<p>In my opinion, the tone indeed gives <strong>hint</strong> to the meaning, but I doubt it has a <strong>strong correspondence</strong>. As to your intuition, namely, the stressed tone corresponds to &quot;know how&quot; and the lighter one corresponds to &quot;will&quot;.</p>
<p>Whenever there is an ambiguity, rather to say we figure out the meaning from tones but from the context. Since it's the context that matters. As a listener, we know the speaker add their tones based on the context to convey what he/she means exactly. For me, the context is the root and the tone is just a derived aspect.</p>
<p>Suppose such a scenario. A father wants to let his son finish the homework, however he doubts if the son will really do it. And the mother may come to say, he will finish his work. 他会写完作业的。 So it's natural to stress &quot;会&quot; based on the context, which doesn't necessarily means he knows how to finish his work.</p>
<p>Similar for 要. But notice that 要 is really similar to &quot;would like to&quot;, so it can mean a desire &quot;want&quot; but also a tendance to do something in the future (caused by the desire) &quot;gonna&quot;</p>
<p><strong>Edit</strong>:
@Sanchuan constrastive stress and neutral declarative context sound new to me. I am not major in linguistics, perhaps I treat the phenomenon naively. For me, these concepts seem to distinguish two kinds of scenario: a neutral one and an unusual one. However I still think the context can explain such difference. In practice, the usage of  <strong>know how</strong>  is less frequent than the usage of &quot;will&quot;. So the latter may turns out to be a common one and neutral scenario. In contrast, the former contains more <strong>information</strong> (measured by how unusual the meaning is) therefore needs a stress.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T08:49:05.763Z
What you describe is contrastive stress, a special case where a word receives the opposite of its normal stress to indicate that the meaning of the sentence is contrary to expectations. The OP wants to know if (and why) 会 is invariably unstressed in neutral declarative contexts, ie when the wife in your example is casually informing the husband that "他会写完作业的".
Sanchuan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T15:37:59.093Z
@Sicheng Mao, I think you are absolutely on to something when you say that 会 meaning "know how" contains more information, and therefore needs a stress, although I don't think it's true that the amount of information is measured by how unusual the meaning is. "To know how to..." is adding concrete, semantic meaning to the sentence, while "will..." only adds abstract, temporal information. Words that add meaning tend to be stressed (with more exaggerated tone), and words that simply change the mood (like 吗，吧）tend to have a neutralized tone. Temporal 会 is somewhere in between.
Buddy L
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-05T03:26:16.387Z
@BuddyL That sounds quite inspiring. I admit that I borrow the idea of the information from the probability/statistics point of view. Perhaps we need more evidence to illustrate such correlation.
sicheng mao
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T08:37:22.650Z
2022-08-04T12:58:17.817Z
2022-08-04T12:58:17.817Z
sicheng mao
<p>I think context is the key, instead of tone. Tone is just for emphasis, not affecting the meaning per se.</p>
<p>E.g. 他会唱歌 could mean either.</p>
<p>A: 他都会些什么？</p>
<p>B: 他会唱歌。// he knows how to sing.</p>
<p>A1: 他在晚会上要表演什么？</p>
<p>B1: 他会唱歌。// he will sing.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T09:33:05.263Z
I don't think the question here is about whether the meaning of 会 is determined by tone or whether it's determined by context. The question is about whether the two different meanings of 会 are normally associated with two different types of stress. Please note that stress is not tone; it's volume and duration. So: is the 会 in B1 said a bit faster than the 会 in B? I know it's a very subtle difference, but that's what the question is about.
Sanchuan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T12:32:40.010Z
@Sanchuan The stress, volume, duration, etc wouldn't affect the meaning IMO. The only thing matters in this case is context. That's what I'm trying to make of.
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T13:32:25.897Z
Again, this is not about whether stress affects meaning, but whether meaning affects stress. I agree with you that prosodic features do not affect meaning. So there's no question that both 会s, given the right context, *can* receive any kind of stress - but do they otherwise *tend* to receive different kinds of stress in most neutral contexts? Is there a tendency for 会 to be stressed more when used in sense 1 vs sense 2? Anyway, I take it from your answer that you don't perceive or produce any difference in stress no matter the meaning of 会, so that's good to know.
Sanchuan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T09:01:09.510Z
2022-08-04T09:01:09.510Z
dan
<p>Unfortunately, the sound of &quot;会&quot; remains the same, whether it means &quot;know how/able&quot; or &quot;will&quot;. So it can cause confusion when saying something without given sufficient context to differentiate its meaning, such as the example you provided - ”他会看书“. However, the sentence can be twisted with some auxiliary words to make it means what it is intended to mean:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>”他<strong>很</strong>会看书“ - Literally means &quot;He be able to read a lot of books&quot;. Here &quot;会&quot; is the same as &quot;能&quot; that won't be misunderstood as &quot;will&quot;.</p>
</li>
<li><p>”他会看书<strong>的</strong>“ - Not mistakable, the sentence means &quot;He will read the book (eventually).&quot;.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Note, the translation of &quot;He knows how to read&quot; should be &quot;他會/能讀&quot;.</p>
<p>要 is more clear than 会:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>&quot;He wants to study&quot; - ”他<strong>要</strong>看书“.</p>
</li>
<li><p>&quot;He's gonna study&quot; - ”他<strong>将要</strong>看书“.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T13:50:16.083Z
2022-08-04T13:50:16.083Z
r13
<p>”他会看书“  could have two meanings: 1. &quot;He knows how to read&quot;, and 2. &quot;He will read&quot;. Context in most situations would make it clear which is meant, though I've noticed that there is also a difference in pronunciation. In communicating meaning 1., 会´s tone is exaggerated, or rather, the word is stressed. In communicating meaning 2. the pronunciation of 会‘s tone is much lighter, and the stress moves to 看书.</p>
<p>I think that the same thing happens with 要，with its double meaning of &quot;want&quot; and &quot;gonna&quot;.</p>
<p>Can anybody corroborate this intuition?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T08:36:39.003Z
Do you report any other concomitant changes in sentence stress (eg 1.他'会 看'书 vs 2.'他会 '看书)? Could you (or someone else) please confirm if the same alternation of stress pattern occurs also  when the predicate is a monosyllabic word (eg  他会走 vs 他会走)? Many thanks.  Love the question.
Sanchuan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T15:31:17.353Z
I think that it does occur also with 走
Buddy L
<pronunciation><semantics>
Is there a difference in word stress between 会 as a time marker and 会 as an auxiliary verb meaning "to know how to"?
# Is there a difference in word stress between 会 as a time marker and 会 as an auxiliary verb meaning "to know how to"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-04)

