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The odd-parity input problem in metrical stress theory*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2012

Brett Hyde
Brett Hyde*
Affiliation:
Washington University in St Louis
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Abstract

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).

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , December 2012 , pp. 383 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

Thanks to Birgit Alber, Eric Baković, Paula Houghton, Joe Pater and Kathryn Pruitt for helpful discussion of the issues addressed here. Thanks especially to Alan Prince not only for many helpful discussions but also for numerous detailed comments on early drafts of the paper.

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