What is the term for the way a speaker highlights certain words in a sentence to convey meaning?

• A. Sentence stress
• B. Stress
• C. Intonation
• D. Emphasis

Answer: (A)

Sentence stress is the way a speaker highlights certain words in a sentence to signal what's important or new information. By increasing volume, lengthening a syllable, or using a higher pitch on those words, the speaker shows which part of the sentence should be focused on or contrasted with something else. This is different from just stressing syllables inside a single word, which is word-level stress, and it's also distinct from intonation, which tracks the overall rise and fall of pitch across the sentence. For example, saying “I didn’t say you broke the vase” with emphasis on different words changes the meaning or focus of the sentence, because those stressed words carry the intended information.