Lexical category prominence

Lexical category prominence is a labeling rule proposed in Liberman & Prince (1977) to provide the nodes of a metrical tree (metrical phonology) with labels strong or weak expressing prominence in systems where uniform sw- or ws-labeling fails. It labels higher level constituents (i.e. feet (=F)) that consist of syllables. The main part of this labeling rule in English states that in a configuration [A B], B is labeled strong if and only if it branches.

Example

Compare the following examples:

    / \             / \
  Fs  Fw	   Fw  Fs
  /\   |          / \  /\
 s  w  |   	 s   w s w
 |  |  |         |   | | |
húrricà ne	 à chromátic

The final foot of hurricane is labeled weak since it does not branch, while the final foot of achromatic is labeled strong since it branches.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Hayes, B. 1981. A metrical theory of stress rules, PhD diss. MIT Cambridge, MA. Revised version distributed by IULC, published by Garland Press, New York, 1985.
• Liberman, M. and A. Prince 1977. On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm, Linguistic Inquiry 8, pp. 249-336
• Prince, A. 1983. Relating to the Grid, Linguistic Inquiry 14, pp.19-100