Abstract
In this paper, we develop an analysis of primary word stress in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). We evaluate the typological and language-specific arguments that are presented in the literature against the relevance of syllable weight in Portuguese, and show that none of them appears to be valid when confronted with cross-linguistic evidence or the facts of BP phonology. We then go on to show that stress in BP represents a mixed system, in which verbs receive stress as a function of the morphological categories of tense (past, present, future), whereas stress in non-verbs is prosody-based and sensitive to the distinction between heavy and light syllables. We finally propose a constraint analysis of this system, which we claim functions in the lexical part of a stratified model.
Highlights
In this paper, we will discuss a number of observations which strongly suggest that syllable weight plays an important role in predicting the main stress of non-verbs in Brazilian Portuguese ( BP), as well as in other parts of the BP phonological grammar
We will evaluate the arguments that are presented in the literature against the relevance of syllable weight and show that none of them appears to be valid when confronted with the facts of BP phonology
In this paper we have shown that all the arguments used in the literature to dismiss the weight-sensitivity of BP primary word stress are not compelling when confronted with the facts of language typology and of BP phonology
Summary
In this paper , we will discuss a number of observations which strongly suggest that syllable weight plays an important role in predicting the main stress of non-verbs in Brazilian Portuguese ( BP), as well as in other parts of the BP phonological grammar. We will evaluate the arguments that are presented in the literature against the relevance of syllable weight and show that none of them appears to be valid when confronted with the facts of BP phonology. 10 Leo Wetzels syllable weight in BP must consider the arguments put forward against a weight-sensitive stress rule for Spanish.. One is morphology-based and predicts primary stress in verbs on the basis of morphological category. The other is prosody-based and locates stress in non-verbs in function of syllable weight
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