In Favour of Layered Feet

Abstract

In this response we argue that the factorial typology predicted in Martínez-Paricio & Kager (2015), which representationally relies on the existence of internally layered ternary feet, is complete and accurate. We demonstrate it does not suffer from the problematic cases of overgeneration pointed out by Golston (this issue). Additionally, we corroborate the idea that the internally layered ternary foot is a metrical representation that is typologically warranted for stress phenomena as well as for segmental and tonal metrically conditioned distributions. We suggest that Golston’s claim that “no stress system requires internally layered ternary feet” appears to be too strong and is not empirically substantiated.

Keywords

• stress typology
• layered feet
• binary and ternary rhythm
• Optimality Theory