Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-64p75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-07T04:37:35.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syllable onsets as a factor in stress rules*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2008

Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the common assumptions of standard metrical phonology (Hayes 1981) is that rules of stress placement do not refer to the weight or nature of syllable onsets. This is most clearly stated in Halle & Vergnaud (1980:93): ‘in all languages known to us, stress assignment rules are sensitive to the structure of the syllable rime, but disregard completely the character of the onset’. This assumption has been attacked by both Davis (1982, 1985a, b) and Everett & Everett (1984). These researchers have pointed to a number of languages which seem to have stress-placement rules that are sensitive to the nature of the syllable onset. For example, Davis (1985a, b) notes that Western Aranda (an Arandic language of Australia) has a stress rule that places main stress on the initial syllable if it begins with a consonant; otherwise stress falls on the second syllable. However, if the word is bisyllabic, stress must fall on the initial syllable, since final syllables are always extrametrical.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Phonology , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 1988 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Cowan, N., Braine, M. & Leavitt, L. (1986). Identifying phonemes and syllables: evidence from people who rapidly reorder speech. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 9. 1–39.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (1982). On the internal organization of syllable constituents. Coyote Papers 3. 3–22.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (1985a). Syllable weight in some Australian languages. BLS II. 398–407.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (1985b). Topics in syllable geometry. PhD dissertation, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Davis, S., Manganaro, L. & Napoli, D. J. (1987). Stress on second conjugation infinitives in Italian. Italica 64. 477–498.Google Scholar
Everett, D. & Everett, K. (1984). Syllable onsets and stress placement in Pirahã. Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 3. 105–116.Google Scholar
Fallows, D. (1981). Experimental evidence for English syllabification and syllable structure. JL 17. 309–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halle, M. & Vergnaud, J.-R. (1980). Three dimensional phonology. Journal of Linguistic Research I. 83–105.Google Scholar
Halle, M. & Vergnaud, J.-R. (1987a). Stress and the cycle. LI 18. 45–84.Google Scholar
Halle, M. & Vergnaud, J.-R. (1987b). An essay on stress. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hammond, M. (1986). The obligatory-branching parameter in metrical theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 4. 185–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, B. (1981). A metrical theory of stress rules. PhD dissertation, MIT. Distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. (1982). Extrametricality and English stress. LI 13. 227–276.Google Scholar
Hercus, L. (1969). The languages of Victoria: a late survey. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Hulst, H. van der (1984). Syllable structure and stress in Dutch. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, J. (1985). A metrical theory of syllabicity. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Nanni, D. (1977). Stressing words in -active. LI 8. 752–763.Google Scholar
Piggott, G. L. & Singh, R. (1984). The empty node in phonology: an analysis of epenthesis. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 2. 64–109.Google Scholar
Saltarelli, M. (1983). The mora unit in Italian phonology. Folia Linguistica 17. 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strehlow, T. (1942). Arandic phonetics. Oceania 12. 255–302.Google Scholar
Travis, L. (1983). Evidence for the grid. Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 2. 287–298.Google Scholar
Wanner, D. (1973). Is stress predictable in Italian? In Kachru, B., Lees, R. B., Malkiel, Y., Pietrangeli, A. & Saporta, S. (eds.) Issues in linguistics: papers in honor of Henry and Renée Kahane. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 875–896.Google Scholar