IULC Publications

Pragmatic Determinants of English Sentence Stress

By Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig

Dr. Bardovi-Harlig develops here a functional hypothesis of English sentence stress, proposing that it is sensitive to context. Specifically, she claims that the two major beats of the stress contour (the 'stress skeleton') coincide with two points of functional prominence, falling on the theme and the rheme. By means of the functional hypothesis, one is able to account for a variety of data and to eliminate the need for restricted categories and special stress assignment rules.

84 pages
$5.00

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