Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Intonation and sentence stress 37
5.2 POSITION OF STRESS IN THE INTONATIONAL PHRASE
5.2.1 PRIMARY STRESS
In a simple sentence which is uttered as a single intonational phrase the unmarked
position of primary stress is the stressable syllable of the word which is situated just
before the predicate:
(7) Aydın bana çiÇEK getir-di.
Aydın I(DAT) flower bring-PF
‘Aydın brought me flowers.’
(8) Şu anahtarı HANginize vereyim?
‘Which of you shall I give this key to?’
(9) Dışarda bir köPEK var.
‘There’s a dog outside.’
Two factors may cause a change in the position of stress:
(i) Clitics and the negative suffix:
When a clitic occurs in a sentence, primary stress is placed on the stressable syllable
of the phrase before it (see also 4.3.2.1, 11.2)
(10) LONdra-ya mı gid-ecek-siniz?
London-DAT INT go-FUT-2PL
‘Are you going to go to London?’ (i.e. ‘Is it London you’re going to go to?’)
(11) Londra’ya gideCEK misiniz?
‘Are you going to go to London?’
(12) Ahmet’TE de bunlardan bir tane var.
‘There’s one of these in Ahmet’s office too.’
(13) Turgut nasıl bilSİN ki?
‘How on earth should Turgut know?’
The negative marker causes primary stress to occur on the syllable before it (4.3.2(viii),
8.2.2):
(14) [Herkesin burada olduğun]-u BİLmiyordum.
‘I didn’t know [everyone was here].’
(ii) Focusing a constituent:
Focusing a constituent may cause primary stress to appear on a constituent other than
the one which immediately precedes the predicate:
(15) Zeki babasıNI onbeş yıldır görmüyormuş, annesini deĞİL.
‘Zeki hasn’t seen his FATHER for 15 years, not his mother.’
For a detailed discussion of the interaction of focusing and primary stress, see 23.3.1.