2003/01/01 by Daniel L. Everett · 3 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Mathematics · #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation #Foot (prosody) #Problem of universals #Constraint (computer-aided design) #Iambic pentameter #Linguistics #Stress (linguistics) #Computer science #Mathematics #Philosophy #Geometry
paper · pdf · doi:10.1349/ps1.1537-0852.a.263
openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This paper analyzes stress and moraic constituencies in Paumari, an endangered language of the Arawan family of the Brazilian Amazon. It argues that Paumari feet are quantity-insensitive iambs, built from right-to-left within the prosodic word. Both of these latter claims are theoretically important because they violate some proposed universals of foot structure. The paper also discusses more general implications of the Paumari data for theories of foot size and shape, proposing two constraints on foot size, Foot Maximality and Foot Minimality, to replace the less fine-tuned constraint Foot Binarity.