Which term, labeled in the material, describes that content words with greater semantic value receive stress in English?

• A. Tone
• B. Pragmatics
• C. Pragmatic competence
• D. Intonation; Stress

Answer: (D)

The main idea being tested is how English uses stress to highlight words with the most meaning in a sentence. In English, content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs carry more semantic weight, so speakers typically place stronger stress on these words to signal the key information. This pattern of emphasis is described by the term labeled in the material as “Intonation; Stress,” which foregrounds stress as the mechanism that marks semantic importance within the broader system of prosody that also includes intonation. Intonation refers to the pitch movement across phrases and sentences, but the specific feature that signals which words matter most is stress. The other terms don’t target this pronunciation-level emphasis: tone is about pitch for mood or contrast at the sentence level, while pragmatics and pragmatic competence focus on language use in context rather than how words are stressed. So, the pairing “Intonation; Stress” best captures how stress emphasizes content words in English.