɔːr-] 1st: 93

2nd: 3

1st: gɑːr-, ʤɔːr-, ʤuːr-, gʊr-, hɔːr-,

kɔːr-

2nd: -ʤɪ-, -gɪ-, -ʤɪs, -ge-, -gʊs, -

dʒʊs, -gəs

3rd: -ʊs, -əs


109



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the

syllables are indicated by

the ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Heterogeneous [ˌhet.ər.əʊˈdʒiː.ni.əs, US ˌhet̬.ə.roʊˈ-, -ɚ.əˈ-] 1st: 3

2nd: 3

3rd: 23

4th: 64

5th: 2

1st: hit-, hɪs-

2nd: -tæ-, -tɒ-

3rd: -ro-

4th: -ʤe-, -ne-, -ge-, -dʒə-, -gɒ-, -

rɪ-, -dʒɔː-, -ʤɪ-

5th: -nɪs, -ʤe-, -nəs, -nʊs, - ʤəs,

-nu-

6th: -ʊs


110



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the

syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT




numbers)

Homogeneous

[ˌhɒm.əˈdʒiː.ni.əs, ˌhəʊ.mə-, US ˌhoʊ.moʊˈdʒiː-, ˌhɑː-, -məˈ-] 1st: 7

2nd: 16

3rd: 70

4th: 1

1st: ho-, hem-

2nd: -mo-, -o-

3rd: -dʒə-, -gen-, -gə-, -dʒe-, -gæ-

4th: -njəs, -əs, -njoʊs, -nʊs, -nʊ-

5th: -ʊs

Instantaneous

[ˌɪnt.stənˈteɪ.ni.əs]

2nd: 33

3rd: 33

4th: 29

1st: en-

2nd: -stæn-, -stʌn-, -stɑːn-

3rd: -tə-, -tæ-, -tʌ-, -ne-

4th: -njəs, -nɪs, -ne-, -nəs, -njʊs, -

nʊs, -niː-, -ʃəs, -ʊs

5th: -ʊs


111



THE NUMBER

OF STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)*

(the syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT




numbers)

Miscellaneous

[ˌmɪs.əlˈeɪ.ni.əs, -ɪˈleɪ-] 1st: 4

2nd: 21

3rd: 53

4th: 15

2nd: -kəl-, -ʃel-, -ʃəl-, -ʃɪl-, -ɪl-

3rd: -e-, -æ-, -a-, iː-

4th: -nɪs, -nəs, -ne-, -njəs, -nəʃ

5th: -ʊs, -os

Outrageous

[ˌaʊtˈreɪ.dʒəs, aʊt-] 1st: 27

2nd: 51

3rd: 16

1st: ot-, ots-, oʊt-, ɔːt-, ɑːt-

2nd: -rə-, -ræ-, -rʌ-, -re-, -gre-, -

strʌ-

3rd: -dʒi-, -dʒe-, -dʒeː-, -dʒʊs, -

dʒoʊs, -gəs, -dʒæ-, -ges

4th: -əs, -us


112



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the


by the ordinal

numbers)

INCORRECT




Righteous

[ˈraɪ.tʃəs, -ti.əs, US -tʃəs] 1st: 79

2nd: 15

(some endings are with

lip rounding)

1st: rʌ-, raɪk-, re-, ræ-, rɪ-

2nd: -təs, -tʃɪs, -te-, -toʊs, -nəs, -tɪs, -

tʊs, -tʃʊs, -tæ-, -tɪ-

3rd: -ʊs, -tɪ-, -ʤəs

4th: -əs

Sanguineous

[sæŋˈɡwɪn.i.əs] 1st: 22

2nd: 61

3rd: 11

1st: sʌŋ-, sen-, seŋ-, saʊ-, sɪn-

2nd: -ʤɪn-, -ɪn-, -wɪ-, -jʊ-, -gɪ-, -wæ-,

-ɡwæ-, -kweɪ-, -gʊɪ-, -wiː-, -gæ-, -

wɪn-, -we-

3rd: -e-, -ɪ-, -iː-, -njəs, -nəs, -nɪs, -

noʊs, -nʊ-

4th: -ʊs, -es


113



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING


(the syllables are indicated by


INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Spontaneous [spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs, spən-, US spɑːn-] 1st: 16

