Emphatic Stress in Sentences
- Emphatic stress may be used in a sentence to compare, connect, or clarify things
- Usually, emphatic stress singles out the word that the speaker considers the most important, and in this case, even a function word may become stressed
- Emphatic stress is the placement of articulatory prominence or emphasis on a word in a sentence
- In responding to questions on emphatic stress in examinations, interrogative sentences will be provided as options.
- The interrogative sentence that contradicts the emphasized word is the correct option.
- For example:
- John built a HOUSE. – Possible interpretation: It is the house that John built, and not a hut
- JOHN built a house. – Possible interpretation: It is John who built the house, not his friend, brother, or anybody else
- John BUILT a house. – The emphatic stress is on ‘built’
- John built A house – The emphatic stress is on ‘a’. John built just a house, not two or three.