According to Mojsin, (2016), "As a general rule, the last content word of a phrase gets the most stress" (p. 98).
Yes. That is rather general, though.
Hence, there has been no explanation, as far as I can see, of why, in "I had my HAIR done" and "I got my CAR fixed, "hair" and "car." which are content not function words because they are nouns -- and most strikingly they are the final content words in these phrases that should according to Mojsin's general rule get the most stress. But they don't. (p. 98).
They
do get the most stress.
Usually the last verb would be stressed the most in a sentence.
I think so, yes. Usually. Not in your sentences, however.
Why stress"hair" more than done and "car" more than "fixed"?
I've already answered that in post #3.
Yes, thank you, that to me is a matter of self-evidence; I am glad we are on the same page of, ... the world, which has many pages, yet is not the 'focus' word here is an another focus word that should take precedence according to Mojsin (2016)?
I don't follow what you're saying here.
What I meant to write was --
jutfrank wrote that "yes, that's right. The stressed word is the 'focus' word. That means that it is the most important word in the sentence, because it presents the listener with new information."
To which I meant to reply-- yes what you are saying is self-evident,
No, it isn't.
you are simply telling me the definition
No, that's not the case. I was giving you an explanation.
which doesn't answer my question, because I know the definition (I know that "The stressed word is the 'focus' word. That means that it is the most important word in the sentence, because it presents the listener with new information.")
What I'm saying is really quite simple—generally speaking, we stress the most important content word, whether it's the very last word in the utterance or not.
Here is the problem –
1. Verbs and nouns are focus words; 2. The last focus word is most heavily stressed; 3. The problem in this sentence -- I had my hair (NOUN) cut (VERB) – is that "hair" is more heavily stressed than "cut." This contravenes the principle that “the last focus word is most heavily stressed" (Mojsin’s principle) according to which "cut" should be stressed.
That is the question.
Okay, I see what you mean now. You must understand that what you have as rule 2 here is from being always true. Mojsin is oversimplifying the rule. It is more accurate to say that we stress the most important word, which is often (but
not always) the final content word. Sometimes we even stress function words. It is almost impossible, in my opinion, to provide anything other than very general rules for this since which word counts as the focus word in any utterance depends on meaning.
Your example sentences are very good evidence of an exceptions to Mojsin's rule, right?
"hair" is more heavily stressed than "cut." This contravenes the principle that (Mojsin’s principle) according to which "cut" should be stressed.
A quick pointer: the part “the last focus word is most heavily stressed" is not a principle but a rule. Those are two quite different things. What Mojsin says is really just an observation. It has no explanatory power—it just tells you what you can expect. My explanation about stressing the word that presents new informational content can, however, be considered a principle.