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Question

Difficulty: EasyWord and Syllable Stress

Match each of the following English words with the correct representation of its primary syllable stress pattern.

  • democracyde-MOC-ra-cy (Second syllable stressed)
  • academicac-a-DEM-ic (Third syllable stressed)
  • export (verb)ex-PORT (Second syllable stressed)
  • civilizationciv-i-li-ZA-tion (Fourth syllable stressed)

Answer

democracy matches de-MOC-ra-cy; academic matches ac-a-DEM-ic; export (verb) matches ex-PORT; civilization matches civ-i-li-ZA-tion.
Each word is matched to its established primary stress schema based on English stress assignment rules: 'democracy' (de-MOC-ra-cy) has antepenultimate stress; 'academic' (ac-a-DEM-ic) has penultimate stress due to '-ic'; 'export' as a verb (ex-PORT) takes second-syllable stress; and 'civilization' (civ-i-li-ZA-tion) takes stress on the syllable preceding '-tion'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the suffix and grammatical class of each target word.
'democracy' ends in '-cy', 'academic' ends in '-ic', 'export' is a disyllabic verb, and 'civilization' ends in '-tion'.
English primary word stress is largely determined by morphological suffixes and word class.
2
Apply English stress assignment rules for suffixes and word classes.
'-cy' attracts antepenultimate stress (de-MOC-ra-cy); '-ic' attracts penultimate stress (ac-a-DEM-ic); disyllabic verbs take final/second syllable stress (ex-PORT); '-tion' attracts penultimate stress (civ-i-li-ZA-tion).
Matching each pattern correctly yields the standard primary stress placements assessed in JAMB UTME.

Key Concept

Suffix-driven and grammatical class primary stress placement rules
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Topics

Word and Syllable Stress

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