Nuclear Stress and Information Structure

This paper discusses and evaluates different approaches to the nuclear stress (NS) algorithm in light of the variability in stress pattern observed for certain constructions in German and English in wide focus contexts (“unmarked” stress patterns), in opposition to the rigid (right-most) nature of NS in Spanish/Italian. The paper also briefly discusses the case of nuclear stress in narrow focus contexts (“marked” stress patterns), and points to recent research that suggests that “unmarked” and “marked” stress patterns originate through distinct mechanisms.