A particular kind of narrow focus is contrastive focus. Here the nuclear accent draws attention to a contrast the speaker is making. Any following material within the same IP is unaccented and forms part of the tail of the IP:
In this example the contrast is between started and finished. In such cases the repeated, non-contrastive material (here, the second your essay) is often replaced by a pronoun, or entirely omitted:
You ▸may have ⤵⤴started your essay, | but ▸have you ⤵finished it? You ▸may have ⤵⤴started your essay, | but ▸have you ⤵finished?
In the next example, the contrastive focus is between Phillip and Jim:
'Philip | can run faster than 'Jim can run. 'Philip | can run faster than 'Jim can. 'Philip | can run faster than 'Jim.
The accent on the first item in the contrast is not necessarily nuclear. It is also possible for everything to be in one IP, thus:
â–¸Philip can run faster than 'Jim can. etc.
B
Any word can be accented for contrast, including function word. A pronoun, a preposition, virtually any word, can bear the nucleus, if it is contrastive:
⤵⤴I'm | ▸writing a letter. || ▸What are ⤵you doing?
I ▸know what ⤵⤴Peter wants, | but what do ⤵you want?
It ▸wasn't ⤵⤴under the table, | but ▸actually ⤵on it.
I can ▸send a fax ⤵⤴to him, | but I ▸can't receive one ⤵from him.
C
Sometimes there is a double contrast. It is then the speaker's choice whether to make both contrasts nuclear, or just one of them:
When a radio or TV announcer reports the result of a football match, there is usually a double contrast. One contrast is between the name of the home team and the name of the away team. The other is the contrast between the two scores. So all four words are accented.
In case of a draw game, however, the score achieved by the second team is a repetition of that achieved by the first - so it is usually treated as repeated (old), and is not accented. So we get:
'Arsenal | 'two, || 'Fulham two. or â–¸Arsenal 'two, | â–¸Fulham 'two. or even â–¸Arsenal two, | 'Fulham two.
In the last version the speak has to think ahead, in order to remove focus not only from the repeated item (here, the seconde two) but also the item that is going to be repeated (the first two - see
A contrast may be explicit, as in the above examples, or implicit. If it is implicit, the hearer is left to infer the other term in the contrast:
I ▸don't know what ⤵⤴you're complaining about
Here there is an implicit contrast between the addressee (you) and some other possible complainant who may have better grounds for complaint than the addressee.
〉 Fruit's terribly expensive these days. 》 ⤵⤴Apples aren't too bad.
Here there is an implicit contrast with other kinds of fruit, which the second speaker implicitly agrees is indeed expensive.
I â–¸love your 'hair
This example is ambiguous focus. It could be either (i) a broad focus comment, perhaps initiating a new conversation:
Hi, Jennifer! How are you today? I â–¸love your 'hair
or (ii) a narrow focus response, focusing on hair, in a situation where love or synonym had already been brought into discussion. For example, it could be a narrow focus response in the conversation exchange:
〉 What do you like about me? 》 Well I ▸love your 'hair
If, on the other hand, the nucleus were on love, the could only be a narrow-focus response in a situation where hair was taken as given.
〉 But darling, don't you like my hair? 》 I 'love your hair.
E
Sometimes a pattern of contrastive focus is lexicalized. For example, between 'monosyllable and 'polysyllable.
In athletics two of the disciplines are high jump and long jump. Here, too, contrastive focus has been lexicalized, and these expressions - despite being grammatically phrases, adjective plus noun - have the fixed stress patterns 'high jump, 'long jump. This is maintained in metaphorical uses:
â–¸John's in for the 'high jump. (= He'll be punished for what he's done.)
A similar explanation presumably applies to high school. Originally there was an implicit contrast with primary school and elementary school, but now the pattern is fixed. We see the same thing in 'high street. The same principle also applies to the phrase the de'veloping countries, now is fixed implicit contrast to the *developed countries.
London Underground lines have lexicalized contrastive focus: the 'Central Line, the 'Northern Line