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The Global Nature of the Nuclear Stress Rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

George Lakoff
George Lakoff*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Abstract

In a recent paper, Bresnan claims to have shown that the Nuclear Stress Rule applies within the syntactic cycle, rather than to surface structure. Given this result, she claims to have found evidence for the existence of deep structure, for the lexicalist hypothesis, and against McCawley's 1970 analysis of English as a VSO language. B's claims are analysed here in detail. It is shown that her claims are without a basis in fact: the Nuclear Stress Rule is a global rule which applies to surface structure, but it has a global environment referring to other levels.*

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 1972, pp. 285 - 303
Copyright
Linguistic Society of America 1972

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Footnotes

*

This work was supported in part by Grant GS-2939 from the National Science Foundation to the University of Michigan. I am grateful to James D. McCawley for detailed comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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