1. Historical landmarks
Gill (1619). Cap. XXV-XXVI.
Steele (1775) distinguished three levels of stress.
Jespersen (1909/1954):
Mr. William Archer, after a long list of seemingly arbitrary accentuations in the English language (America To-Day, p. 193), goes on to say: `But the larger our list of examples, the more capricious does our accentuation seem, the more evidently subject to mere accidents of fashion. There is scarcely a trace of consistent or rational principle in the matter.' It will be the object of the following pages to show that there are principles, and that the `capriciousness' is merely the natural consequences of the fact that there is not one single principle, but several principles working sometimes against each other. (p. 160)Kingdon (1958) distinguished a) "Romanic-type compounds" (derived Latinate words) b) "Greek-type compounds" (like lexical compounds) c) "English-type compounds" (lexical compounds).
Chomsky, Halle & Lukoff (1956), (summary account in Chomsky and Miller 1963):
These rules ... are ordered, and apply in a cycle, first to the smallest constituents (that is, lexical morphemes), then to the next larger ones, and so on, until the largest domain of phonetic processes is reached .... essentiallly the same rules apply both inside and outside the word. Thus ... a single cycle of transformational rules ... by repeated application, determines the phonetic structure of a complex form.a) A substantive rule that assigns stress in initial position in nouns (also stems) under very general circumstances. [Germanic stress].
2. Chomsky & Halle (1968), especially chs. 2-3. The fulfillment of their concerted effort to determine a complete set of rules for English phonology, dominated by stress assignment and its consequences.
2.1. Stress placement is sensitive to [syllable] weight
p. 29 weak cluster - "a string consisting of a simple vocalic nucleus followed by no more than one consonant".
strong cluster - "a string consisting of either a vocalic nucleus followed by two or more consonants or a complex vocalic nucleus followed by any number of consonants." (i.e. light vs. heavy rimes).
2.2. Stress rules are sensitive to lexical categories
(21) Main Stress Rule
V -> [1 stress] / X - C0]NAV
Rule (21) assigns primary stress to the final vowel of the word, e.g. eváde, supréme, exíst, absúrd, all of which end in a strong cluster. If a verb or adjective has a final weak cluster, the stress is placed on the penultimate syllable e.g. rélish, cóvet, devélop, stólid, cómmon, clandéstine.
2.3. Sensitivity to the Latinate/Germanic distinction
a) Germanic affixes don't affect stress placement,
e.g. éarth, éarthly, unéarthly, unéarthliness.
b) Latinate suffixes may affect stress placement,
e.g. témpest, tempéstuous, tempestuósity.
c) Stress may shift onto Latinate prefixes, e.g.
invést vs. ínverse, càtatónic
vs. catastrophe.
d) Stress never shifts onto Germanic prefixes, e.g.
òver[cóok] - no forms like ovéric [oUv
rIk]
Segmentally homophonous Latinate and Germanic suffixes
with different stress behaviours:
| Germanic | Latinate | ||
| -aIz | modern-ize | reprise | cf. reprísal |
| -Id | wretch-ed, dogg-ed | arid | cf. arídity |
- n |
wid-en | mod-ern | cf. modérnity |
| - |
kill-er | tut-or | cf. tutórial |
-I |
boy-ish | electrícian | cf. eléctric etc. |
| -i | heart-y | payée | |
| -mnt |
contain-ment | compliment | cf. compliméntary |
2.4. Sensitivity to morpheme boundaries
pérson+al, not persónal SW+al
theátric+al not theatrícal WSW+al
anecdót+al WWS+al
dialéct+al WWS+al
Phonological operations restricted to specific morphological domains / environments:
| a) | (Prefix) | Stem | (Suffix) | b) | Prefixes | Stem | Suffixes | |
| im- | -press | -ion | over- [im- | -press | -ion] -able | |||
| Lat. | Lat. | Lat. | Lat. | Lat. | Lat. | |||
| Germ. | Germ. |
| c) | Un- | earth | -li -ness |
| Prefix | Stem | Suffixes | |
| Germ. | Germ. | Germ. |
2.5. Stress subordination
p. 64 "The rules that determine stress contours are, for the most part, rules that assign primary stress in certain positions, at the same time weakening the stresses in all other positions".
2.5. Alternating stress rule (p.78) (for secondary stresses)
V -> [1 stress] / - C0 V C0 V1 C0]
hurricAn => hurricA1n [Main stress rule]
=> hu1rricA1n
[Alternating stress rule]
=> hu1rricA2n
[Stress subordination]
3. Liberman and Prince (1977)
"certain features of prosodic systems like that of English, in particular the phenomenon of `stress subordination', are not to be referred primarily to the properties of individual segments (or syllables), but rather reflect a hierarchical rhythmic structuring that organizes the syllables, words, and syntactic phrases of a sentence."
