Contrastive stress in English
Meaning, expectations and ostension
In this chapter I consider where contrastive stress fits within the
relevance-theoretic model of utterance interpretation. In
particular, I focus on contrastive stress as a cue to ostension
which layers on top of the ostensive act of producing an utterance
and which guides inferential processes. Stress patterns, however,
only act as a cue to ostension when they are unexpected. It is the
disconfirmation of expectations that puts the hearer to more
effort and prompts the search for extra interpretive effects. The
discussions in this chapter build on existing work on both prosody
and pragmatics and the conclusions drawn have implications for our
understanding of inferential processes, procedural meaning, and
ostensive communication more generally.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Contrastive stress, interpretation and natural
highlighting
- 3.Relevance, ostension and the role of expectations
- 4.Contrastive stress as a cue to ostension
- 5.Contrastive stress and procedural meaning
-
Notes
-
References
References (30)
Ariel, Mira
1990 Accessing
Noun Phrase
Antecedents. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ariel, Mira
2001 “
Accessibility
Theory: An Overview.” In
Text
Representation: Linguistic and Psycholinguistic
Aspects, ed.
by
Ted J. Sanders,
Joost Schliperoord, and
Wilbert Spooren, 29‒97. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blakemore, Diane
1987 Semantic
Constraints on
Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blakemore, Diane
2000 “
Indicators
and Procedures: Nevertheless and
but
.”
Journal of
Linguistics 36: 463‒486.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blakemore, Diane
2002 Relevance
and Linguistic Meaning: The Semantics and Pragmatics of
Discourse
Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carston, Robyn
2002 Thoughts
and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit
Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, Billy
2012 “
The
Relevance of Tones: Prosodic Meanings in Utterance
Interpretation and in Relevance
Theory.”
The Linguistic
Review 29 (4): 643‒661.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, Billy
2013 “
Procedures
and Prosody: Weak Encoding and Weak
Communication.” In
Beyond
Words: Content, Context, and
Inference, ed.
by
Frank Liedtke, and
Cornelia Schulze, 151‒181. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, Billy
2013 Relevance
Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fretheim, Thorstein
2002 “
Intonation
as a Constraint on Inferential
Processing.” In
Proceedings
of the Speech Prosody 2002 Conference, Aix-en-Provence,
France, ed.
by
Bernard Bell, and
Isabelle Marlien, 59‒64.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grice, H. Paul
1989 Studies
in the Way of
Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gussenhoven, Carlos
2004 The
Phonology of Tone and
Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hall, Alison
2007 “
Do
Discourse Markers Encode Concepts or
Procedures?”
Lingua 111 (1): 149‒174.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
House, Jill
2006 “
Constructing
a Context with
Intonation.”
Journal of
Pragmatics 38 (10): 1542‒1558.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Imai, Kunihiko
1998 “
Intonation
and Relevance.” In
Relevance
Theory: Applications and
Implications, ed.
by
Robyn Carston, and
Seiji Uchida, 69‒86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Iten, Corinne
2005 Linguistic
Meaning, Truth Conditions and Relevance: The Case of
Concessives. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sax, Daniel J
2011 “
Sentence
Stress and the Procedures of
Comprehension.” In
Procedural
Meaning: Problems and Perspective, ed.
by
Victoria Escandell-Vidal,
Manuel Leonetti, and
Aoife Ahern, 349‒381. Bingley: Emerald.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scott, Kate
2017 “
Prosody,
Procedures and
Pragmatics.” In
Semantics and
Pragmatics: Drawing a Line, ed.
by
Ilse Depraetere, and
Raphael Salkie, 323‒341. Berlin: Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scott, Kate
2020 Referring
Expressions, Pragmatics and Style: Reference and
Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scott, Kate, and Rebecca Jackson
Sperber, Dan and Deirdre Wilson
1986/1995
Relevance:
Communication and Cognition. 2nd
ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wells, John C
2006 English
Intonation: An
Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wharton, Tim
2009 Pragmatics
and Non-verbal
Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Deirdre
2011 “
The
Conceptual-Procedural Distinction: Past, Present and
Future.” In
Procedural
Meaning: Problems and Perspective, ed.
by
Victoria Escandell-Vidal,
Manuel Leonetti, and
Aoife Ahern, 3‒31. Bingley: Emerald.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Deirdre
2016 “
Reassessing
the Conceptual-Procedural
Distinction.”
Lingua 175 (6): 5‒19.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Deirdre, and Robyn Carston
2019 “
Pragmatics
and the Challenge of ‘Non-propositional
Effects.”
Journal of
Pragmatics 145: 31‒38.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
.
Wilson, Deirdre, and Dan Sperber
2012 Meaning
and
Relevance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Deirdre, and Tim Wharton
2006 “
Relevance
and Prosody.”
Journal of
Pragmatics 38 (10): 1559‒1579.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by 3 other publications
Helganger, Line Sjøtun & Ingrid Lossius Falkum
2023.
Intonational production as a window into children’s early pragmatic competence: The case of the Norwegian polarity focus and two jo particles.
Frontiers in Psychology 14
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Madella, Pauline & Tim Wharton
2023.
Nonverbal Communication and Context: Multimodality in Interaction. In
The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context,
► pp. 419 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.