Contrastive focus overrides other factors

A

We sometimes put the nucleus on a 'given' item because we need to place the item in contrastive focus. This arises particularly when we correct another speaker. Because it is in contrast, the repeated material nevertheless receives the nuclear accent:

Consider also the following example: In this example, early counts as information already given (since 5.am is early in the day). Although get up is also given, the need to draw the contrast between it and be late to bed leads the speaker to accent it, indeed to place nucleus on it.

If there is new information following a contrastive nucleus, it has to be made into a separate IP:

In this example there is a contrastive nucleus on he. But right, which follows, conveys new information, and must therefore has its own nucleus in a separate IP.

B

Contrastive focus may override lexical stress patterns, too. In particular, a regular early-stressed compound may get late accent for reasons of contrast. For example both 'birthday card and 'birthday present have lexical stress on the first element, birthday. Yet with contrastive tonicity you might say:

Names of localities usually have lexical double stress: thus Trafalgar 'Square, Raynes 'Park (see

). This pattern can be overridden under contrastive focus. A common case is in the list. Here we often see examples of the thinking-ahead principle mentioned above

3.8

, namely that of removing accenting from an item that is about to be repeated as well as the item that is actually repeated.

Occasionally we may focus on part of a word only. This may mean that the contrastive accent goes on a syllable different from the one bearing the main lexical stress.

Prefixes and suffixes may receive contrastive focus

Note that the stress pattern of contracted negatives is never overriden. That is, we never emphasize negative polarity by accenting n't part of didn't, wasn't, etc. (We do have the option of undoing the contraction and accenting not)

Contrastiveness also overrides the usual rules about special function words such as reflexive (

)