Phrases
| /\ | ||||||||
| s | \ | |||||||
| /\ | / | \ | \ | |||||
| w | w | s | \ | |||||
| / | \ | \ | / | \ | / | \ | \ | |
| s | w | s | s | w | s | w | w | |
| dew - | covered | lawn | labor | union | finance | committee | president | |
Words
| /\ | ||||||||
| s | \ | |||||||
| /\ | /\ | /\ | \ | |||||
| w | s | s | w | s | w | w | ||
| ca | price | la | bor | Pa | me | la | ||
"only a stressed syllable may be the strong element of a metrical foot".
Digression on Iambic Reversal / Rhythm Rule / Stress Retraction
SPE and Metrical Phonology both capture the preservation of relative
prominence under embedding. But there are counter-cases,
e.g.:
e.g. thirtéen vs. thìrteen mén, àchromátic vs. áchromàtic lêns
Liberman and Prince: "we need an account of linguistic rhythm in terms of which the appropriate stress configurations are marked as `clashing', thus producing a pressure for change."
The Metrical Grid:
| 6 | * | |||||||
| 4 | 5 | clash! | * | * | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | * | * | * | |||
| thir | teen | men | Later: | thir | teen | men |
For more on the Rhythm rule, see Kager and Visch (1988), and papers
by Grabe and Warren, Vogel et al. and Shattuck-Hufnagel in
Connell and Arvaniti (1995). According to these later studies, iambic
reversal is not a phonological movement rule at all, bur arises from the
interaction of lexical stress and phrase-final accent:
| Separate words |
|
||||||||||
| Phrasal accentuation: | H | L | H | L | H | L | |||||
| | | | | | | |||||||||
| Lexical stress: | * | | | * | | | * | * | | | ||||
| * | * | | | * | | | * | * | * | | | |||
| thir | teen | ] | men | ] | thir | teen | men | ] | |||
4. Kiparsky (1979): stress assignment is cyclic.
Liberman and Prince (1977) derive the stress of "sensationality" incorrectly:
| /\ | ||||||||
| / | s | |||||||
| / | / | \ | ||||||
| / | / | s | ||||||
| / | / | /\ | ||||||
| / | w | s | \ | |||||
| / | /\ | /\ | \ | |||||
| w | s | w | s | w | w | |||
| sen | sa | tion | + | al | + | i | ty | |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | - according to Liberman and Prince's stress-marking algorithm | |||||
"Since no cyclic rules in [Liberman & Prince 1977] are sensitive to metrical structure, one could equivalently stipulate that metrical structure is assigned only on the last cycle."
If assignment of metrical structure is cyclic (i.e. derivation respects
structure built on earlier cycles) the (correct) derivation will be:
| /\ | /\ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| / | s | w | s | |||||||||||||||||||||
| /\ | / | /\ | /\ | /\ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| / | s | / | s | \ | / | s | s | \ | ||||||||||||||||
| / | /\ | / | /\ | \ | / | /\ | /\ | \ | ||||||||||||||||
| w | s | w | w | s | w | w | w | s | w | s | w | w | ||||||||||||
| [[[ | sen | sa | tion] | +al] | +ity] | => | [[ | sen | sa | tion | +al] | +ity] | => | [sen | sa | tion | + | a | li | ty] | ||||
"metrical structure assigned in earlier cycles is kept insofar as it is not redrawn by the reapplication of [foot construction]."
5. Hayes (1982): extrametricality
i) The final syllable is extrametrical in nouns and suffixed adjectives, e.g. serendipi<ty>, sensa<tion>, perso<nal>. With this proviso, antepenultimate stress is eliminated. Word final syllables are stressed if heavy, otherwise stress is penultimate (modulo extrametricality).
ii) The final consonant is extrametrical in underived verbs and adjectives, e.g. soli<d>, supre<me>.
6. English stress parameters
As work in metrical theory progressed and was extended to many languages, our conception of English stress assignment became embedded in, and was constrained by, a parametric view of options for metrical structure (Halle and Vergnaud 1987, Booij 1983), taking a lead from Chomskyan syntax.
1) Principles: Words consist of feet and feet consist of syllables.
2) Parameter: In English the rightmost foot is strongest (domain
of main stress) e(ráse), i(ráte), mu(tátion), (ècu)(méni)<cal>,
(ànti)(dìse)(stàblish)<men>(tári)<an>.
Cf. Russian: leftmost - (ú
a)(sàm).
3) Parameter: Bounded feet are maximally binary; ternary feet
are dealt with by extrametricality, and can only ocur at the edges of words
(or cycles). Thus: (Hàma)(mèlid)(ánthe)<mum>. Cf.
unbounded feet in Khalkha Mongolian (xötElbr)
`leadership', French (originalité).
4) Parameter: In words with an odd number of syllables (excepting extrametrical
ones), left-over syllables occur at the beginning; e.g. a(génda),
To(péka), a(ríse). In Maranungku they occur at the end
e.g. (láng
ka)(ràte)tì.
5) Parameter: In English, non-tonic binary feet immediately precede the tonic foot. Problem: (àbra)ca(dábra).
