Your name, your REGNAL name

In the past I’ve written extensively about the deaccentuation of repeated words in English. Today I found a very good example which I’m sharing with you.

But let’s remember the theory first. In short, it’s as follows:

When you repeat a word in English, that word is deaccented. This means that it doesn’t carry any stress, which is displaced onto the previous lexical item.

The classical example to explain this is:

My name is BOND. JAMES  Bond.

Since Bond has already been stressed, the second time you say it you don’t stress it and put the emphasis on the previous lexical item, JAMES.

 

I found a very good example of this phenomenon in a short excerpt from The Crown, a new TV drama (Netflix):

 

sound_loud_speaker Martin Charteris: Though, it would help if we could decide here and now on your name.

Queen Elizabeth II: My name?

Martin Charteris: Yes ma’am, your REGNAL name. That is the name you’ll take as queen.

 

If you wish to learn more about the placement of English stress within the sentence you can go to the section called Sentence Stress on this website, where you’ll find a very detailed explanation about the subject with many examples.

 

Enjoy,

Rodrigo