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Araucaria - him
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Secondary and primary stress in English Do sentences have primary and secondary stresses?

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Zoltan King
Zoltan King
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I know that stress can shift in an English phrase or sentence to emphasize the words that mean more specifically what the speaker wishes to express, however I'm talking about the general stress where content words are stressed and function words are reduced. For instance,

I WENT to the STORE to BUY MILK.

I read a book on the American accent which says that the primary stress is usually on the last content word in sentences. I think, in phonetics that is called the nuclear stress or final inflection. In the case above, that word is MILK.

I WENT to the STORE to BUY ↘︎MILK.

Which bringsmakes me to the ideathink that all other content words are secondary stressed and only the last one gets the primary stress. So, a sentence (or a thought group) can only have one primary stressed syllable. Am I right?

More examples:

It MUST be the ↘︎STORM.

MUST = Secondary stress

STORM = Primary stress

WHAT ↘︎HAPpened?

WHAT = Secondary stress

HAP = Primary stress

Can I ↗︎SEE it?

SEE = Primary stress

I guess after the nuclear stress there cannot be stressed words anymore, if I shift stress and stress the pronoun now:

↘︎I went to the store to buy milk.

then everything falls down after the pronoun. Right?

I know that stress can shift in an English phrase or sentence to emphasize the words that mean more specifically what the speaker wishes to express, however I'm talking about the general stress where content words are stressed and function words are reduced. For instance,

I WENT to the STORE to BUY MILK.

I read a book on the American accent which says that the primary stress is usually on the last content word in sentences. I think, in phonetics that is called the nuclear stress or final inflection. In the case above, that word is MILK.

I WENT to the STORE to BUY ↘︎MILK.

Which brings me to the idea that all other content words are secondary stressed and only the last one gets the primary stress. So, a sentence (or a thought group) can only have one primary stressed syllable. Am I right?

More examples:

It MUST be the ↘︎STORM.

MUST = Secondary stress

STORM = Primary stress

WHAT ↘︎HAPpened?

WHAT = Secondary stress

HAP = Primary stress

Can I ↗︎SEE it?

SEE = Primary stress

I guess after the nuclear stress there cannot be stressed words anymore, if I shift stress and stress the pronoun now:

↘︎I went to the store to buy milk.

then everything falls down after the pronoun. Right?

I know that stress can shift in an English phrase or sentence to emphasize the words that mean more specifically what the speaker wishes to express, however I'm talking about the general stress where content words are stressed and function words are reduced. For instance,

I WENT to the STORE to BUY MILK.

I read a book on the American accent which says that the primary stress is usually on the last content word in sentences. I think, in phonetics that is called the nuclear stress or final inflection. In the case above, that word is MILK.

I WENT to the STORE to BUY ↘︎MILK.

Which makes me think that all other content words are secondary stressed and only the last one gets the primary stress. So, a sentence (or a thought group) can only have one primary stressed syllable. Am I right?

More examples:

It MUST be the ↘︎STORM.

MUST = Secondary stress

STORM = Primary stress

WHAT ↘︎HAPpened?

WHAT = Secondary stress

HAP = Primary stress

Can I ↗︎SEE it?

SEE = Primary stress

I guess after the nuclear stress there cannot be stressed words anymore, if I shift stress and stress the pronoun now:

↘︎I went to the store to buy milk.

then everything falls down after the pronoun. Right?

Source Link
Zoltan King
Zoltan King
  • 395
  • 4
  • 7

Secondary and primary stress in English sentences

I know that stress can shift in an English phrase or sentence to emphasize the words that mean more specifically what the speaker wishes to express, however I'm talking about the general stress where content words are stressed and function words are reduced. For instance,

I WENT to the STORE to BUY MILK.

I read a book on the American accent which says that the primary stress is usually on the last content word in sentences. I think, in phonetics that is called the nuclear stress or final inflection. In the case above, that word is MILK.

I WENT to the STORE to BUY ↘︎MILK.

Which brings me to the idea that all other content words are secondary stressed and only the last one gets the primary stress. So, a sentence (or a thought group) can only have one primary stressed syllable. Am I right?

More examples:

It MUST be the ↘︎STORM.

MUST = Secondary stress

STORM = Primary stress

WHAT ↘︎HAPpened?

WHAT = Secondary stress

HAP = Primary stress

Can I ↗︎SEE it?

SEE = Primary stress

I guess after the nuclear stress there cannot be stressed words anymore, if I shift stress and stress the pronoun now:

↘︎I went to the store to buy milk.

then everything falls down after the pronoun. Right?