Other unfocused adverbs and adverbials

In keeping with the general rule that the nucleus goes on the last in-focus lexical item, descriptive adverbs, i.e. adverbs of manner that modify the verb, do tend to bear the nucleus if they are at the end of the clause.

However, there are several types of adverbs and adverbial phrases that - contrary to the general rule - do not get accented when at the end of a clause. They remain out of focus. Like adverbs of place and manner, they go in tail, with the nucleus on some earlier word.

We would divide them into two lists. Those in the first list are straightforward:

• then (inferential, meaning 'in that case', not 'at the time')
• though
• or so, even
• sort of (thing), as it were
• a bit
• you know

Those in the second list (following) tend to behave in the same way, although alternatively they can be accented, taking the nucleus in their own IP (usually a rise):

• if necessary, of course
• please, thanks, thank you
• in a way
• or thereabouts
• for a change, for ...'s sake
• in fact, as a matter of fact
• I would/should have thought, I imagine
• enough

The adverb enough is usually unaccented when it follows an adjective. As an adjective or noun, though, it attracts the nucleus in the usual way.

In general, the adverb _indeed_ is accented:

However there is one spoken idiom in which it is not accented, namely when it is used in a short response question with a fall, to show that you are surprised or annoyed by something someone has just told you:

The word again, when at the end of a clause, is usually accented if used in its basic sense of 'one more time', since in that sense it is often contrastive. However, it is not accented when it means 'back to previous state', nor in other more or less idiomatic uses:

Et cetera and its synonyms (and so on, and so forth, and whatnot, and stuff, and things, and the like, and such like) are usually kept out of foucs: