Prof Francisco Zabala - 2014 Buttressing In unemphatic sentences, the nucleus should go on the last lexical item (normally a noun or a verb) The speaker can choose to keep the final preposition and pronoun in their weak form Without changing the meaning of the utterance, the speaker can also choose to apply buttressing !aUsq?rHM (i.e (i.e to ‘strengthen’ the preposition) preposi If the preposition is buttressed, its strong form should be used E.g a I’ve been WAITing ing for you `Hu aHm !vdHsHM e? it No No buttressing b I’ve been WAITing ing for you .`Hu aHm !vdHsHM /eN9 it Buttressing Buttressing If the pronoun gets stressed, then the sentence becomes contrastive This is possible only if the context requires a contrast We have got to fight the Spanish tendency of stressing the last word so as not to create unnecessary contrasts, which may confuse the listener E.g I’ve been waiting ing for YOU Contrastive: ‘not her’ `Hu aHm !vdHsHM e? !it9 .`Hu aHm !vdHsHM e? !it9 Practise! Read out these sentences You should be able to read them with and without buttressing Pay special attention not to change the nucleus! • Preposition + Pronoun No buttressing pic What was Ben DOing in that picture? What about Shawn’s eXAM? • Buttressing a He was LOOKing at you He was LOOKing at you b.He was TALKing to her He was TALKing to her c He was SCREAMing at them He was SCREAMing at them a He’s reVISing for it He’s reVISing re for it b.He’s having a GO at it He’s having a GO at it c He’s setting his MIND to it He’s setting his MIND to it Pronoun + Preposition + Pronoun What about these SCONES? What shall I with this BALL? What did Fiona with the rePORT PORT? BOX What did Robby say about the BOX? No buttressing Buttressing a She’s BROUGHT them for you She’s BROUGHT them for you b.Mary’s COOKed them for me Mary’s y’s COOKed them for me a GIVE it to me GIVE it to me b.THROW it at them THROW it at them a She corRRECTed it for me She corRRECTed cor it for me b.She MAILED it to them She MAILED it to them a He ASKED me for it He ASKED me for it b.He SENT you for it He SENT you for it