Uneven Iambs1

Natalie DelBusso and Paula Houghton

0 Introduction
Prince (1990) introduces the Weight-to-Stress Principle (WSP) if heavy, then stressed and
denies the existence of its converse if stressed, then heavy. The well-attested fact that in many
iambic languages a stressed element is made heavier is the result of grouping harmony rather than a
converse of the WSP. Prince describes two rhythmic harmony scales, iambic and trochaic. We focus
on the iambic scale here.
(1) Iambic Rhythmic Harmony Scale
LH
> {LL, H} > L
On this scale, an uneven (LH) iamb is better than other possible groupings and achieving this
perfect iambic foot is the motivation for making the stressed member of the foot heavy. This
hierarchy, with its three-way distinction, cannot be reproduced with a single OT constraint. We show
that uneven iambs emerge from the interaction of three foot-type constraints: an Iamb constraint, its
Trochee mirror image, and a second, more stringent Iamb constraint.
(2) Foot Type Constraints: Prose
a) Iamb
feet are minimally two moras, stress is final
b) Trochee
feet are minimally two moras, stress is initial
c) Uneven Iamb (UIAMB)
heads are minimally two moras, stress is final
The typology of a system with these constraints produces languages in which a foot head is made
heavy to satisfy foot type constraints languages with uneven iambs and with unary H feet.
1 System
The assumptions of our model are provided in (3) and (4).
(3) GEN2
Every input syllable is unstressed. Output syllables can be stressed or unstressed, and parsed or
unparsed. Every word must contain at least one foot. Feet are binary or unary with exactly one
stress.
(4) CON
IAMB
*-X, Hu, Hw
assign one violation for each bisyllabic foot with initial stress or unary light foot
TROCHEE
*X-, uH, wH
assign one violation for each bisyllabic foot with final stress or unary light foot
UIAMB
*X, Hu, Hw
assign one violation for each bisyllabic foot with initial stress or stressed light syllable
IDENTWEIGHT
*H, g, w
assign one violation for each syllable in the output that changed its weight from the input
PARSESYLL
*o, g
assign one violation for each unparsed syllable
AFL
*(F,O): [OF]
assign one violation for each (foot, syllable) pair if the syllable precedes the foot in the word
1

With thanks to Alan Prince, for inspiring us to think about these questions and many others, and steering us away from CROT.
Notation from OTWorkplace (Prince, Merchant and Tesar 2007-2015): X = light ft head, H = heavy ft head, u = light nonhead of a ft, w = heavy non-head of a ft, o = light unparsed syll, g = heavy unparsed syll, - = edge of ft or unparsed syll

2 Typology
The above constraints produce twelve languages, exemplified by their five-syllable optima in (5).
(5) Factorial Typology
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
(j)
(k)
(l)

5
{-uX-o-o-o-}
{-uX-uX-o-}
{-X-uX-uX-}
{-H-uX-uX-}
{-Xu-o-o-o-}
{-Xu-Xu-o-}
{-X-Xu-Xu-}
{-H-Xu-Xu-}
{-uH-o-o-o-}
{-H-uH-uH-}
{-H-o-o-o-o-}
{-H-H-H-H-H-}

Foot Type
iamb
iamb
iamb
iamb
trochee
trochee
trochee
trochee
uneven iamb
uneven iamb
unaryH
unaryH

Density3
sparse
weakly dense
strongly dense
strongly dense
sparse
weakly dense
strongly dense
strongly dense
sparse
strongly dense
sparse
strongly dense

Heavy Syllables

unary foot

unary foot
heads
heads
unary foot = heads
unary foot = heads

Name
sp.ia
wd.ia
sd.ia
sd.ia.H
sp.tr
wd.tr
sd.tr
sd.tr.H
sp.uia.H
sd.uia.H
sp.H
sd.H