6) Parameter: The leftmost syllable in a foot is strongest e.g. (mán), (mánner), (mána)<ger>. Cf. Weri (kù)(lipú), (ulù)(amít), (á)(kunè)(tepál), in which the rightmost syllable is strongest.
7) Parameter: Feet are quantity-sensitive i.e. a heavy syllable must be the head of a foot. (Does not exclude possibility that light syllables could be syllable heads too) e.g. (fùnda)(méntal), (spíral) but in(ért).
8) Paramter: Secondary stresses are placed from right to left on the head of every foot other than the tonic foot. (Stress assignment is iterative. Cf. Spanish, Polish.) e.g. (hàma)(mèli)(dánthe)<mum>.
7. The Abracadabra problem.
(àbra)ca(dábra), Kalamazoo, Luxipalilla, Hardecanute, okefenokee, Nebuchadnezzar, paraphernalia, Kilimanjaro: these words appear to require either a medial extrametrical syllable or a ternary foot.
Hammond's solution: secondary feet are built left to right. Following Hammond's suggestion, see also Halle and Kenstowicz (1991) section 7, McCarthy and Prince (1993) section 3.
8. Phrasal stress
Roca and Johnson follow Chomsky and Halle (1968) in contrasting e.g. lexical bláckbìrd vs. phrasal blàck bírd. But we cannot in general state that phrasal stress is right-headed. Noun-noun sequences are usually left-headed (e.g. dóg-hoùse), but there are exceptions (e.g. lòbster ragóut).
References
Booij, G.E. (1983) Principles and parameters in prosodic phonology. Linguistics 21, 249-280.
Chomsky, N.& M. Halle (1968) The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. Reprinted in 1991 by MIT Press.
Chomsky, N., M. Halle and F. Lukoff (1956) On Accent and Juncture in English. In M. Halle, H.G. Lunt, H. McLean and C.H. van Schooneveld, eds. For Roman Jakobson: Essays on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. The Hague: Mouton & Co. 65-80.
Chomsky, N.& G.A. Miller (1963) Introduction to the Formal Analysis of Natural Languages. In R.D. Luce, R.R. Bush and E. Galanter, eds. Handbook of Mathematical Psychology Volume II, New.York: John Wiley. 269-321.
Connell, B. and A. Arvaniti (1995) Phonology and Phonetic Evidence: Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV. Cambridge University Press.
Gil, A. (1619) Logonomia Anglica. [Scolar Press facsimile reprint, 1967]. Or see Alexander Gill's Logonomia Anglica (1619), Part II: Biographical and Bibliographical Introductions. Notes by Bror Danielson and Arvid Gabrielson. Translation by Robin C. Alston. Stockholm Studies in English XXVII. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell.
Halle, M.& M. Kenstowicz (1991) The Free Element Condition and Cyclic versus Noncyclic Stress. Linguistic Inquiry 22(1), 457-501.
Halle, M. and J.-R. Vergnaud (1987) An Essay on Stress. MIT Press.
Hayes, B (1981) A Metrical Theory of Stress Rules. IULC.
Jesperson, O. (1909/1954) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part I: Sounds and Spellings. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Kager, R. & E. Visch (1988), Metrical constituency and rhythmic adjustment. Phonology 5.1, 21-71.
Kingdon, R. (1958) The Groundwork of English Stress. London: Longman.
Kiparsky, P. (1979) Metrical Structure Assignment is Cyclic. Linguistic Inquiry 10(3), 421-441.
Liberman, M. and A. Prince (1977) On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry 8(2), 249-336.
McCarthy, J. and A. Prince (1993) Generalized Alignment. Yearbook of Morphology 1993. 79-153.
Steele, J. (1975) An Essay towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech. [Scolar Press Facsimile edition, 1969].
Homework
Determine the stress of each syllable and the quality of each vowel
in the following examples. (Refer to a pronouncing dictionary if you are
not a native speaker of English.) Parse the words into prefixes, stems
and suffixes. In each case, account for the alternations of stress and
vowel quality in the prefix.
| 1 | a) | acrobat | b) | acrostic | ||||
| 2 | a) | acuity | b) | acupuncture | ||||
| 3 | a) | adversity | b) | adjective | ||||
| 4 | a) | biochemistry | b) | biological | c) | biology | ||
| 5 | a) | department | b) | departmental | ||||
| 6 | a) | extraterrestrial | b) | extrapolate | ||||
| 7 | a) | epiglottis | b) | epitome | ||||
| 8 | a) | hyperbole | b) | hypertension | ||||
| 9 | a) | catatonic | b) | catastrophe | ||||
| 10 | a) | metaphysics | b) | metathesis | ||||
| 11 | a) | paralytic | b) | paralysis | ||||
| 12 | a) | perihelion | b) | perimeter | ||||
| 13 | a) | supernatural | b) | superlative | ||||
| 14 | a) | academic | b) | academy | ||||
| 15 | a) | thermodynamics | b) | thermometer |