Is there a prosodic hierarchy, and if so, what does it consist of?

While the need for some sort of structure at the prosodic level is widely accepted in phonology, the precise nature of that prosodic structure is subject to considerable debate. One strand of thought assumes a fine-grained Prosodic Hierarchy (from subsyllabic units up to the utterance, taking in syllables, feet, prosodic words, intonational phrases and other levels of structure), but even within this approach, there is disagreement on which precise levels exist within the hierarchy. Other contemporary approaches assume less phonology-specific structure, and seek instead to link what appear to be phonological domains to the interface of the phonology with morphology or syntax. This has led to positions where there is no prosodic hierarchy (i.e. no constituents at and above the word level). Within and around all this work on prosodic phonology, there are other highly controversial issues - concerning, for example, the status and role of the prosodic word, the inventory of types of feet, the question of recursion in prosody, and the status of the utterance as a phonological unit. We hope that our invited speakers will address some of these issues (and other related matters) in this special session.

Jelena Krivokapić (University of Michigan)