#136: Personal pronouns and sentence stress
How to unstress them, when to stress them
Transcript
Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 136th episode.
Today's show is an excerpt from our video lesson about personal pronouns and rhythm in American English. Personal pronouns are the most basic pronouns used to take the place of a noun or a noun phrase. Grammatically, they can be the subject of the sentence ( I, he, she, it, you, we, and they ) or the object of the sentence ( me, him, her, it, you, us, and them ).
Personal pronouns are function words; their purpose is to provide a grammatical shortcut rather than to provide details. Like other function words, personal pronouns are not usually stressed.
Let's look at a few basic sentences to review the grammar. If I have the sentence, Mary likes Michael, the person Mary is the subject. It will be replaced by the subject pronoun she :
She likes Michael.
Michael is the object of the sentence. He is the receiver of the liking . If I want to replace Michael with a pronoun, it would be the object pronoun him :
Mary likes him.
I can also replace both the subject and the object with pronouns. This creates the sentence:
She likes him.
In all of those sentences, the personal pronouns, whether they were subject or object pronouns, were unstressed. The pronouns were made smaller by pronouncing them more quickly and quietly. The verb likes , along with the names of the people, were stressed by saying them more loudly and slowly. I'll repeat all three sentences again. She likes Michael.
Mary likes him.
She likes him.
Those were very simple sentences, but the pattern remains even if the sentences become more complex, for instance:
We gave them to her.
More slowly, that was:
We gave them to her.
The pronouns we , them , and her were made very small. In fact, the pronouns them and her were reduced to them and her . This is quite common, and is acceptable in all but the most formal speech.
We gave them to her.
The only content word of the sentence gave , carries the main stress.
We gave them to her.
Whenever pronouns are studied, contractions should also be studied. Contractions are, for a very simple explanation, the combination of two words into one, and include an apostrophe. When we take the words he is and use the word he's instead, we've created a contraction. Subject pronouns are often contracted with the verbs to be, to have, will, and would . Unless a special meaning is intended, these contractions are also unstressed.
They're working on it. I think he's going to be late. We've already tried. I'd been walking all day. Although personal pronouns are function words, it doesn't mean that they can never be stressed. Any word of a sentence can be stressed, but doing so suggests additional meaning.
Stressing personal pronouns often emphasizes that one person or persons is being contrasted with another. A change in pitch often accompanies the pronoun that has been brought into focus through stress. When this happens, the overall rhythm and intonation of the sentence changes, sometimes significantly.
In the original sentence She likes them, the words she and them are unstressed, and the word likes is stressed. If I emphasize the word she , it becomes stressed, and the word likes loses it's stress. She likes them.
This gives an implied meaning that someone else does not like them.
A more complex example shows double pronoun contrast occuring within a single sentence.
She likes them, but they don't like her. Note that the pronouns them and her cannot be pronounced them and her when then they are stressed in a sentence:
She likes them, but they don't like her. Let's practice with some sentences for you to repeat after me… Pronuncian subscribers can view this video lesson in its entirety, without the additional podcast information. Just log in, go to the "Materials" tab, and click "Video Lessons." Subscribers also have access to the accompanying listening exercise for even more pronoun practice. For subscription details, go to www.pronucian.com/join.
To read the transcripts for this podcast, along with all of our other podcasts, go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast. I will also link to our new, free web lesson that reinforces these ideas from this shows transcripts page.
Another way to practice is by listening to an audio book while seeing the text in a physical book. This technique can really help your English rhythm and intonation patterns. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 2-week trial of Audible.com. You get to keep your audio book even if you cancel your subscription before the trial is complete. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian.
That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. Seattle Learning Academy is where the world comes to learn.
Bye-bye.
