Sentence stress

Which words in the sentence carry

stress?
Distinguish between:

LEXICAL WORDS
(content words, open-class items)
nouns
adjectives
adverbs
lexical verbs

STRUCTURAL WORDS
(functional words, closed-class
items)
prepositions
pronouns
auxiliary verbs
 Placement of sentence stress
1 Sentence stress falls on the STRESSED
SYLLABLES of all lexical words

'sort, ob'jection, re'ceive, Mc'Cartney

 Placement of sentence stress
1a If the stressed word also has secondary
streses:
international, observation, quartercentenary

show the main stress

for long words and careful speech, show both
stresses
 Its an international committee

Its a question of predestination

 Placement of sentence stress
2 Stuctural words may carry
sentence-stress if emphasised in
some way:
(a) when cited: How do you spell
"than"?
Compare: bigger than me
 Placement of sentence stress
2 Stuctural words may carry
sentence-stress if emphasised in
some way:
(b) for emphasis:
I don't think I can do it
But I think you can do it
 Placement of sentence stress
3 Polysyllabic structural words may
carry sentence-stress:
until behind
 Placement of sentence stress
4 Adverbs are usually stressed, even if
they are technically structural words:
She 'jumped 'off the 'table

It's 'too 'late to 'change our 'minds

 Placement of sentence stress
5 Adverbs of position carry sentence
stress:
I'm 'not 'coming 'here a'gain

I 'left it 'over 'there

 Placement of sentence stress
6 Demonstratives are stressed:

'This 'book is 'really 'worth 'reading

'That's the 'stupidest i'dea I ve 'ever 'heard

 Placement of sentence stress
7 Negatives are stressed:
I'm 'not 'coming 'here a'gain

We 'can t ex'pect 'everything

I 'hope you 'won t be an'noyed

Four weeks ago, with the finance system
in freefall, Grimsson underwent a heart
operation. He emerged to make a TV
appearance in which he begged his
compatriots to forgive him for making what
- he could see in retrospect - was a
buffoonish spectacle of himself as head of
a country now perceived globally as an
ostentatious upstart, and by some (such
as Gordon Brown) as a debt-defaulting
pariah.