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Vocal stress
In linguistics, vocal stress is the accent or emphasis given to each syllable in a piece of writing, as determined by conventional pronunciation. The amount and importance of vocal stress varies in languages. In some languages, vocal stress can determine the meaning of a word.
For example, in English, the word record changes its meaning according to vocal stress:
- record, the noun
- record, the verb
Poetry in English depends upon vocal stress to establish the meter of the poem. The vocal stress is usually thought of as strong or weak. Some people distinguish a third, intermediate stress level.
Example: In the word reconsider, the stress pattern is 'recon'sider (intermediate - weak - strong - weak).
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