What are the relative stress level among noun, adj., verb., adv., negative word when they meet in a sentence? Is there grammar sentence stress rules

[blackantt]

Hi
if all content words (noun, adj., verb., adv., negative word) meet in a sentence, how to put the grammar stress level on them?

I know for "adj. + n.", the n. gets more stress than adj.
for "adv. + adj.", the adj. gets more stress than adv.

how about "n., verb., adj. , adv, negative word" in a sentence?

thanks

 

[5jj]

The word stress depends on the senses we wish to convey, All of the word classes you mention can be stressed.

 

[blackantt]

The word stress depends on the senses we wish to convey, All of the word classes you mention can be stressed.

There are 2 kinds of stresses, one is grammar stress, another one is logic stress. you mentioned is logic stress. I think there is a default sentence stress rules.

 

[jutfrank]

I think there is a default sentence stress rules.

Yes, there are.

If you want a useful answer, please provide us with an example sentence.

 

[emsr2d2]

There are 2 two kinds of stresses; one is grammar stress, another one the other is logic stress. The one you mentioned is logic stress. I think there is a are default sentence stress rules.

 

[blackantt]

Yes, there are.

If you want a useful answer, please provide us with an example sentence.

the example sentences are, "the dog ate a piece of black meat quickly. " , "Tom bought an extremally interesting book in the store for his brother." I hope get the default sentence stress rule level like "the dog(n., 0.8) ate(verb, 0.4) a piece of black(adj., 0.5) meat(n., 0.6) quickly(ending, 1.0-->0.3). ", assume 1.0 is the highest pitch, 0 is the lowest pitch. Is there a popular authentic book to describe American intonation in the long sentences?

 

[Skrej]

I think you're trying to look for an over-generalization. It's not quite so straightforward.

If you're referring to sentence level stress, English is of course a stress-timed language. Stresses come at approximately regular intervals, while unstressed syllables are shortened to fit between the stressed intervals. Increasing the number of syllables doesn't necessarily increase the amount of time it takes to say them. The overall length is governed by the number of stresses, not syllables. A ten syllable sentence might take roughly the same amount of time as a five syllable sentence.

Compare this to a syllable-timed language, where every syllable receives roughly equal stress and time; the number of total syllables therefore determines the overall time to utter the sentence. A ten syllable sentence will take approximately twice as long as a five syllable sentence.

We stress the content words, while structure words are de-stressed. Generally the content words are nouns, main verbs,adjectives, adverbs, and any negations. Structure words (words that make up the complete grammatical structure) generally are things like pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs. However, that's not ironclad - you can stress structure words if needed - for example to clarify a misunderstanding.

Regarding word-level stress - the syllable with the primary stress has the vowel pronounced correctly, while the vowels in other syllables tend to get reduced to a schwa sound.

I'm not sure I follow what you're asking with the numbers and pitch. I think there may be a difference in what you and I consider pitch. In English rising or falling pitch refers to the sentence intonation (voice rising or falling over the sentence). It can convey questions, signify completed thoughts, or show emotions. It's my understanding that in Chinese, as a tonal language, pitch refers to tone, which can impact both lexical and grammatical meaning. That isn't the case in English.

In both of your example sentences, there would be pitch falling towards the end of the sentence. The end of the sentences would be actually be at a slightly lower pitch than the beginning of the sentence. The stressed syllables in English are going to all be at roughly the same pitch, unless they happen to fall at the end of a thought group, where they then might rise or fall accordingly.

 

[blackantt]

I think you're trying to look for an over-generalization. It's not quite so straightforward.

If you're referring to sentence level stress, English is of course a stress-timed language. Stresses come at approximately regular intervals, while unstressed syllables are shortened to fit between the stressed intervals. Increasing the number of syllables doesn't necessarily increase the amount of time it takes to say them. The overall length is governed by the number of stresses, not syllables. A ten syllable sentence might take roughly the same amount of time as a five syllable sentence.

Compare this to a syllable-timed language, where every syllable receives roughly equal stress and time; the number of total syllables therefore determines the overall time to utter the sentence. A ten syllable sentence will take approximately twice as long as a five syllable sentence.

We stress the content words, while structure words are de-stressed. Generally the content words are nouns, main verbs,adjectives, adverbs, and any negations. Structure words (words that make up the complete grammatical structure) generally are things like pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs. However, that's not ironclad - you can stress structure words if needed - for example to clarify a misunderstanding.

Regarding word-level stress - the syllable with the primary stress has the vowel pronounced correctly, while the vowels in other syllables tend to get reduced to a schwa sound.

I'm not sure I follow what you're asking with the numbers and pitch. I think there may be a difference in what you and I consider pitch. In English rising or falling pitch refers to the sentence intonation (voice rising or falling over the sentence). It can convey questions, signify completed thoughts, or show emotions. It's my understanding that in Chinese, as a tonal language, pitch refers to tone, which can impact both lexical and grammatical meaning. That isn't the case in English.

In both of your example sentences, there would be pitch falling towards the end of the sentence. The end of the sentences would be actually be at a slightly lower pitch than the beginning of the sentence. The stressed syllables in English are going to all be at roughly the same pitch, unless they happen to fall at the end of a thought group, where they then might rise or fall accordingly.

Thanks for your explanation. The question is from a popular book named American Accent Training by Ann Cook, the picture was attached. But she just give a hint for n., v., pronoun in a sentence (without adj., adv.). I wonder if there are more rules about n., v., adj., adv., together.