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METRICAL EVIDENCE FOR SUBORDINATE STRESS IN OLD ENGLISH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2016

Geoffrey Russom
Affiliation:
Brown University

Extract

An influential rule proposed by Alistair Campbell assigns stress to the subordinate root in lexicalized compounds such as compound proper names if and only if the subordinate root stands in word-medial position, with an unstressed syllable following. A medial nonroot syllable receives stress by the same rule if it is long. Apparent exceptions are attributed to analogy or to a late rule of stress reduction. In this paper I argue that the exceptions have been misunderstood due to uncritical reliance on the metrical theory of Eduard Sievers. As it turns out, no late rule of stress reduction is required, and the reduction rule for synchronic roots does not distinguish word-medial position from wordfinal position. Such a distinction figures only in stress rules for nonroot syllables.*

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press

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