The article "On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm" by Mark Liberman and Alan Prince presents a new theory of stress and linguistic rhythm, focusing on the phenomenon of "stress subordination" in prosodic systems like English. The authors argue that stress subordination is not primarily a property of individual segments or syllables but reflects a hierarchical rhythmic structuring that organizes syllables, words, and syntactic phrases. This structuring provides insights into phenomena such as the phonological cycle, stress-subordination convention, and disjunctive ordering. The theory employs two key concepts: relative prominence, represented as a relation defined on constituent structure, and linguistic rhythm, represented as the alignment of linguistic material with a "metrical grid." The perceived "stressing" of an utterance is seen as the combined influence of this constituent-structure pattern and its grid alignment, similar to traditional verse scansion. The article applies this metrical theory to English phrasal stress, rationalizing the otherwise arbitrary characteristics of stress features and rules. It extends this treatment to word stress, using a traditional view of [+stress] while explaining word-level stress patterns in terms of the metrical theory. The concept of alignment with a metrical grid is introduced, formalizing the traditional idea of "stress-timing" and providing a realistic account of relative stress at the syllabic level. The authors critique traditional theories that represent stress patterns as segmental features, arguing that this approach leads to arbitrary characteristics and requires cyclic rule application. They propose a relational theory where relative prominence is defined on constituents, preserving it under embedding. This theory rationalizes many aspects of stress patterns and rules, making them more explanatory and consistent. The article also discusses the advantages of the relational theory, including its ability to account for the special properties of stress features and rules, such as the preservation of relative prominence under embedding and the local nature of phonological effects. It concludes by extending the metrical theory to words, where hierarchical stress subordination is as characteristic as in phrases and compounds.The article "On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm" by Mark Liberman and Alan Prince presents a new theory of stress and linguistic rhythm, focusing on the phenomenon of "stress subordination" in prosodic systems like English. The authors argue that stress subordination is not primarily a property of individual segments or syllables but reflects a hierarchical rhythmic structuring that organizes syllables, words, and syntactic phrases. This structuring provides insights into phenomena such as the phonological cycle, stress-subordination convention, and disjunctive ordering. The theory employs two key concepts: relative prominence, represented as a relation defined on constituent structure, and linguistic rhythm, represented as the alignment of linguistic material with a "metrical grid." The perceived "stressing" of an utterance is seen as the combined influence of this constituent-structure pattern and its grid alignment, similar to traditional verse scansion. The article applies this metrical theory to English phrasal stress, rationalizing the otherwise arbitrary characteristics of stress features and rules. It extends this treatment to word stress, using a traditional view of [+stress] while explaining word-level stress patterns in terms of the metrical theory. The concept of alignment with a metrical grid is introduced, formalizing the traditional idea of "stress-timing" and providing a realistic account of relative stress at the syllabic level. The authors critique traditional theories that represent stress patterns as segmental features, arguing that this approach leads to arbitrary characteristics and requires cyclic rule application. They propose a relational theory where relative prominence is defined on constituents, preserving it under embedding. This theory rationalizes many aspects of stress patterns and rules, making them more explanatory and consistent. The article also discusses the advantages of the relational theory, including its ability to account for the special properties of stress features and rules, such as the preservation of relative prominence under embedding and the local nature of phonological effects. It concludes by extending the metrical theory to words, where hierarchical stress subordination is as characteristic as in phrases and compounds.