2nd: 66

3rd: 12

1st: spon-, sə

2nd: -te-, -tʌ-, -tæ-, -tiː-, -θa-, -

pɒn-

3rd: -ne-, -njəs, -nəs, -nʊ-, -njʊi-, -

njʊs, -neː-, -te-

4th: -ʊs, -nəs, -ni-; 5th: -əs

Unrighteous

[ʌnˈraɪ.tʃəs, -ti.əs, US -tʃəs] 1st: 1

2nd: 90

3rd: 2

1st: at-, ak-, ɒt-, ap-, aʊt-

2nd: -raɪk-, -reɪk-, -rʌ-, -rae-, -rɪ-, -

rə-, -raek-, -reɪ-, -træ-

3rd: -tɪs, -te-, -tʃʊs, -təs, -tə-, -nəs,

-cəs, -tʃɪs, -cɪs, -ni-, -nʊs, -tjəs, -

toʊs

4th: -ʊs, -rəs


114

Appendix C: Data Summary of ic-suffixed Words

-ic Suffix


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Academic

[ˌæk.əˈdem.ɪk] 1st: 3

2nd: 43

3rd: 50

1st: ək-, ek-, ak-, eɪk-, ɪk-

2nd: -eɪ-, -æ-, -ɑː-, -e-

3rd: -dəm-, -deɪm-

Alcoholic

[ˌæl.kəˈhɒl.ɪk, US -ˈhɑː.lɪk] 1st: 8

2nd: 53

3rd: 35

1st: al-

2nd: -ko-, -kɔː-, -kɒ-

3rd: -ho-, -heʊ-, -hʌ-, -hoʊ-, -lɪk

Artistic

[ɑːˈtɪs.tɪk, US ɑːr-] 1st: 49

2nd: 47

1st: ær-, ər-, ar-

2nd: -tiːs-

3rd: -tik


115

-ic Suffix (continued)