”他会看书“ could have two meanings: 1. "He knows how to read", and 2. "He will read". Context in most situations would make it clear which is meant, though I've noticed that there is also a difference in pronunciation. In communicating meaning 1., 会´s tone is exaggerated, or rather, the word is stressed. In communicating meaning 2. the pronunciation of 会‘s tone is much lighter, and the stress moves to 看书.

I think that the same thing happens with 要，with its double meaning of "want" and "gonna".

Can anybody corroborate this intuition?

**Tags:** pronunciation, semantics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you report any other concomitant changes in sentence stress (eg 1.他'会 看'书 vs 2.'他会 '看书)? Could you (or someone else) please confirm if the same alternation of stress pattern occurs also  when the predicate is a monosyllabic word (eg  他会走 vs 他会走)? Many thanks.  Love the question.  
> **username_0**: I think that it does occur also with 走  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-08-04. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

In my opinion, the tone indeed gives **hint** to the meaning, but I doubt it has a **strong correspondence**. As to your intuition, namely, the stressed tone corresponds to "know how" and the lighter one corresponds to "will".

Whenever there is an ambiguity, rather to say we figure out the meaning from tones but from the context. Since it's the context that matters. As a listener, we know the speaker add their tones based on the context to convey what he/she means exactly. For me, the context is the root and the tone is just a derived aspect.

