An exploration of minimal and maximal metrical feet

Abstract

This thesis presents a principled theory of bounded recursive footing. Building on previous research on metrical stress, and couched within the framework of Prosodic Hierarchy Theory, I argue that the rehabilitation of recursive feet in phonological representations leads to an improvement of our theory of prosody. \nI investigate the major driving forces that may cause recursion at the foot level and demonstrate that reference to recursive and non-recursive feet in various related and unrelated languages (e.g. Wargamay, Yidiɲ, Chugach, English, Dutch, German, Gilbertese, Seneca, Ryukyuan, Tripura Bangla, Cayuvava) allows us to provide a unified account of a wide range of prosodically-conditioned phenomena which would otherwise remain unexplained. In particular, I demonstrate that the assignment of binary and ternary stress, certain tonal distributions, some puzzling cases of vowel lengthening, consonant fortition, vowel reduction and consonant weakening all clearly benefit from recursion-based analyses. \nIn arguing for the need for recursive feet in phonological representations, I identify new strength relations in prosodic systems. Besides the well-established strength dichotomy between the head of a foot (i.e. the strong branch of a foot) and the dependent of a foot (i.e. its weak branch), I show that languages may distinguish between further metrical prominence positions. These additional required positions do not need to be stipulated as they come for free in a framework that allows recursion at the level of the foot.

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