The prosodic hierarchy of Swedish

Abstract

We give an overview of the phonological properties and processes that define the categories of the prosodic hierarchy in Swedish: theprosodic word(ω), theprosodic phrase(φ) and theintonation phrase(ι). The separation of two types of tonal prominence,big accentsversussmall accents(previously calledfocalandword accent, e.g. Bruce 1977, 2007), is crucial for our analysis. The ω in Swedish needs to be structured on two levels, which we refer to as the minimal ω and the maximal ω, respectively. The minimal ω contains one stress, whereas the maximal ω contains one accent. We argue for a separate category φ that governs the distribution of big accents within clauses. The ι governs the distribution of clause-related edge phenomena like theinitiality accentand right-edge boundary tones as well as the distribution ofnuclear big accents.