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Basic

[ˈbeɪ.sɪk] 1st:95

2nd: 1

1st: be-, bæ-, bʰæ-, bʌ-

2nd: -sik

Chronic

[ˈkrɒn.ɪk, US ˈkrɑː.nɪk] 1st: 96 1st: krɔːn-, kᵊrɒ-, hrɒ-, kroʊ-,

krɔn-

2nd: -ik

Classic

[ˈklæs.ɪk] 1st: 96 1st: kles-, klɑːs-, klɒs-, klæʃ-,

klʌs-, kleɪʃ-, klæz-

2nd: -ik, -ʃɪk

Democratic

[ˌdem.əˈkræt.ɪk, US -ˈkræt̬-] 1st: 1

2nd: 67

3rd: 28

1st: dɪm-, dom-

2nd: -o-, -ɒ-, -e-, -ɒs-, -oʊ-

3rd: -krət-, -tret-, -krəst-

4th: -θɪk


116



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Domestic

[dəˈmes.tɪk] 1st: 32

2nd: 64

1st: dʌ-, do-, doː-, dɔ-, de-

2nd: -mɪs-, -mos-

Economic [ˌiː.kəˈnɒm.ɪk, ˌek.əˈ-, US -ˈnɑː.mɪk] 1st: 1

2nd: 66

3rd: 29

1st: eɪ-

2nd: -kʰɑː-, -kɔː-, -ko-, -kəː-, -koʊ-

3rd: -nəm-, -naʊm-, -nom-

Enthusiastic

[ɪnˌθjuː.ziˈæs.tɪk, en-, -ˌθuː-, US enˌθuː-, ɪn-, -ˌθjuː-] 1st: 1

2nd: 20

3rd: 6

4th: 69

1st: aʊ-, ən-, e-

2nd: -tʊ-, -tʊs-, -tjuː-

3rd: -si-, -ti-, -θi-, -se-, -æs-

4th: -ʌs-, -es-, -eɪz-, -æz-, -tɪk

Genetic

[dʒəˈnet.ɪk, dʒɪ-, US -ˈnet̬.ɪk] 1st: 77

2nd: 19

1st: dʒe-, -dʒæ-, -gæ-, -dʒiː-

2nd: -nət-


117



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Graphic

[ˈɡræf.ɪk] 1st: 95

2nd: 1

1st: græpʰ-, gref-, grep-, grʌp-,

grɑːf-, grʌf-, gᵊrap-

Historic

[hɪˈstɒr.ɪk, US hɪˈstɔːr.ɪk] 1st: 76

2nd: 20

2nd: -stər-, -stʊr-, -stᵊr-

3rd: -ɪ

Iconic

[aɪˈkɒn.ɪk, US -ˈkɑː.nɪk] 1st: 68

2nd: 28

1st: i-, ɪ-

2nd: -kən-, -kon-, -kən- (rounded),

-ron-

Idiomatic

[ˌɪd.i.əʊˈmæt.ɪk, US -əˈmæt̬-] 1st: 5

2nd: 4

3rd: 38

4th: 49

1st: aɪd-

3rd: -o-, -ɒ-, -oʊ-

4th: -met-, -mɑːt-, -məθ-

5th: -ik


118



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the




ANTS PER SYLLABLE* (the syllables

are indicated by the ordinal numbers)

Magnetic

[mæɡˈnet.ɪk, məɡ-, US mæɡˈnet̬-] 1st: 77

2nd: 18

3rd: 1

1st: meg-, mek-, mʌg-, mʌk-, mæ-, mæʰk-,

mah-, meh-, maɪk-

2nd: -nət-, -neθ-, -nek-

3rd: -ik

Narcissistic

[ˌnɑː.sɪˈsɪs.tɪk, US ˌnɑːr-] 1st: 19

2nd: 58

3rd: 19

1st: ner-, næ-

2nd: -sɪs-, -siː-, -sɪsts-, -cɪs-, -kɪ-, -tɪ-, -cɪ-, -

ciː-

3rd: -tɪk, -sɪ-, -tɪkʰ

Phonemic

[fəʊˈniː.mɪk, US foʊ-, fə-] 1st: 71

2nd: 25

1st: fɑː-, fo-, fɔ-, pʰɒ-, pæ-, pʰo-, no-, pə-

2nd: -nəm-, -nem-, -nɒ-, -net-, -me-

3rd: -mə-, -ɪk, -nɪk

4th: -nɪk


119



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the






Problematic

[ˌprɒb.ləˈmæt.ɪk, -lɪˈ-, -lemˈæt-, US ˌprɑː.bləˈmæt̬-] 1st: 11

2nd: 40

3rd: 45

1st: pro-

3rd: -met-, -mek-, -mɑːt-, -mət-, -məθ-, -

mʌt-

Systematic

[ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪk, -tɪˈ-, US -təˈmæt̬-] 1st: 15

2nd: 38

3rd: 43

3rd: -met-, -mʌt-, -mɪk, -məθ-, -mæθ-, -

meə-


120

Appendix D: Data Summary of ity-suffixed Words

-ity Suffix


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Activity

[ækˈtɪv.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 9

2nd: 82

3rd: 3

1st: ek-, -ɑːk-

2nd: -tiːv-, -θɪv-

3rd: -i-

4th: -ði, -θi

Authority

[ɔːˈθɒr.ə.t|i, ə-, -ɪ.t|i, US əˈθɔːr.ə.t̬|i, ɑː-, ɔː-] 1st: 4

2nd: 89

3rd: 1

1st: aʊ-, oʊ-

2nd: -tʰɒr-, -tʰɔːr-, -tʰor-, -tɔːr-,

-tʰɔːt-, -tʰʊr-

3rd: -i-

4th: -θi


121

-ity Suffix (continued)


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the



Capability

[ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 15

3rd: 72;

4th: 3

1st: kæ-, ke-, kʌ-, kə-, kʰe-

2nd: -pʌ-, -pe-, -pæ-, -pʰæ-, -

bəl-, -bil-

3rd: -bil-, -bəl-, -bel-, -be-, -ɪ-,

-iː-

4th: -i-, -əl-, -ti

Clarity

[ˈklær.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US ˈkler.ə.t̬i, ˈklær-] 1st: 91

