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Question

Difficulty: MediumWord and Syllable Stress

Complete the sentence below by supplying the correctly stressed syllabified forms of the word 'protest' using capitalized letters to denote the primary stressed syllable.

Answer:Although the union members decided to 【pro-TEST】 against the new policy, their peaceful 【PRO-test】 was ignored by management.

Answer

The first blank requires the verb form 'pro-TEST' with stress on the second syllable, while the second blank requires the noun form 'PRO-test' with stress on the first syllable.
The word 'protest' operates as an infinitive verb in the first clause, requiring primary stress on the second syllable (pro-TEST). In the second clause, it serves as a noun head of the noun phrase 'their peaceful protest', which places primary stress on the first syllable (PRO-test).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the grammatical category of the word in each context.
In the first position, following the infinitive marker 'to', the word functions as a verb. In the second position, following the modifier 'peaceful', the word functions as a noun.
Syntactic context dictates whether a word functions as a verb or a noun in English.
2
Apply stress placement rules for disyllabic noun-verb homographs.
Disyllabic verbs take primary stress on the final syllable (pro-TEST), whereas disyllabic nouns take primary stress on the initial syllable (PRO-test).
Stress shift distinguishes the grammatical function of disyllabic homographs in Oral English.

Key Concept

Grammatical Category Stress Shift in Disyllabic Words
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Topics

Word and Syllable Stress

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