Position of the nucleus in an intonation phrase in English and Slovene

Abstract

The paper compares tonicity, that is the position of the nucleus (the tonic, or the nuclear syllable) in an intonation phrase (IP, also referred to as a word group) in English and Slovene. After a brief explanation of different degrees of accentuation, based on O’Connor and Arnold (1973) and Cruttenden (1986) accentuation in non-verbal and verbal structures in English and Slovene is compared, pointing to the main differences with regard to the position of primary accent, and consequently tonicity in the two languages. The main findings are confirmed and extended by comparing tonicity in the dialogues given in O’Connor and Arnold (1973) and in the examples presented in Wells (2006). The main differences between the two languages are observed in wh-questions (nucleus on the wh-word in Slovene but not in English) and sentences in the negative form (nucleus on the negating word in Slovene but not in English).