Suppose such a scenario. A father wants to let his son finish the homework, however he doubts if the son will really do it. And the mother may come to say, he will finish his work. 他会写完作业的。 So it's natural to stress "会" based on the context, which doesn't necessarily means he knows how to finish his work.

Similar for 要. But notice that 要 is really similar to "would like to", so it can mean a desire "want" but also a tenusername_3ce to do something in the future (caused by the desire) "gonna"

**Edit**:
@username_1 constrastive stress and neutral declarative context sound new to me. I am not major in linguistics, perhaps I treat the phenomenon naively. For me, these concepts seem to distinguish two kinds of scenario: a neutral one and an unusual one. However I still think the context can explain such difference. In practice, the usage of **know how** is less frequent than the usage of "will". So the latter may turns out to be a common one and neutral scenario. In contrast, the former contains more **information** (measured by how unusual the meaning is) therefore needs a stress.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What you describe is contrastive stress, a special case where a word receives the opposite of its normal stress to indicate that the meaning of the sentence is contrary to expectations. The OP wants to know if (and why) 会 is invariably unstressed in neutral declarative contexts, ie when the wife in your example is casually informing the husband that "他会写完作业的".  
> **username_0**: @Sicheng Mao, I think you are absolutely on to something when you say that 会 meaning "know how" contains more information, and therefore needs a stress, although I don't think it's true that the amount of information is measured by how unusual the meaning is. "To know how to..." is adding concrete, semantic meaning to the sentence, while "will..." only adds abstract, temporal information. Words that add meaning tend to be stressed (with more exaggerated tone), and words that simply change the mood (like 吗，吧）tend to have a neutralized tone. Temporal 会 is somewhere in between.  
> **username_2**: @BuddyL That sounds quite inspiring. I admit that I borrow the idea of the information from the probability/statistics point of view. Perhaps we need more evidence to illustrate such correlation.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-08-04. Score: 1

I think context is the key, instead of tone. Tone is just for emphasis, not affecting the meaning per se.

E.g. 他会唱歌 could mean either.

A: 他都会些什么？

B: 他会唱歌。// he knows how to sing.

A1: 他在晚会上要表演什么？

B1: 他会唱歌。// he will sing.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't think the question here is about whether the meaning of 会 is determined by tone or whether it's determined by context. The question is about whether the two different meanings of 会 are normally associated with two different types of stress. Please note that stress is not tone; it's volume and duration. So: is the 会 in B1 said a bit faster than the 会 in B? I know it's a very subtle difference, but that's what the question is about.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 The stress, volume, duration, etc wouldn't affect the meaning IMO. The only thing matters in this case is context. That's what I'm trying to make of.  
> **username_1**: Again, this is not about whether stress affects meaning, but whether meaning affects stress. I agree with you that prosodic features do not affect meaning. So there's no question that both 会s, given the right context, *can* receive any kind of stress - but do they otherwise *tend* to receive different kinds of stress in most neutral contexts? Is there a tendency for 会 to be stressed more when used in sense 1 vs sense 2? Anyway, I take it from your answer that you don't perceive or produce any difference in stress no matter the meaning of 会, so that's good to know.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-08-04. Score: 0

Unfortunately, the sound of "会" remains the same, whether it means "know how/able" or "will". So it can cause confusion when saying something without given sufficient context to differentiate its meaning, such as the example you provided - ”他会看书“. However, the sentence can be twisted with some auxiliary words to make it means what it is intended to mean:

* ”他**很**会看书“ - Literally means "He be able to read a lot of books". Here "会" is the same as "能" that won't be misunderstood as "will".
* ”他会看书**的**“ - Not mistakable, the sentence means "He will read the book (eventually).".

Note, the translation of "He knows how to read" should be "他會/能讀".

要 is more clear than 会:

* "He wants to study" - ”他**要**看书“.
* "He's gonna study" - ”他**将要**看书“.


---

