ABSTRACT This grant will enable the Principal Investigator to complete work in progress on the principles of metrical stress theory, a theory of a significant component of the phonology of natural languages. This is an integrated theory of word stress, in which individual stress rules are analyzed as the result of setting values for a small number of parameters. The evidence for the theory consists of detailed studies of the stress systems of a number of languages, aloong with sketches of the systems of a larger number of less well documented languages. The core of the theory is a particular set of templates for parsing syllables into stress feet. Other ideas developed include a prohibition on feet consisting of a single light syllable; an algorithm for deriving stresses spaced at trisyllabic intervals; and the use of moraic theory to analyze contextually varying syllable quantity. The outcome of the project will be a book, Principles of Metrical Stress Theory, which will serve as both an integrated exposition of the theory and as a textbook for graduate training in phonology.
