Stress subordination principle

Stress subordination principle is a universal convention proposed by Chomsky & Halle (1968) in the linear analysis of stress assignment. In this analysis stress assignment rules assign the feature [1stress] to vowels. The operation of subsequent stress rules is subject to stress lowering in the following way (Chomsky & Halle (1968:17)):

When primary stress is placed in a certain position then
all other stresses in the string under consideration at that
point are automatically weakened by one.

Example

Consider the assignment of stress in the compound black-board. The main stress rule applies in a cyclic fashion (see cyclic domain), reassigning [1stress]; the previously assigned [1stress] is weakened to [2stress] by stress lowering:

	  1      1           1    2
	black + board   black board

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Chomsky, N. and M. Halle 1968. The Sound Pattern of English, Harper and Row, New York.

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