Phrasal Stress

Abstract

The representation of phrasal stress extends the representation of word stress upward by at least two levels. Syntactic influences on phrasal stress have been captured by the Nuclear Stress Rule of Chomsky and Halle, the Sentence Accent Assignment Rule of Gussenhoven, and a proposal by Cinque. The results point toward the generalization that each syntactic XP must contain phrasal stress on the lower level and that the last of these is strengthened on the level of the intonation phrase. Focus affects phrasal stress in two ways: focus as captured in Rooth's alternative semantics of focus and rejection of stress by given constituents.