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host-clitic combination. However, if they are included in this domain, they will count as
the final syllable and secondary stress will be placed on the antepenultimate syllable of
the host-clitic combination. Unfortunately, there is not enough data to decide which
option is actually chosen. In summary, proclitics in Georgian are unstressed and
unstressable or stressable within the domain they form with their host words. The
prosodic integration into the phonological word is to be considered a matter of degree.
Enclitics are unstressed and, given word initial stress placement, not candidates for
receiving stress within the larger domain they form with their host. Their status with
respect to secondary stress placement cannot be satisfactorily decided on. 4
Tamil is often described as a language with very weak stress or as even lacking
stress altogether. This is due to the general impression that utterances consist of
successions of evenly stressed syllables (Asher 1982: 230). More subtle phonetic
studies enable us to infer rules of word stress placement from higher level intonation
patterns. An utterance comprising the words [k����] ‘ear-acc.’, [t�����i] ‘felt’ and
[p��t�t����] ‘he saw’ will be pronounced [�k����t��t�����ipp�t�t����] ‘He felt the ear’, with
initial stress on the first and second word (Balasubramanian 1980: 456). As for clitics,
since all of them attach to their host word as enclitics, none of them will receive primary
stress. Since no other prosodic cues, such as secondary stress, can be utilized to decide
what kind of domain they form with their host word, we have to conclude that enclitics
in the language are unstressed and presumably unstressable. 5
2.1.1.2. Right word boundary demarcation
Six languages in our sample demarcate the right word boundary by means of final,
penultimate, or antepenultimate stress: Udihe, Catalan, Amele, Maltese, Tariana and
Maori. In these cases we encounter the mirror image of the phenomena we discussed
with respect to initial stress languages. Again, we will outline the rules of primary and,
if possible, of secondary stress placement in these languages and will discuss how clitics
relate to the domains of these rules.
In Udihe, stress is placed on the rightmost bimoraic vowel of a word; if there is
no long vowel in a word the default locus of primary stress is on the final vowel.
4 On the behavior of certain clitics in intonational phonology see 2.2.2.2.
5 On the behavior of certain clitics in intonational phonology see 2.1.3.
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