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Accent is Predictable (if you're a mind-reader)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Dwight Bolinger
Dwight Bolinger*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Abstract

The Chomsky-Halle Nuclear Stress Rule and its modification by Bresnan, and to some extent the criticisms that have been leveled at it, have in common an attempt to account for accent in terms of syntax. Instead, accent should be viewed as independent, directly reflecting the speaker's intent and only indirectly the syntax. Accented words are points of information focus.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 1972 , pp. 633 - 644
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by Linguistic Society of America

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