The odd-parity input problem in metrical stress theory

Phonology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Stress Theory ◽  
Pathological Type ◽  
Metrical Stress ◽  
Quantity Sensitivity ◽  
Heavy Syllable ◽  
Stress Patterns

Under the weak layering approach to prosodic structure (Itô & Mester 1992), the requirement that output forms be exhaustively parsed into binary feet, even when the input contains an odd-number of syllables, results in the odd-parity input problem, which consists of two sub-problems. The odd heavy problem is a pathological type of quantity-sensitivity where a single odd-numbered heavy syllable in an odd-parity output is parsed as a monosyllabic foot. The even output problem is the systematic conversion of odd-parity inputs to even-parity outputs. The article examines the typology of binary stress patterns predicted by two approaches, symmetrical alignment (McCarthy & Prince 1993) and iterative foot optimisation (Pruitt 2008, 2010), to demonstrate that the odd-parity input problem is pervasive in weak layering accounts. It then demonstrates that the odd-parity input problem can be avoided altogether under the alternative structural assumptions of weak bracketing (Hyde 2002).

Metrical Structure and Stress

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Small Subset ◽  
Metrical Structure ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Stress Theory ◽  
Empirical Coverage ◽  
Metrical Stress ◽  
Capture Stress ◽  
Stress Patterns

Metrical structure refers to the phonological representations capturing the prominence relationships between syllables, usually manifested phonetically as differences in levels of stress. There is considerable diversity in the range of stress systems found cross-linguistically, although attested patterns represent a small subset of those that are logically possible. Stress systems may be broadly divided into two groups, based on whether they are sensitive to the internal structure, or weight, of syllables or not, with further subdivisions based on the number of stresses per word and the location of those stresses. An ongoing debate in metrical stress theory concerns the role of constituency in characterizing stress patterns. Certain approaches capture stress directly in terms of a metrical grid in which more prominent syllables are associated with a greater number of grid marks than less prominent syllables. Others assume the foot as a constituent, where theories differ in the inventory of feet they assume. Support for foot-based theories of stress comes from segmental alternations that are explicable with reference to the foot but do not readily emerge in an apodal framework. Computational tools, increasingly, are being incorporated in the evaluation of phonological theories, including metrical stress theories. Computer-generated factorial typologies provide a rigorous means for determining the fit between the empirical coverage afforded by metrical theories and the typology of attested stress systems. Computational simulations also enable assessment of the learnability of metrical representations within different theories.

Prosodic Morphology

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
John J. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Prosodic Morphology ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Heavy Syllable

The phrase ‘prosodic morphology’ refers to a class of linguistic phenomena in which prosodic structure affects morphological form. These phenomena include reduplication, infixation, root-and-pattern morphology, and truncation. A key notion in the analysis of prosodic morphology is the prosodic template, a type of morpheme that consists of a prosodic unit devoid of segmental structure. The filling of the template with segmental material from a basic word produces a morphologically derived word. For example, in Ilokano the prosodic template consists of a heavy syllable. It is filled reduplicatively, by copying the segments from the singular noun sufficient to create a heavy syllable: pusa ‘cat’, pus-pusa ‘cats’.

The role of acoustic cues in the development of (non-)target-like second-language prosodic representations

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-114
Author(s):  
Annie Tremblay ◽  
Nathan Owens
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Primary Word ◽  
Heavy Syllable ◽  
Stress Patterns

AbstractThis study investigates the acquisition of English (primary) word stress by native speakers of Canadian French, with focus on the trochaic foot and the alignment of its head with heavy syllables. L2 learners and native English speakers produced disyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense nouns. The participants with consistent stress patterns were grouped according to their prosodic grammar, and their productions were analyzed acoustically. The results indicate that the L2 learners who failed to align the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized stress with higher pitch. Conversely, the L2 learners who aligned the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized non-initial stress by lengthening the syllable. Surprisingly, the native speakers produced higher pitch on the initial syllable irrespective of stress, and they used length to realize stress oh the heavy syllable. These findings suggest that L2 learners may have reached different prosodic grammars as a result of attending to distinct acoustic cues to English stress.

The emergence of the trochaic foot in Hebrew hypocoristics

Phonology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Bat-El
Keyword(s):  
Stress System ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Stress Patterns

The paper provides an optimality-theoretic analysis of the prosodic structure and stress patterns in templatic and non-templatic hypocoristics in Hebrew. It is designed to illustrate the emergence of the trochaic foot, whose role elsewhere in the language is rather limited. The trochaic foot has been shown to determine the structure of templatic hypocoristics in various languages; this is also true in Hebrew. In addition, it plays a major role in Hebrew non-templatic hypocoristics, which on the surface look like simple constructions of base+suffix. The trochaic foot does not delimit the number of syllables in non-templatic hypocoristics, but it plays an important role in the stress system, where the position of stress is also sensitive to the input stress and the type of suffix.

