PERSISTENCE OF THE LATIN ACCENT IN THE NOMINAL ...

Because the principle of eurhythmicity rejects adjacent stresses the result is that the subsets
decrease as higher level lines are constructed. This can be seen in Figure 1-13, an abstract
representation of a four-syllable word consisting of a string of CV syllables with penultimate
stress (foot type is trochaic). In this schematic only the head of the foot is marked with ‘x’ on
lines 1 and 2. The boxes on the first and third V columns in Figure 1-13 demonstrate CCC in
determination of primary and secondary stress for a hypothetical four-syllable word. The
construction of lines 2 and 3 will also depend on language specific criteria, for example, some
languages require exhaustive parsing of the word whereas others construct only one word-level
accent, typically at left or right word edge. Construction of the foot row ensures that only parsed
segments will be ultimately designated as having a primary or other word level accent.
x
x x
x x x x
C V1 C V2 C V3 C V4
Figure 1-13. Metrical grid.
Line 2: Word level
Line 1: Foot level
Line 0: Syllable level
The construction of Row 1 (foot row) entails recognition of the relationship between head
and constituent. Halle and Vergnaud (1987, 8-28) assert that a relatively small number of
parameters are able to describe this relationship: [±HT] and [±BND]. The first parameter
designates whether or not a constituent is head-terminal, that is, whether or not the head is
aligned with one of the constituent boundaries; the second whether or not the head of the
constituent is separated from the constituent boundary by more than one element. Additionally,
[+HT] constituents can be either left headed or right headed. In Table 1-2 the conventions [+LH]
and [+RH] will be used to indicate location of foot head; --- corresponds to unattested patterns
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