AN ANALYSIS OF STRESS USING METRICAL GRID IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF SELECTED FEDERAL RADIO CORPORATION OF NIGERIA AND VOICE OF NIGERIA NEWSCASTERS

Abstract

The research seeks to examine the stress usage using Metrical Grid in the pronunciation of selected newscasters of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria. Some related literature were reviewed. The Metrical Grid Approach by Liberman and Prince was adopted as a theoretical framework. Three newscasters were selected from each radio station. The newscasts were recorded, transcribed and examined. Twenty (20) words that comprised bisyllabic and polysyllabic words were tested from each of the newscaster, while five sentences/phrases were used to test the stress at the sentence/phrase level. The findings of the research showed that both the newscasters from FRCN and VON have fewer problems in the stress usage of bisylllabic words. However, in the polysyllabic words the result indicated that the newscasters encountered difficulties as none of them got 80%. The study also revealed that there appeared to be major problems in the observation of the sentence/phrase stress shift, as only three (3) newscasters out of the six (6) got more than 50%. The findings also indicated that neither ethnic background nor educational attainment was responsible for the poor stress placement by the newscasters.