Stress is the isolation of a component of speech by acoustic means.
Stress of a word or word stress is the allocation of one syllable in a word. Stress in Russian is forceful, that is, the stressed syllable is pronounced with greater sound power. Also, it is not subject to reduction, that is, it is pronounced without noticeable changes in its sound characteristics, in contrast to unstressed sounds.
In addition to verbal, there is also a logical stress. This is a tone increase that highlights the main word or group of words in a sentence, that is, it no longer refers to a single word, but to a phrase or sentence. It places emphasis and reflects the purpose of the statement, the main idea of the proposal. So, if in the sentence “Tanya eats soup” logical emphasis is placed on the word “Tanya”, then we are talking about Tanya, and not about Masha or Kat. If the hit word is “eats,” for the speaker it matters that she eats it, and not salt or stir. And if the word "soup" is under stress, then it is important that this is soup, not a patty or pasta.
Logical and grammatical pauses
Logical stress is closely related to logical and grammatical pauses. In sounding and writing, each phrase is divided into semantic parts, each of which includes several words or just one. Such semantic groups in a sentence are called speech links, measures or syntagmas. In the sounding speech, syntagms are separated from each other by logical pauses - stops, the duration and fullness of which can be different. Each individual syntagma itself is inextricable: there are no pauses in its composition. There are also grammatical pauses, which in the written text are indicated by commas, periods, and other punctuation marks. Where there is a grammatical pause, a logical one always appears, but not every logical pause is indicated by a punctuation mark.
There are also psychological pauses, which are indicated by ellipses in writing.
Logical pause can be connecting and dividing. A connecting pause marks the boundaries between syntagmas within a sentence or between parts of a complex sentence; it is short-lived. The separation pause is longer. It is done between individual sentences, as well as plot or semantic compositional parts of the text.
The main word or group of words in a sentence can be highlighted by a logical pause before or after this word. There may be two pauses at once, which “frame” the highlighted word.
Intonation and logical stress
In oral speech, there is tonal stress - increase or decrease in tone. Changing its height not only indicates the main words or combinations of words in the sounding speech, but also makes the speech more diverse, intelligible and pleasant to hear. Without the necessary change in intonation, speech, even equipped with the necessary pauses, becomes monotonous, slurred and sleepy. If the logical emphasis conveys the meaning of the statement, then the tonal one retains the attention of the audience.