These languages utilize five distinct foot types: even iambs (-uX-), even trochees (-Xu-), uneven
iambs (-uH-), and light and heavy unary feet (-X- and -H-). The -X- unary feet are only present in
odd-length strongly dense words, while the other four can be default foot types for a language. The
iamb and trochee languages default to -uX- and -Xu-, respectively. Among the dense iambic and
trochaic languages, there is a three-way distinction in the treatment of unaries: unparsed (weakly
dense), unary light foot (-X-) (strongly dense) or unary heavy foot (-H-) (strongly dense with H). In
both uneven iamb and unaryH languages syllables are made heavy to improve the foot type. In the
uneven iamb languages, the head is made heavy to satisfy UIAMB. In the unaryH languages, -H- is the
optimal foot because it violates none of the foot type constraints; IAMB, TROCHEE, and UIAMB are all
satisfied by an -H- foot, so unaryH emerges when none of the foot type constraints are dominated.
The languages where all feet are headed by a heavy syllable are referred to as heavy headers.
Three intensional ranking properties (Alber and Prince) relate to the distribution of uneven iambs;
these are a subset of the systems full set of properties. In the uneven iamb grammars, the same two
constraints are subordinated in each property: IDENTWEIGHT (violated by all heavy heads) and
TROCHEE (violated by all iambs). A different set of constraints conflicts with one of these in each
property, to determine if uneven iambs are optimal over the other three foot types.
(6) Properties: Uneven Iambs
a) (Un)evenness: uneven iambs (-uH-) ~ even iambs (-uX-)
UIAMB < > IDENTWEIGHT
b) Foot Type (uia): uneven iambs (-uH-) ~ trochees (-Xu-)
IAMB, UIAMB < > TROCHEE
In uneven iamb languages, only one of the iamb constraints must dominate TROCHEE; in the
even bisyllabic languages, the property for Foot Type is IAMB < > TROCHEE.
c) H-Bisyllabicity: uneven iambs (-uH-) ~ unary H feet (-H-o-, -H-H-)
HMult.sub < > UFsub (=TROCHEE)
UFsub: the subordinated constraint in (b) above; TROCHEE in an uneven iamb language.
3

See Alber and Prince for density definitions.

HMult.sub: the subordinated constraint in the property determining multiplicity of feet in

heavy headers: PARSESYLL < > AFL, IDENTWEIGHT (strongly dense ~ sparse).
PARSESYLL < > UFsub
sparse languages
AFL, IDENTWEIGHT < > UFsub
strongly dense languages
The typohedron4 of the typology, in (7), shows the adjacencies of the grammars.
(7) The Typohedron
sp.H
sp.uia.H
sp.ia

sp.tr

wd.ia

wd.tr
sd.ia.H

sd.tr.H..,,,

sd.ia

sd.H

sd.tr

sd.uia.H

(8) Regions of the Typohedron

Density
o Sparse languages form a region at the top
o Dense languages form a region at the bottom
Strongly dense is the lower subset of the dense region
Weakly dense iambic and trochaic languages are not connected to each other (as
in nGX, Alber and Prince)
Foot Type
o Even iambs (leftmost region) and trochees (rightmost region) are mirror images
o Heavy headers (uneven iambs and unary H) form a square in the middle, connected
to both even bisyllabic foot types
o Strongly dense languages with any heavy heads form a connected region
There is no single connected region of all languages with any heavy heads to the
exclusion of the light-only languages
sd.{ia/tr}.H are not adjacent to the sparse heavy headers; their connection to
these is mediated through either a sparse light-header or a strongly dense allheavy-header
The heavy-headed languages emerge in this system from the foot type constraints as defined above
and their interaction with the other constraints. The languages of the typology utilize LH, LL, and H
feet productively, while avoiding the L feet from the bottom of Princes scale as a default foot type.
4

Typohedron: Merchant & Prince.

3 References
Alber, Birgit and Alan Prince (in prep). Typologies. Ms., University of Verona and Rutgers University.
Merchant, Nazarr and Alan Prince (in prep). The Mother of All Tableaux. Ms., Eckerd College and Rutgers University.
Prince, Alan (1990). Quantitative consequences of rhythmic organization. In K. Deaton, M. Noske, and M. Ziolkowski
(ed.), Papers from the Parasession on the Syllable in Phonetics and Phonology. Chicago Linguistics Society.
Prince, Alan, Nazarr Merchant and Bruce Tesar (2007-2015). OTWorkplace. https://sites.google.com/site/otworkplace/