Syllable Weight

1
Lecture 7

• Syllable Weight

2
English Word Stress

• The account of English stress presented so far
  only works for a subset of nouns/suffixed
  adjectives and verbs/unsuffixed adjectives.
• This should not come as a surprise as the English
  stress system is renowned for its complexity.
• We will continue investigation, focusing on the
  effect of syllable structure on stress assignment.

3
Basic Algorithm

• English stress algorithm
• a. Project syllable heads onto the baseline.
• b. Mark the right-most baseline asterisk
  extrametrical (in nouns and suffixed adjectives
  only).
• c. Construct line 1 by building left-headed feet
  iteratively from right to left.
• d. Construct line 2 by applying End Stress
  Right on line 1.

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Parameter Settings

• The algorithm suggests the following parameter
  settings, crucially assuming that lexical forms
  are bare of metrical structure
• English stress parameter settings
• Extrametricality Yes right Nouns
• Foot head Left
• Foot construction Right-to-left
• End stress Right Onto line 1

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Different Pattern

• Consider the forms
• nouns verbs/unsuffixed adjectives
• agénda (to) recomménd
• incéntive (to) incréase
• Octóber inténse
• Stress falls one syllable further to the right
  than is predicted by the algorithm.
• Why?

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Applying the Algorithm

• Incorporating Line Conflation, that suppresses
  all feet but the one bearing main stress, the
  derivations of stress assignment will be as
  follows
• a g e n d a Input r e c o m mend

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Projection

• a g e n d a r e c o m m e n d

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Extrametricality

• ltgt
• a g e n d a r e c o m m e n d

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Footing

• ( ) ltgt () ( )
• a g e n d a r e c o m m e n d

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End Stress

• ( ) ltgt () ( )
• a g e n d a r e c o m m e n d

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Conflation

• ( ) ltgt ( )
• a g e n d a r e c o m m e n d

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Outputs

• á g e n d a r e c ó m m e n d

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Solutions

• A noun like agenda can be treated as an exception
  to the extrametricality clause.
• - But, extrametricality does not act upon verbs
  like recommend.
• These forms could be assigned right-headed feet,
  instead of the normal left-headed feet.
• - However, metrical structure is uniform across
  the board in each language.

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Syllable Structure

• Syllable structure plays a vital part in the
  construction of the metrical grid.
• a.gén.da in.críse
• in.cén.tive re.co.mménd
• Oc.t???.ber in.tén.se
• The stressed syllables are HEAVY.
• - long nucleus
• OR
• - coda

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Rime Structure and Stressin English

• Rime Structure Stress
• Nouns
• Penultimate light Antepenultimate
• Penultimate heavy Penultimate
• Verbs
• Final light Penultimate
• Final heavy Final

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ACCENT

• The connection between the location of stress and
  the structure of the rime should be encoded in
  the grid.
• Therefore, the baseline asterisks of heavy rimes
  are projected onto line 1.
• The word ACCENT is commonly used to refer to this
  projection
• ltgt ltgt
• a . g e n . d a ? a . g e n . d a ? a . g e n . d
  a
• Input Baseline and Accent
• Extrametricality

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Faithfulness Condition

• Heads imply constituents and constituents imply
  heads
• Faithfulness Condition
• Each grid constituent has a head (plotted in the
  line immediately above), and each head has a
  domain (delimited in the line immediately below).
• Stress line 1
• ltgt () ltgt Baseline
• a . g e n . d a ? a . g e n . d a
• Faithfulness

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Syllable Weight

• Recognizing syllable weight will also account for
  the final stress in verbs and unsuffixed
  adjectives
• Stress line 2
• Stress line 1
• ( ) () () Baseline
• re.co.mmend ? re.co.mmend
• End Stress Conflation

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Algorithm - update

• English stress algorithm
• a. Project syllable heads onto the baseline.
• b. Mark the right-most baseline asterisk
  extrametrical (in nouns and suffixed adjectives
  only).
• c. Accent all heavy syllables.
• d. Construct line 1 by building left-headed feet
  iteratively from right to left.
• e. Construct line 2 by applying End Stress
  Right on line 1.
• f. Delete line 1.

