English is a stress-timed language II

Last time I wrote about this, I said we mainly stress nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and that's true.

On the other hand, we usually de-stress function words like prepositions, "helping" verbs or modals, pronouns and articles. In the rhythm of the sentence, the function words usually get a lot less time and their vowels tend to be elided.

However, there are some exceptions. When we use negative contractions such as don't and can't and won't, we stress these negative forms to distinguish them from their positive partners.

I've used upper case to represent strong stresses and lower case to represent unstressed syllables. Look at the pairs below:

i can GO. i CAN'T GO.
can you HELP? i CAN'T HELP.
did you SEE it? i DIDn't SEE it.

Prepositions take on strong stress when they are part of two-word or phrasal verbs, like this:

They DROPPED us OFF at the AIRport an HOur EARly.
I was aSLEEP when the PLANE TOOK OFF.

"But isn't the adverb 'when' stressed in the previous sentence?" you may ask.

WELL, it IS when it's a QUEStion Opener, like THIS:

WHEN did he GO? WHO WENT? WHY did he GO? HOW did he GET THERE?

THAT reMINDS me. deMONstrative PROnouns are ALso STRESSED, like THIS:

i like THESE SHOES but NOT THOSE.
THIS is YOURS, and THAT's MINE.

ONE MORE THING:
we STRESS PROnouns for EMphasis, LIKE THIS:

THESE are MY BOOKS. YOURS are on the TAble.
were you CALLing ME? NO, i was CALLing HER.
JOHN HUMphrey WASn't aGAINST the UNderdog; he was FOR the UNderdog.

This should give you a better idea of English sentence rhythms. Now here's the quiz. How many strongly stressed syllables are in this last paragraph? (Answer: 18)