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Sentence stress and syntactic transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Joan W. Bresnan
Joan W. Bresnan*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Abstract

If the Nuclear Stress Rule of English is ordered within the transformational cycle after all the syntactic transformations, many apparent exceptions to Chomsky & Halle 1968 are predictable, for the stress patterns of certain syntactically complex constructions reflect those of the simple sentences embedded within them in deep structure. This preservation of basic stress pattern through the syntactic derivation provides a new method for determining underlying grammatical representations and deciding questions of syntax. The consequences for linguistic theory, in particular regarding the lexical vs. transformational hypotheses, are discussed.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 1971 , pp. 257 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 Linguistic Society of America

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