221 Input: Build Feet: Penult
Length:
gudaga guda
ga guda:ga
Accent Rule Output:
o guda:ga
gudá:ga
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The above proposal is very similar to that of Hayes 1982b, but it constitutes an improvement over Hayes’ analysis in that Hammond appeals to the independently motivated
Uniform Headedness Constraint, Monoheadedness Constraint, and Headship Prominence Principle to motivate global stress shift in words whose rightmost long vowel is in an even
syllable. Nevertheless, Hammond’s account is subject to the following criticism. Since the feet of some words undergo a change in headship during the course of the derivation, it should be
possible, in principle, for a rule to refer to the earlier headship. Since there is no evidence for the existence of such a rule, Hammond’s analysis must be regarded as suspect.
In summary, Hammond’s proposal is to be preferred over the proposals of Hayes and HV in that Hammond utilizes only independently motivated principles in his analysis, whereas the
others do not. Nevertheless, Hammond’s analysis predicts that it should be possible for a rule to refer to a metrical head in a position which actually surfaces as stressless. The absence of
evidence for such a rule argues against the existence of a derivational level at which metrical heads or stresses, in my framework are in positions other than the positions in which they
surface.
4.4. Summary
This chapter began by reviewing the basic facts of Yidin
y
that were presented in chapter 2. Section 4.2 presented an autosegmental analysis, and section 4.3 reviewed the analyses of
Hayes 1982b, Halle and Vergnaud 1987b, and Hammond 1990b. It was argued that each of the previous analyses of Yidin
y
stress raises theoretical problems which cannot be solved within the theoretical framework that was used.
For example, Hayes 1982b assumes that all feet have inherent heads. This assumption forces Hayes to posit a rule of Stress Shift which changes the headedness of all feet in the
middle of the derivation just in case the dominant node of any foot branches. The problem with this analysis is that Stress Shift applies globally, thus imposing a generally unprecedented
burden on the language learner.
The analysis of Halle and Vergnaud 1987b constructs two parallel metrical grids in every word. The feet in one of these grids are left-headed while the feet in the other grid are right-
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Although Hammond 1990b makes no mention of it, I assume that he would eliminate the stress of a degenerate foot by rule.
headed. After Penultimate Lengthening has applied, one of these grids is deleted. While this analysis derives the correct surface forms, it does so at the cost of building twice as much
metrical structure as is actually utilized, later deleting the unneeded structure via an ad hoc rule.
Hammond’s analysis constitutes an improvement over each of the above analyses. It is superior to Hayes’ analysis in that Hammond appeals to the independently motivated Uniform
Headedness Constraint and other universal principles as the motivation for global stress shift rather than stipulating the stress shift via a language-particular rule. Hammond’s proposal is
also superior to that of Halle and Vergnaud in that it lacks the excessive machinery that is utilized by the latter. Nevertheless, Hammond’s analysis of Yidin
y
fails to capture the fact that there is no evidence for the existence of metrical heads or stresses prior to the application of
Penultimate Lengthening. Indeed, the early introduction of metrical heads only complicates the analysis.
In contrast to the analyses that were proposed in Hayes 1982b, Halle and Vergnaud 1987b, and Hammond 1990b, the autosegmental analysis does not entail any theoretical
complications precisely because it assumes that feet are inherently headless. The latter assumption allows one to delay the assignment of stress until such time as its existence is
actually attested by independent factors such as the phonetic features of stress or a phonological rule which refers directly to stress. This supports the claim that all feet, including
those which surface with stress, are inherently headless. It also supports the closely related claim that stress and feet are formally separate.
The next chapter considers evidence from the stress patterns of Mayo and Tagalog which support the central claims of this study, both that stress is autosegmental and that foot-building
must be kept separate from stress assignment.
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5. The Stability of Accent
The preceding chapters provided various kinds of evidence for the two central claims of the autosegmental theory of stress:
i. All feet are inherently headless. ii. Stress is an autosegment.
Chapter 2 presented the arguments in favor of the first point as well as many of the arguments for the second point. In particular, it was argued that stress
•
exhibits stability effects Bedouin Hijazi Arabic
•
can be morphemic Spanish
•
can consist of melodies Malayalam, English, and
•
exhibits the kinds of mapping effects which may be expected of autosegments except for its failure to spread
The latter is discussed in section 6.2. Two other autosegmental properties were deferred for later discussion. These concern
i. the ability of autosegments to “float,” i.e., to exist on a plane by themselves without any link to individual segments, and
ii. polarity effects. This chapter instantiates the existence of these two properties in stress systems using data from
Mayo, a Uto-Aztecan language of northwestern Mexico, and Tagalog, an Austronesian language of the Philippines.
Chapter 3 provided a brief argument for the claim that lexical accent floats in Mayo. The present chapter takes a closer look at Mayo’s floating accent. Further evidence for the
autosegmental nature of stress is deduced from base transfer effects in Mayo reduplication and from the interaction of segmental length and stress assignment in Mayo. In addition, it is
argued that stress exhibits both the ability to float and polarity effects in Tagalog. The metrical theories of Halle and Vergnaud 1987a, 1987b HV and Hayes 1991 are shown to be
incapable of accounting for the autosegmental behavior of stress in these two languages. Together, these arguments lend further support to the autosegmental theory of stress that was
proposed in chapter 2.
A major point of this chapter, then, is that stress can exhibit the same floating behavior that is a well-known characteristic of other autosegmental features such as tone, [ATR] and
[NASAL]. That is, the existence of floating accent in languages such as Mayo and Tagalog constitutes a further argument for the claim that stress must be formally represented as an
autosegment.
This chapter is organized as follows. Section 5.1 reviews the basic facts of Mayo stress that were presented in chapter 3. Looking only at words which lack vowel length, it is shown that
the roots of all such words may be divided into two classes with respect to stress. In one class, stress always falls on the first syllable of the word regardless of how many prefixes it has,
whereas second syllable stress is always observed in the other class of roots. An analysis is
