Pronouns and demonstratives

Pronouns

A

As discussed in

, we do not usually accent personal pronouns:

However, we do accent a pronoun if it is placed in contrastive focus. We frequently want to emphasize a contrast between one person and another:

Although this change of person can be made explicit (= expressed openly), it is often left implicit: Pronominal determiners (my, your, his, etc.) may be made nuclear for the same reason: In the case of in my opinion the implication is but others may have other opinions or but you may disagree. The speaker does not need to actually say this explicitly - the contrast is implied by the choice of tonicity. In colloquial conversation the implications of marked tonicity are very frequently left without explicit expression: -- With such implication as "Your're the one who usually gets interesting letters, but today things are different".

B

The complement of the verb to be regularly receives the nucleus, even if it is a pronoun. This is another common reason to locate the nucleus on a pronoun, and can often (though not always) be analyzed as involving narrow or contrastive focus:

The nucleus remains on the pronoun if it and the verb are ellipted (= omitted): Alternatively, the same idea can be expressed with the pronoun as subject. It is still in focus, and bears the nucleus:

C

The general rule is that pronouns are stressed only if they are contrastive. However, there are various more or less idiomatic usages in which we focus on pronoun despite there being no obvious contrast with any other item:

English also has a number of idioms involving fixed tonicity: fossilized idiomatic expressions said with a particular information. In the following, a pronoun has a falling nuclear tone:

D

In clause final position the possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs) tend inherently to convey new information and so attract the nucleus. They are usually in implicit contrast with other possessive expressions:

However, this does not apply to the post-modifier construction of mine, of yours, etc., where the possessive is usually not accented:

Demonstratives

Final demonstratives, too, namely this, that, these, those, tend to convey new information, and attract the nucleus:

Final there usually attracts the nucleus if it refers to a place that is new (= not previously mentioned), but not if it refers to a place that is given (=already mentioned or obvious from the context). When it is a post-modifier, it is usually not accented: