A Computational Expression of Initial Binary Feet and Surface Ternary Feet in Metrical Theory

Under the strict binary foot parsing (Kager 1993), stray elements may occur between bimoraic feet. The stray element may be associated to the preceding foot or following foot at surface level. Stray element adjunction is the mechanism for achieving surface exhaustivity. Each language has its own unique mecbanism of stray element adjunction in order to achieve surface exhaustivity. In Japanese loanwords, the strict binary initial foot parsing creates stray moras. Inaba's (1996) phonetic experiment shows that the word-medial stray moras associate to preceding feet, and provides evidence for the initial unaccented mora as extrametrical. Since the theoretical points I advance are deeply embedded in other languages, I present a set of possible parameters. Based on the set of parameters, I create a computer program which derives the surface foot structures of input loanwords in Japanese, Fijian, and Ponapean. 1. Stray Moras and Surface Exhaustivity Since the work of Liberman and Prince (1977), it has been assumed that stress is associated with a stress foot. Thus, as opposed to the taxonomic point of view that English stress is phonemic, theories of generative phonology assume that stress is predictable to an extensive degree. For instance, the word 'catamaran' is footed, as in (1), by employing Kager's (1993) moraic trochee. The main stress is assigned to the final visible foot. The upper-case sigma 'X' indicates an isochronous unit called a foot, and the mu is used to refer to a mora. The main stress is marked by an acute accent "' " and the secondary by (1) Feet in 'catamaran' I \ tt ca to ma ra n The feet in (1) comply with foot exhaustivity without allowing stray elements. Halle and Vergnaud (1987) argued that the exhaustivity condition should be respected in foot parsing.