An important feature of the sentence in any language is its thematic structure, new/given information organization. It has been found that in English, where word order is grammatically determined, the thematic structure is signalled by the place of the sentence stress. If an indefinite noun (new information) is present in the sentence, it bears the stress in non-contrastive intonation, no matter what its function and position is. In the presence of a definite noun, the stress falls on the element in sentence-final position, or on the preceding element if nothing follows the noun. Any violation of word order or the place of the stress gives a contrastive reading. In Polish, where grammatical functions are indicated by endings, the thematic structure is signalled by word order and sentence stress. Neutrally, the stress falls on the new information, i.e., on the non-coreferential noun, and it is placed as far to the end of the sentence as possible, new information moving with it. Thus, in English, the stress on new information and SVO order are constants, given/new information organization a variable; in Polish, stress on new information and given/new order are constants, SVO order a variable. Any violation of one of the constants leads to a contrastive reading. (Author)