Word prominence and polysynthetic languages

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter presents an overview of the theoretical concepts relevant for the study of phonological prominence in general and phonological prominence in languages with complex morphologies in particular. Our main theoretical focus is the issue of accent competition. We defend the proposal that the notion of competition should be viewed as central in a study of accent and we propose a typology of accent systems where the main classificatory factor is the type of accent competition resolution. We draw close parallels between the strategies of accent competition resolution found in languages with the so-called phonologically predictable accent and in languages with lexical accent. This chapter also discusses the scope of the volume in some detail and provides an overview of the chapters that can be found in this volume.