4 Chapter 4 – Thought Groups and Sentence Stress

INTRODUCTION

Thought groups are groups of words that form phrases, clauses, or sentences. Thought groups can be a grammatical phrase such as the prepositional phrase “in the class,” a clause such as “while you were working,” or even a short sentence such as “You’re great!”

In thought groups, certain words are emphasized or pronounced more loudly than others. The combination of stressed and unstressed words in phrases, clauses, and sentences gives a rhythm to English speech.

By the end of the chapter, readers will be able to…

• identify thought groups in speech
• use thought groups in their own speech
• stress appropriate words in phrases and sentences

THOUGHT GROUPS

In writing, words are equally spaced.  In a written sentence, thought groups are signaled by punctuation such as a comma or a period. The word after the period is capitalized, which signals the beginning of a new thought group.

In speech, however, words are not equally “spaced.” Instead, words are grouped together and then there is a short but important pause before another group.  Thought groups can be short sentences, but they can also be a phrase, clause, or even a word.

Distinguishing Thought Groups

A short pause between groups of words is an important way to distinguish one thought group from another. Another way thought groups are distinguished is by stress. The last content word (e.g., noun or verb) of a thought group is more emphasized or stressed. The stress or extra emphasis helps the listener know that the thought group has ended or coming to an end.

The video, ElementalEnglish.com illustrates pausing and using stress to communicate with thought groups. Notice the example and the three thought groups separated by pauses. Also, the last noun or verb is in bold to indicate stress.

[why would you go to SCHOOL]

+

[when you could WORK]

+

[and earn MONey]

Keep in mind that it is the job of speakers to make it easier for listeners to understand. So, the speakers need to organize their message into thought groups.

How to Speak Using Thought Groups

Thought groups or “chunks of speech” express a thought.  Thought groups are small ideas often expressed by grammar structures. For example, a noun phrase can be a thought group.

• The short little dog

A prepositional phrase can also be a thought group.

• in the corner

Verb phrases such as this one can be a thought group.

• is eating my new shoes

If we put these phrases together, we have three thought groups separated by short but important pauses.

• The short little dog in the corner is eating my new shoes.

The video by Extra English Practice shows more examples of how to speak using thought groups.

SENTENCE STRESS

Just as some syllables in words are stressed and others are not, some words in sentences are stressed and others are not. In fact, there are different kinds of sentence stress depending on which words are stressed: Four kinds of sentence stress are: basic, emphatic, contrastive, and new information stress. Sometimes “basic” stress is also called “tonic” stress as discussed in Billie English.

Basic or Tonic Stress

The basic stress pattern of a sentence, phrase, or clause is related to grammar. Content words such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and wh-words are stressed. The last content word gets slightly more stress to signal the end of the sentence. Function words, also called “grammar” words, are reduced. Examples of function words are pronouns, preposition, articles, and conjunctions. Here is an example from the video. Notice that the verb (“meeting”) and nouns (“friend” and “school”) are stressed. 

I’m MEETing my FRIEND at SCHOOL.

Emphatic Stress

Emphatic refers to “emphasis.” Emphatic stress simply means “give extra stress the words you want to emphasize.” Example (1) has basic stress because the adverb “extremely” and the adjective “happy” are content words. Basic stress is shown as capital letters. Example 2 shows emphatic stress represented by capital letters and boldface. This person is really, really, really, happy!

She is exTREMEly HAPpy.

She is exTREMEly HAppy.

Contrastive Stress

Contrastive stress refers to using stress or a little extra volume in your voice to contrast one word or phrase with another. The other word or phrase might be implied. Here’s an example.

• SHE cooked dinner for us.

In this sentence, the word “she” is emphasized. The implication is that “she” cooked dinner as opposed to someone else such as her spouse or friend. Another example might be the sentence, “She cooked dinner for US.” The extra emphasis on “US” tells the listener to contrast the word “us” with another pronoun or noun such as “them” or “her mother.” The sentence could mean something like, “she cook dinner for us (not for them).”

New Information Stress

Sentence stress can also be used to communicate new information. The new information can be spoken with a little more emphasis. This can make the new information clear to the listener. We use this kind of stress in conversations. Here is an example.

• Person A: Hi! Nice to meet you. I’m a student here.
• Person B: Nice to meet you, too. What do you study?
• Person A: I study LINGUISTICS.

Person B asks the question, “what do you study?” Person B does not yet know. The answer to the question is “Linguistics.” The answer is new information to Person B.

Sentence stress is quite important. The wrong kind of stress can communicate a meaning you do not intend! This can confuse the listener.