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Universal 1032:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1032:

Original
Morphemically simple phonological words never have more than one main stress.
Standardized
Morphemically simple phonological words never have more than one main stress.
Keywords
stress, accent
Domain
phonology, morphology
Type
unconditional
Status
achronic
Quality
almost absolute
Basis
sample of almost 200 languages in Greenberg & Kaschube 1976
Source
Greenberg & Kaschube 1976: 8
Counterexamples
Possible counterexamples: Campa (Arawak): possibly lacks stress accent and instead uses feature ‘intensity’ [see also more recent descriptions of Campa languages];Nimboran (Trans-New Guinea), Sarangani Manobo (Southern Philippine, Western Malayo-Polynesian), Tahltan (Athabaskan), Yuma (Hokan): possibly genuine exceptions, although multiple primary stress in these languages sometimes even on adjacent syllables, only occur under well-defined exceptional circumstances;Hawaiian (Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian): dominant penultimate stress and in addition stress on every long vowel;Southeast Ambrym (Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian): stress evenly spread over two or possibly more syllables [“bisyllabic major words are stressed on the first syllable if the second is short; otherwise stress is variable or constant through both syllables” (Parker 1968: 90)];languages with stress on every long vowel or on every vowel preceding a consonant cluster etc. are not considered to have stress accent (which is cumulative) (Hyman 1977: 38-39 with references to K. Pike & Kindberg 1956, E. Pike 1974 for discussion of ‘multiple stress.’)

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Accent = phonetic features occurring just once or at most once in the phonological word, with cumulative or demarcative function (Greenberg & Kaschube 1976).

    1. May 2020

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