在线词典

Take for example the sentence “Andrew brushes his teeth every morning.” The content word alone can convey the meaning of the sentence, namely “Andrew brushes teeth every morning.” The functional word “his” only makes the sentence grammatically correct. So “his” is unstressed, the other words are stressed. Why isn't “his” stressed? Because of course he brushes his teeth, not your teeth, or my teeth. This we would naturally assume. If, however, Andrew brushes someone else's teeth beside his own, then it would be very important to let your listener know that by stressing whose teeth he brushes.