2nd: 2

3rd: 1

1st: klɑːr-, klɒr-, klʌr-, kleːr-

2nd: -i-, -ə-

Community

[kəˈmjuː.nə.t|i, -nɪ-, US -nə.t̬|i] 1st: 1

2nd: 86

3rd: 7

1st: kæ-, kɒ-, kɔ-, kɪ-

2nd: -mʊ-, -mɪ-, -mjɪ-, -mjə-

3rd: -ni-


122



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the

syllables are

indicated by the

ordinal numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Divinity [dɪˈvɪn.ə.t|i, də-, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 86

3rd: 3

1st: di-, de-, daɪ-

2nd: -fɪn-, -vaɪn-, -faɪn-, -fen-

3rd: -i-

4th: -θi

Equality

[iˈkwɒl.ə.t|i, iː-, -ɪ.t|i, US -ˈkwɑː.lə.t̬|i, -ˈkwɔː-] 1st: 3

2nd: 88

3rd: 2

1st: e-

2nd: -kʊel-, -kwæ-, -kwəl-, -

kweɪ-, -kʊal-, -kjʊəl-, -kɒl-, -

gʊal-, -kʊ-, -kjʊa-, -kwa-, -

kwel-, -kʊɑː-, -kʊəl-

3rd: -ɑː-

4th: -li-, -θi

5th: -ti


123



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the



Fraternity

[frəˈtɜː.nə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ˈtɝː.nə.t̬|i] 1st: 5

2nd: 79

3rd: 8

1st: fre-, frʌ-, fræ-, frɒ-, fæ-,

fʌ-

2nd: -tər-, -tʃər-, -θər-

3rd: -ni-

Gravity

[ˈɡræv.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i] 1st: 91

2nd: 2

1st: grev-, græf-, grʌf-, grɑːf-,

ɡᵊræv-, gref-

2nd: -i-

Humanity

[hjuːˈmæn.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 85

3rd: 6

1st: hʊ-, juː-

2nd: -men-, -mən-, -mɑːn-, -

mɪn-

3rd: -i-


124



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the


by the ordinal

numbers)

INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the



Infinity

[ɪnˈfɪn.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 88

3rd: 3

1st: en-

2nd: -fiːn-, -vɪn-, -fen-, -faɪn-

3rd: -i-

4th: -θi

Maturity

[məˈtʃʊə.rə.ti, -ˈtʃɔː-, -ˈtjʊə-, -ˈtjɔː-, -rɪ-, US -ˈtʊr.ə.t̬i, -ˈtjʊr-, -ˈtʃʊr-] 1st: 4

2nd: 89

3rd: 1

1st: me-, mʌ-, tʃər-, mæ-

2nd: -tʃə-, -tʃʊ-, -tjo-, -dʒe-, -

tʃuː-, -tʃe-

3rd: -ri-, -ə-

4th: -rə-, -θi, -tʃɪ

5th: -ti


125



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Necessity

[nəˈses.ə.t|i, nɪ-, -ɪ.t|i, US nəˈses.ə.t̬|i] 1st: 7

2nd: 80

3rd: 7

1st: ne-, nje-

2nd: -sɪs-, -seːs-, -səs-, -səːs-, -

sərs-, -tʃəs-, -tʃes-, -seʃ-

3rd: -ʊr-, -ti, -iː-

4th: -i-, -θi

5th: -ti

Originality

[əˌrɪdʒ.ənˈæl.ə.t|i, ɒrˌɪdʒ-, -ɪˈnæl-, -ɪ.t|i, US əˌrɪdʒ.ɪˈnæl.ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 3

3rd: 9

4th: 73

5th: 6

1st: o-, ɑːr-, aʊ-

2nd: -ridʒ-

3rd: -in-, -iːn-

4th: -iæl-, -ʌl-, -ɑːl-, -el-, -əl-

5th: -i-

6th: -θi


126



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT




numbers)

