- There’s a change in pitch on the prominent word. It
usually has a higher pitch than the words around it,
although this may be di"erent if the sentence ends in
rising intonation, as in a yes/no question. (There’s more
about intonation in Chapter 11.) - The stressed syllable of the prominent word is a bit
longer in duration than the other syllables. - The vowel sound in the stressed syllable of the prominent
word is clear and distinct. It’s not reduced.
Just as with word stress, it’s also important to make the other
words in the sentence weaker so that the prominent word
will stand out in contrast.
Which word has prominence?
In order to make the rhythm of English sound natural, we
emphasize content words (the “important” words that carry
meaning in themselves) and weaken function words (words
that show the grammatical relationships between other
words). The tables in Boxes 9.2 and 9.3 in the previous
chapter list examples of content words and function words.
In a typical thought group, there are both content words and
function words, which are made up of stressed and unstressed
syllables. All the stressed syllables can receive some
emphasis, but only one syllable in one of those words
receives prominence. How can we tell which word should
receive prominence? There are several guidelines that can
help us predict the prominent word.The “last content word” rule
In most thought groups, when there’s nothing special that the
speaker needs to emphasize, the last content word in the
thought group receives prominence. All the words in
that thought group after the prominent syllable are
unstressed and often low-pitched, even if they normally
would be stressed. This is the “default” stress pattern for
typical sentences.
I’ve already started to read the TEXTbook.
There’s so much useful inforMAtion in it.
I think I’ll read it aGAIN.
Do your homework quickly and CAREfully.
Please be QUIet. I’m trying to STUDy.However, if there are adverbs telling a place or time at the
end of a thought group, they are often unstressed and at a
low pitch. (Lane 2010 p. 97)We went to DISneyland yesterday.
I’d like to GO there sometime.
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