INTERACTION OF WEIGHT EFFECTS WITH EXTRAMETRICALITY IN CAIRENE ARABIC: A CONSTRAINT-BASED ANALYSIS

The present paper is coached within the framework of optimality theory (prince and smolensky, 1993; mccarthy and prince, 1993a, b) to show that intrinsic prominence of the syllable is not a determining factor in stress placement in cairene arabic (mitchell 1960; mccarthy, 1979b; kenstowics, 1994: 551)1. the argument hinges on the assumption that prince and smolensky’s (1993) pk=prom and wsp, the two constraints responsible for the intrinsic prominence of syllables, are low-ranking in cairene arabic. that is, violation of one or both constraints never results in incorrect stress pattern(s). the stressing of a final superheavy syllable (and/or the stressing of a heavy penult), it is argued, is, like the stressing of a light syllable, an effect of parsability, not intrinsic prominence of the syllable, suggesting that cairene arabic is not, then, a prominence-driven stress system. in order to show this, it is argued that parseσ is relativized to syllable weight, i.e., whereas a final light and a final heavy syllable are invisible to parsing, a final superheavy syllable is not