Meaning can be inflected by using stress.
Stress: The vowel sound is sustained for a bit longer and there is an increase in volume.
Consider the sentence: “David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.”
What happens if we stress different words in the sentence?
DAVID isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the word “David”, we imply that it’s not David who is flying to Paris tomorrow, but someone else.
David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the words “isn’t” we imply that we would be expressing surprise that David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
David isn’t FLYING to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the word, flying, we imply that David isn’t flying, but instead taking some other mode of transport instead.
David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the word “to”, we imply that he isn’t flying to Paris, but from Paris.
David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the word “Paris”, we imply that he is flying somewhere else.
David isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow – If we stress the word “tomorrow”, we imply that he is flying on another day.
Try using word stress on the different word in this sentence to change the meaning.
The girl on the train didn’t steal the man’s wallet.