Mongolian Stress , Licensing , and Factorial Typology

Mongolian Stress, Licensing, and Factorial Typology* Rachel Walker University of California, Santa Cruz June 1997 This paper examines the analysis and typology of prominence-based stress systems, which do not call on binary rhythms but depend solely on factors such as syllable weight or sonority, peripherality, and nonfinality in locating stress (Prince 1983, 1990; Prince & Smolensky 1993). Four prominence-driven constraints are defined which position stress independent of foot structure. Pursuing the optimality-theoretic hypothesis that typology derives from factorial constraint ranking, it is established that reranking accurately captures attested variation, and further, that the range of prominence-driven patterns is richer than previous conceptions, including variation in nonfinality effects. Two important empirical and theoretical findings are presented. First, new data from East Mongolian dialects are introduced, correcting a misinterpretation of the Khalkha stress pattern and illuminating the analysis with a case uniquely employing all four prominence-driven constraints. Second, opposite-edge default is argued to be a categorical licensing effect, informed by the typological result that nonfinality only fails to cooccur with opposite-side systems when the default is to the right. This finds new evidence for Zoll’s (1996) licensing account of conflicting directionality and offers an argument against alternative foot-based analyses.