Penalty

[ˈpen.əl.t|i] 1st: 50

2nd: 44

1st: pen-(closed e), pɪn-, piːn-,

paɪn-, pən-, peːn- (closed e), fen-

2nd: -al-, -ɑːl-, -el-

Reality

[riˈæl.ə.t|i, -ɪ.t|i, US -ə.t̬|i] 1st: 3

2nd: 91

1st: re-, rʊɪ-, rə-, rɪ-, rɑːl-

2nd: -əl-, -ʌl-, -el-, -ɑːl-, -jæl-, -ɪ-

3rd: -i-, -iː-, -ti

Royalty

[ˈrɔɪ.əl.t|i, ˈrɔɪəl-, US ˈrɔɪ.əl.t|i] 1st: 48

2nd: 46

1st: rɔːɪ-, rɔː-, rɪ-, ro-, rə-, re-, rjɔl-

2nd: -jəl-, -jʌl-, -jaːl-, -jel-, -ʌl-, -ti

3rd: -i-

4th: -ti


127



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT




numbers)

Simplicity

[sɪmˈplɪs.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i] 1st: 5

2nd: 85

3rd: 4

1st: ʃɪm-, sim-

2nd: -plis-, -ples-, -pliːs-, -pləs-, -

plaɪs-, -plɪʃ-

3rd: -i-

Sustainability

[səˌsteɪ.nəˈbɪl.ə.ti, -ɪ.ti, US -ə.t̬i]

2nd: 21

3rd: 4

4th: 67

5th: 1

1st: sʊ-, sʌ-, sʌb-

2nd: -ste-, -stæ-, -steiː-, -stʌ-, -stə-

3rd: -ne-, -nʌ-, -næ-, -nɪ-, -ni-

4th: -bil-, -bel-, -biːl-, -bəl-, -beɪ-

5th: -li-, -liː-

Unity

[ˈjuː.nə.t|i, -nɪ-, US -nə.t̬|i] 1st: 76

2nd: 17

2nd: -naɪ-, -ni-, -niː-

3rd: -θi


128

Appendix E: Data Summary of ion-suffixed Words

-ion Suffix


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING




INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSONANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the


ordinal numbers)

Action

[ˈæk.ʃən] 1st: 94 1st: ek-, aek-, eɪk-

2nd: -ʃjən

Attraction

[əˈtræk.ʃən] 1st: 1

2nd: 93

1st: eɪ-, e-, æ-

2nd: -trek-, -treɪk-

3rd: -ʃəns, -ʃjən

Collection

[kəˈlek.ʃən] 1st: 1

2nd: 93

1st: ko-, krə-, kʰo-, kᵊlek-

2nd: -leɪk-

3rd: -ʃɪ-

4th: -ən


129

-ion Suffix (continued)


THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSON-

ANTS PER SYLLABLE*

(the syllables are


numbers)

Communication

[kəˌmjuː.nɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -nəˈ-] 1st: 2

2nd: 6

3rd: 8

4th: 77

1st: ko-, kɔ-, kʌ-

2nd: -mʊ-

3rd: -ni-, -niː-

4th: -ke-

5th: -ʃɪn, -ʃəns, -ʒən, -sjən, -

ʃjən, -ʃɪ-

6th: -ən

Decoration

[ˌdek.əˈreɪ.ʃən, US -əˈreɪ-] 1st: 3

2nd: 15

3rd: 75

1st: dɪk-, de-

2nd: -o-, -ɒ-, -mo-

3rd: -re-, -kreɪ-

4th: -sjən, -ʃjən, -ʃəns, -ʃɪ-

5th: -ən


130



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT

VOWELS/CONSON-

ANTS PER SYLLABLE*

(the syllables are


numbers)

Demonstration

[ˌdem.ənˈstreɪ.ʃən] 1st: 2

2nd: 18

3rd: 74

1st: dim-

2nd: -ɒn-, -ɔn-, -ɔs-, -əs-

3rd: -stre-, -stra-

4th: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -sjɔn

Election

[iˈlek.ʃən] 1st: 4

2nd: 89

3rd: 1

1st: e-, ɪ-, ə-

2nd: -leɪk-

3rd : -ʃjən

Graduation

[ˌɡrædʒ.uˈeɪ.ʃən, ˌɡræd.juˈ-, US ˌɡrædʒ.uˈ-] 1st: 11

2nd: 15

3rd: 67

1st: grad-, gred-, greɪ-

2nd: -uː-

3rd: -e-

4th: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃjənt, -ʃəns


131



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the syllables

are indicated by the ordinal

numbers)


