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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125900
Description
Title
Focus and discourse stress
Author(s)
Lee, Kenton Alan
Issue Date
2001
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Dickerson, Wayne B.
Department of Study
Linguistics
Discipline
Teaching English as a Second Language
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Teaching English as Second Language
Discourse stress Information structure
Phonology
Pedagogical applications
Language
eng
Abstract
English utterances contain a peak stress prominence that is known variously as primary phrasal stress, nuclear stress, sentence stress, or more precisely, discourse stress, which is typically understood to mark new information or contrasts in sentences. Learners may have difficulties communicating in English if they fail to perceive or express the main point of utterances by means of stress.
Previous theoretical linguistic analyses have missed both the importance of discourse context in stress assignment, and the structural and discoursal complexities involved. This thesis shows how discourse stress results from the flow of old and new information, that is, information structure, and how information structure interacts with the rest of the grammatical system. Stress depends more crucially on information structure than any other part of the grammar. A theory of information structure is laid out, accounting for various levels of old, new, and contrastive information. Linguistic constraints can be shown to account for the greater importance of information structure and its interaction with syntax and phonology for determining stress assignment.
The model is applied successfully to a natural speech corpus, demonstrating how the proposed system can successfully account for the empirical data. The constraints can easily be translated into a simple pedagogical system for ESUEFL instructors and learners. Learners can be taught a few straightforward principles, rather than rigid or complex rules. Learners will thus be empowered with simple linguistic principles that are powerful but sufficiently flexible for understanding and producing the discourse stresses of actual utterances. Some communicatively oriented lessons will be sketched out. Pedagogical applications are discussed and some sample teaching materials are developed.
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