II. Prepositions and Conjunctions

Variations in Sentence Stress

Sentence Stress

The Fall-Rise

The Fall-Rise is a complex tone. It consists of two elements: the falling part and the rising part. The Fall-Rise can be high (emphatic) and low (neutral), but the fall is always higher than the rise.

It is realised in speech in two allotones the use of which depends on the structure of the word that takes it.

We speak about the Fall-Rise:

· Compressed into one syllable (undivided)

ëYes.||

· Spread over a number of syllables or words (divided).

°Real,ly…||

As a °matter of,fact.||

The Fall-Rise is often called an implicatory tone. It may convey different attitudes, such as warning, hesitation, concern, correction, contradiction, contrast, apology.

The Fall-Rise is mostly used in:

1. Implicatory statements.

2. Requests.

3. Apology.

4. Non-terminal intonation groups, often tempo rises.

It is usually preceded by the Sliding Scale, though the Stepping Scale is also possible.

Sentence stress is greater prominence given to one or more words in a sentence. In emotionally neutral speech sentence stress is more or less equally distributed among all the notional words of the sentence. The normally accented words are:

1. Nouns.

2. Pronouns: demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, emphatic, absolute.

3. Notional verbs.

4. Adjectives.

5. Numerals.

6. Interjections.

The unstressed elements as a rule are:

1. Pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive, relative.

2. Auxiliary verbs.

3. Prepositions.

4. Conjunctions.

5. Articles.

6. Particles.

Sentence stress, to a greater degree, is determined by three factors:

1. By the relative semantic importance of words in the sentence which results in logical stress.

2. By the rhythmical structure of the sentence.

3. By the style of speech.

I. Auxiliary and modal verbs are stressed:

1. In short answers and in negative contracted forms, e. g. °Yes,| I °do.|| You "needn’t °worry.||

2. When “do” is used for emphasis, e. g. I °do.||

3. In slow colloquial style when they begin general or alternative questions, e. g. "Are you a ™student? "Can you ™help me?||

Note. In rapid colloquial style there is a tendency not to stress them, e. g. Are you a ™student?||

They are mostly unstressed when followed by the demonstrative pronouns “this” and “that”, e. g. Is "this a ™book? Can "this be ™true?||

1. In sentence-initial position they may be stressed when followed by an unstressed syllable (slow colloquial style).

Slow coll. Rapid coll.

"As to my ™future.|| As to my ™future.||

"If she "wants to ™help her…|| If she "wants to ™help her…||

Note. 1. In case a preposition or a conjunction is followed by a proper noun it takes no stress, e. g. If Nina wants to help her…

2. Sentence-initial “but” and “and” are unstressed, e. g. But he would "never °do it.|| And in a ™moment…||

Prepositions and conjunctions in sentence-final position, though unstressed have vowels of full formation, e. g. "What are you °looking at/{t/?|| "What are you °listening to /tu·/?||

III. Interrogative pronouns “what”, “how”, “when”, “why” take no stress in the following type of utterances (they often become high-prehead syllables), e. g. çHow °are you? çWhere °is it?

IV. “What” and “how” in exclamatory sentences followed by some emotionally coloured words take no accent, e.g. How èhorrible!|| What èfine èweather we are ™having to·day!||

V. “How many”, “how much” (rhythmical variations), e.g.

çHow °many?|| "How many °books?||

but

çHow °much?|| "How much °money?||

VI. Any word at its second appearance takes no stress, e. g. "How many °books? – °Two %books.||

VII. “More” and “most” as comparative and superlative degrees take no accent, e. g. The "text is more "difficult than I ex°pected.||

VIII. “Street” and “square” are stressed in the following way: In °Gorky %Street. In "Red °Square.||

IX. Logical stress can be laid on any word semantically important for the speaker. Sentence stress on the words that follow it either disappears or becomes partial, e. g. Do ™you ·speak ·English?||

Note. In “there + be” construction logical stress is fixed on the subject thus leaving an adverbial modifier of place unstressed, e. g. There are "many "places of °interest in Kiev. ||

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