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Unstressed Final Heavies(Verbs)

• Consider the following verbs and unsuffixed
  adjectives
• de.vé.lop im.plí.cit
• i.má.gine en.dé.mic
• The final syllables above meet our definition of
  heavy syllables.
• Final heavy syllables attract stress in verbs and
  unsuffixed adjectives.
• Why is the stress penultimate?

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Word-Final Consonants

• We shall assume that the final consonant in
  English words lies outside the rime.
• Therefore
• --- CV-C --- CVC-C
• (light) (heavy)

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Word-Final Consonants

• ( )
• i.ma.gi-ne ? NA ? i.ma.gi-ne
• Accent Footing etc.
• ()
• re.co.mmen-d ? re.co.mmen-d ? re.co.mmen-d
• Accent Footing etc.

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Stressed Final Heavies(Nouns)

• Consider the following nouns
• chimpanzée enginéer
• referée seventéen
• magazíne millionáire
• These nouns are stressed on the final syllable.
• That syllable contains a long vowel.
• The assumption is
• - In English, extrametricality is blocked by
  long vowels but not by coda consonants.

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Algorithm - update

• English stress algorithm
• a. Project syllable heads onto the baseline.
• b. Mark the right-most baseline asterisk
  extrametrical (in nouns and suffixed adjectives
  only) if it dominates a syllable with a simple
  nucleus.
• c. Accent all heavy syllables.
• d. Construct line 1 by building left-headed feet
  iteratively from right to left.
• e. Construct line 2 by applying End Stress
  Right on line 1.
• f. Delete line 1.

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Unstressed Final Long Vowels(Nouns)

• Consider the following nouns
• búffal??
• mosquít??
• tomát??
• Málibu
• These are nouns with long open final syllables
  which do not exhibit the expected final stress.
• The assumption is
• - The vowels are underlyingly short, so they
  induce extrametricality. After stress has been
  assigned, they will undergo lengthening.

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Warning

• English stress assignment is by no means a simple
  matter.

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Formalizing Syllable Weight

• Onsets do not contribute to syllable weight.
• Only the rime is relevant to the determination of
  syllable weight.
• This, however, does not follow from our present
  formalism.
• The same number of skeletal slots (3) are
  associated to the syllables CCV and CVC.

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Formalizing Syllable Weight

• Syllable weight is a function of the number of
  skeletal slots in the rime
• ? ?
• O R O R
• N N Cd
• X X X X X X
• C C V C V C
• 1X Light ? 2X Heavy ?

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Moras

• A mora (?) is a unit of syllable weight.
• It is intermediate between the segment and the
  syllable.
• A light syllable is mono-moraic (?), and heavy
  syllable is bi-moraic (??).
• The replacement of skeletal slots with moras will
  render the intermediate R and N nods superfluous
• Light Heavy
• ? ?
• ? ? ?
• C C V C V C

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Mora Projection

• What is the source of the moras themselves?
• - lexical projection from vowels
• Underlying
• - structural projection from (coda) consonants
• WEIGHT BY POSITION
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
• V C V C C V ? V C V C C V
• WBP

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Summing up

• Syllables with branching rimes are defined as
  heavy.
• Heavy syllables attract stress regardless of
  their position in the word.
• To formalize this, the asterisk dominating the
  heavy syllable is projected onto line 1, a
  process known as accenting.
• This vital step precedes foot construction.
• Accented syllables will of necessity head their
  feet.
• This follows from the Faithfulness Condition,
  which entails that each head corresponds to a
  constituent and each constituent to some head.
• Final consonant extrasyllabicity accounts for the
  superficially final branching rimes in verbs and
  unsuffixed adjectives.
• Blocking extrametricality by underlying vowel
  length accounts for nouns with final stress.
• The onset plays no part in the calculation of
  syllable weight.
• This leads to an alternative model of syllables,
  with rime segments attached to moras.

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Next WeekChapters 15 and 16

• Assignment
• Key Questions
• (pages 441 and 494)