SENTENCE-STRESS

A separate word, used as a sentence, is always stressed.

e.g. Nonsense.|| Listen.||In a sentence, consisting of more than one word, some words are
stressed, some are unstressed. Words that are generally stressed are called notional. These are:
nouns, adjectives, notional verbs, adverbs, numerals, interrogative and demonstrative pronouns.
Words that are normally unstressed in a sentence are called structural. They are: articles,
prepositions, conjunctions, particles, auxiliary and modal verbs, personal and possessive
pronouns.
But there are some special cases that should be taken care of.

1. Auxiliary, modal verbs and the verb “to be” are stressed:
a) in general and alternative questions. Eg. 'Were you busy? || 'Do you 'liketea?||
b) in short answers to general questions. Eg. 'Have you seen him? || – Yes, I have.||
c) in contracted negative forms. Eg. He 'doesn’t know it.||
d) “to be” is stressed when it is final and preceded by an unstressed subject. Eg. 'Here we are.||
e) “to do” is stressed in emphatic sentences. Eg. ' Do 'go a way!|| ' Do come!||

2. Prepositions are usually stressed if they consist of 2-3 syllables and are followed by an
unstressed personal pronoun at the end of the sense-group. Eg. The 'dog 'ran after him.||

3. Conjunctions are stressed at the beginning of the sentence, followed by an unstressed word.
Eg. 'If he drives,| he may be here at any moment.|| Compare: When (If) 'Peter drives |…

4. Notional words are not stressed when they are repeated in a sense-group. Eg. How many
books have you got?|| - Two books.||

5. The word “one” is unstressed in such expressions as “good one”, “black one”. Eg. I don’t
like this green pen. 'Show me a black one. ||

6. The word “most”

a) is not stressed when it means “very, extremely”. Eg. 'This is a most beautiful picture.||
b) is stressed in the superlative degree of the adjective. Eg. 'This is the 'most interesting
book I’ve read.||

7. The word “good”

a) is not stressed in such expressions as “Good morning, good evening” on meeting.
Eg. Good morning, Miss Mason.||
b) is stressed in these expressions on leave-taking. Eg. 'Good morning!||

8. The pronoun “each” is not stressed in the expression each other. EgThey like each other.||

9. The adverb “so” is not stressed. Eg. I think so.||

10. The expression “and so on” is not stressed. Eg. … books,¿ magazines and so on.||

11. The conjunction “as” in the expressions ‘as well as, as much as’ is not stressed. Eg. He’ll
come| as well as I shall.||
12. The word “street” in the names is never stressed. Eg. Regent Street.||
13. The word “what” in exclamations is not stressed. Eg. What a 'fine day!||

14. The word “such” followed by an emphatic word is not stressed. Eg. Such a 'curious
shape!||

The degree of stress in the stressed words differs. It depends on the relative importance of it.
There are three main functional types of sentence stress: syntagmatic, syntactical, logical.
Syntagmatic stress represents the most important functional type as it singles out the semantic
center of the sentence (or sense-group). The syntagmatic stress is usually realized in the last
stressed word and is stronger than the stress on the preceding words.
Syntactic stress makes the other words semantically important within the utterance. These
words are mostly pronounced on level pitches.
e.g. I’m 'sending you 'two 'tickets for the ˛theatre.||
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syntactic stress syntagmatic stress

Logical stress is connected with shifting the syntagmatic stress from its normal place on the
last stressed word to one of the preceding words; in this way a new utterance with a new
semantic center is created.
Compare: 'Jack 'likes fish.||
'Jack likes fish.||
Jack likes fish.||