Seminar in Phonology: Stress, Tone, and Accent

Stress, tone, and accent systems vary widely, sometimes even within closely related language groups. Adding to their linguistic allure are their interactions with morphology and syntax, and with one another. Stress, tone, and accent are often also closely linked to phonological quantity and syllable structure. This course will survey the different behaviors of stress, tone, and accent systems in the languages of the world. Decades of work on this topic has led to fundamental changes in how we represent phonological structure. While we will analyze a few systems deeply in order to get at the heart of the topic, an even bigger aim will be breadth of coverage. The result will be a better empirical grasp of the underpinnings of the typology of accentual systems.