Sentence:  Dominant stress is of course more than extended duration , and normally centers on syllables that would have primary stress or phrase stress if the words or longer units they <WSD>are</WSD> parts of were spoken alone : a dominant stress given to glorify would normally center on its first syllable rather than its last . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)