The North Atlantic and the Arctic

2020 ◽  
pp. 302-315
Author(s):  
Kristján Árnason ◽  
Anja Arnhold ◽  
Ailbhe Ní Chasaide ◽  
Nicole Dehé ◽  
Amelie Dorn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
The North ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Primary Word ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Quantity Sensitivity ◽  
Stress Patterns ◽  
Pitch Movement

Goidelic word stress is initial but with some signs of quantity sensitivity. Phrasal intonation tends to be falling (for both declaratives and questions) in southern Irish dialects but rising in northern ones. Interrogativity is marked by phonetic adjustments in initial or final accents of the utterance. Icelandic and Faroese have traditional word-initial stress-to-weight but show signs of penultimate stress patterns in loanwords. Intonation is characterized by phrasal accents within overall downtrend patterns (also in questions, but with some accentual distinctions). The polysynthetic structure of the Inuit languages makes the notion of lexical stress irrelevant, but tonal targets are associated with prosodic domains of various kinds, and a distinction is made between word-level and phrase-level tones; devoicing and truncation are utterance final. In Central Alaskan Yupik, primary word stress marks the last foot by pitch movement. Enclitic bound phrases, phrasal compounds, and non-enclitic bound phrases are seen as larger constituents below the utterance.

Arabic stress in strict CV, with no moras, no syllables, no feet and no extrametricality

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-600
Author(s):  
Noam Faust ◽  
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Syllable Type ◽  
Stress Theory ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Quantity Sensitivity ◽  
Palestinian Arabic ◽  
First Time

Abstract This paper continues the effort that began in (Scheer, Tobias & Peter Szigetvari. 2005. Unified representations for stress and the syllable. Phonology 22(1). 37–75.) to present a compelling alternative to moraic accounts of stress systems, framed in the theory of Strict CV (Lowenstamm, Jean. 1996. CV as the only syllable type. In Jacques Durand & Bernard Laks (eds.), Current trends in phonology models and methods, 419–442. European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford.). We have chosen stress in Palestinian Arabic, a stronghold of moraic theory, to be the empirical basis of the paper. It is a complex system, involving syllable structure and stress assignment, quantity sensitivity and syllabically-determined stress shift. Moreover, its analysis requires the deployment of a great deal of the theoretical machinery that has been (independently) developed in moraic stress theory. These phenomena, although recurrent cross-linguistically, remained outside the scope of Scheer and Szigetvari’s work. The present paper provides an account of these patterns using the innovative grid-based notion of weight incorporation (Ulfsbjorninn, Shanti. 2014. A Field Theory of Stress: the role of empty nuclei in stress systems. SOAS – University of London, PhD Dissertation.). The analysis is also brought to bear on Cairene Arabic, which is shown to differ from Palestinian in a single parameter setting. Significant independent support is provided by the extension of the analysis to the phenomenon of vowel shortening (both metrical and final), whose distribution and motivation are shown to follow in a straightforward manner from the general account. The paper also improves on previous analyses of meter in Strict CV, as for the first time in Strict CV metrics, a computational component is explicitly formalized. We conclude with a comparison to a moraic analysis of the phenomena discussed, and argue on principled grounds that the Strict CV account is a worthy competitor to such an analysis. Like its predecessor from 2005, the present account recognizes only one unit relevant for meter: the nucleus. No appeal is made to moras, syllables, feet or extrametricality.

scholarly journals Modeling metrical stress acquisition through alignment constraint induction

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 28-45
Author(s):  
Jeroen Breteler
Keyword(s):  
Single Constraint ◽  
Metrical Stress ◽  
Prosodic Categories ◽  
Stress Patterns

The paper models the acquisition of quantity insensitive metrical stress through constraint induction. A single constraint format is specified that regulates the alignment of prosodic categories. A binary and ternary foot-based prosodic hierarchy are compared in their conduciveness to learning a range of stress patterns, with clear advantages for the latter. The paper also points out the interaction between grammatical modeling and acquisition modeling with regards to the typological predictions of the grammar formalization.

Loanword phonology in Modern Hebrew

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-200
Author(s):  
Evan-Gary Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Stress System ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Loanword Phonology ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Stress Patterns

Abstract The phonology of loanwords often differs from the phonology of native words in various aspects. These differences are evident in the prosodic structure and even the segmental inventory. The differences between the loanword and native phonology, however, are not necessarily stable, and it is often the case that what originated as phonological structures in loanwords which were illicit in the native vocabulary eventually overrode the native norm, bringing about diachronic change to the phonology of the native words. Hebrew is no exception in this respect. The stress system of loanwords differs from that of native words, with the latter’s system undergoing changes inter alia due to the effect of loanwords (e.g. ante-penultimate stress, immobile stress patterns). The licit syllable structure inventory of native Hebrew words has been expanded to include loaned structures (e.g. complex codas, triconsonantal structures), and the phonemic inventory of Hebrew now includes several consonants originating in loanwords (e.g. ʒ and d͡ʒ).

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