ANTS PER SYLLABLE* (the

syllables are indicated by the ordinal

numbers)

Imagination

[ɪˌmædʒ.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən, -əˈ-] 1st: 1

2nd: 7

3rd: 6

4th : 78

2nd: -medʒ-, -mɪdʒ-, -mɑːdʒ-

3rd: -iː-

4th: -ne-

5th: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃɪ-

6th: -ən

Intention

[ɪnˈten.tʃən] 1st: 6

2nd: 88

1st: ɪ-

2nd: -teːn-, -teɪn-, -θen-

3rd: -ʃjən, -e-, -ʃɪən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənd

4th: -ʃjən

Justification

[ˌdʒʌs.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -tə-, -fəˈ-, US -tə-, -tɪ-] 1st: 5

2nd: 3

1st: dʒas-

2nd: -tiː-


132



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the syllables are





Justification

[ˌdʒʌs.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -tə-, -fəˈ-, US -tə-, -tɪ-] 3rd: 5

4th: 81

3rd: -fiː-

4th: -ke-

5th: -ʃjən, -ʃjənd, -ʒən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt

Location

[ləʊˈkeɪ.ʃən, US loʊ-] 1st: 6

2nd: 88

1st: lo-, lɔ-, lɔː-

2nd: -ke-, -ka-, -keː-

3rd: -ʃjən, -ʃjəns, -ʒən, -lɪ-, -ʃɪ-, -ʃjənt

4th: -ʃɪ-, -ən

5th: -ɔn

Notification

[ˌnəʊ.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən, -tə-, -fəˈ-, US ˌnoʊ.t̬ə-] 1st: 5

3rd: 6

4th: 83

1st: nɒ-, nɔ-

2nd: -ti-

3rd: -fiː-

4th: -ke-

5th: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃjənd


133



PRONUNCIATION

THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS STRESSING

CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT VOWELS/CONSON-ANTS

PER SYLLABLE* (the syllables are


Option

[ˈɒp.ʃən, US ˈɑːp-] 1st: 94 1st: ɔːp-, oʊp-

2nd: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃjənd

Pollution

[pəˈluː.ʃən, -ˈljuː-, US -ˈluː-] 1st: 8

2nd: 86

1st: pɔ-, pʰɔ-

3rd: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃjənd

Protection

[prəˈtek.ʃən, US prə-, proʊ-] 1st: 2

2nd: 91

3rd: 1

1st: pro-

2nd: -tɪk-, -teːk-, -θek-

3rd: -ʃjən, -ʒən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃjənd

Region

[ˈriː.dʒən] 1st: 90

2nd: 3

1st: re-, reɪ-

2nd: -dʒi-, -gjən-, -dʒjən, -dʒənd

3rd: -ən, -ɔn

Selection

[sɪˈlek.ʃən, sə-, US sə-] 1st: 1

2nd: 92

3rd: 1

2nd: -leːk-

3rd: -ʃjən, -sən, -ʃjəns, -ʃjənt, -ʃjɔŋ, -ʃjɔn


134



THE NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

STRESSING CERTAIN

SYLLABLE(S)* (the



INCORRECT

VOWELS/CON-

SONANTS PER

SYLLABLE* (the


by the ordinal

numbers)

Submission

[səbˈmɪʃ.ən] 1st: 21

2nd: 73

1st: sʌb-

2nd: -miːʃ-, -mɪs-, -miː-

3rd: -jən, -jəns, -jənt, -

sɪ-, -ʃɪ-

4th: -ən

Translation

[trænzˈleɪ.ʃən, trɑːnzˈ- træntˈsleɪ-, trɑːntˈ-, US trænˈsleɪ- US trænzˈleɪ-] 1st: 23

2nd: 71

1st: tren-, trens-, trəns-,

trans-, θræn-, trənz-

2nd: -sle-, -le-, -leː-, -

klɪ-, -eɪ-

3rd: -ʃjən, -sjən, -ʒən, -

ʃjəns, -ʃɪ-

4th: -ən


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