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    Overview: Stress in Dutch monomorphemic words (based on data from Celex)
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    Based on data from Celex (Baayen 1995), the following tables give an overview of the relative frequency of primary stress patterns in monomorphemic words without schwa (since schwa cannot carry stress, which influences the stress patterns). This overview is grouped with respect to the number of syllables (bisyllabic words, trisyllabic words, quadrisyllabic words, words with five and six syllables) and the different syllable types. These syllable types are grouped with respect to the structure of their rhyme; the structure of onsets is disregarded since no evidence has been provided that they may play a role in stress assignment in Dutch. Whereas optional coda consonants are represented with a ‘C’, vowels in the nucleus are divided into three categories: ‘D’ symbolizes a diphthong, ‘A’ an A-class vowel, and ‘B’ represents a B-class vowel. B-class vowels always occur in closed syllables, whereas A-class vowels and diphthongs usually occur in open syllables, except for the word-final syllable: in this context, they can optionally be followed by a coda consonant.

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    [+]Monomorphemic bisyllabic words

    In monomorphemic bisyllabic words, we find the following stress patterns:

    Table 1
    Rhyme penult Rhyme final Attested cases (CELEX) Stress penult Stress final
    A A 167 138 29
    A BC 135 68 67
    A AC 89 16 73
    BC A 81 78 3
    BC BC 71 45 26
    BC AC 52 9 43
    B A 34 31 3
    B BC 31 18 13
    A DC 25 0 25
    A BCC 23 5 18
    BC BCC 15 2 13
    BC DC 10 1 9
    AC A 9 8 1
    B AC 8 2 6
    D A 8 7 1
    AC BC 7 5 2
    A D 7 1 6
    AC AC 6 2 4
    B DC 5 0 5
    D AC 3 1 2
    B BCC 3 1 2
    BC D 3 0 3
    A ACC 1 0 1
    BCC A 1 1 0
    A BCCC 1 1 0
    AC BCC 1 1 0
    BCC AC 1 0 1
    B ACC 1 0 1
    BC ACC 1 0 1
    D ACC 1 1 0
    D BCC 1 1 0
    D BC 1 1 0
    BC DCC 1 0 1
    B D 1 0 1
    D DC 1 0 1

    [+] Monomorphemic trisyllabic words

    Table 2
    Rhyme antepenult Rhyme penult Rhyme final Attested cases (CELEX) Stress antepenult Stress penult Stress final
    A A A 120 46 56 18
    A A BC 82 50 8 24
    BC A A 53 23 25 5
    BC A BC 32 20 0 12
    A A AC 29 2 0 27
    A BC A 27 1 24 2
    BC A AC 19 0 0 19
    A A BCC 18 1 1 16
    B A A 16 4 9 3
    A B A 13 0 11 2
    B A BC 12 7 1 4
    B A AC 10 0 0 10
    BC A BCC 7 1 0 6
    A BC AC 7 0 0 7
    BC A DC 6 0 0 6
    BC BC A 6 1 4 1
    BC B A 5 1 4 0
    A A DC 4 0 0 4
    BC BC BC 3 1 1 1
    D A A 2 1 1 0
    A A B 2 0 0 2
    B B A 2 0 2 0
    A B BC 2 0 2 0
    AC A A 1 1 0 0
    A A ACC 1 0 0 1
    D A BC 1 1 0 0
    A A D 1 0 0 1
    BC A D 1 0 0 1
    AC A DC 1 0 0 1
    BC AC BC 1 1 0 1
    B B BC 1 0 0 1
    BC B BC 1 1 0 0
    B BC A 1 0 1 0
    B BC AC 1 0 0 1
    BC BC AC 1 0 0 1
    B BC BC 1 0 0 1
    B BC BC 1 0 1 0
    AC BC DC 1 0 0 1
    BC BC DC 1 0 0 1
    A D A 1 0 1 0
    BC D A 1 0 1 0

    [+] Monomorphemic quadrisyllabic words

    Table 3
    Rhyme preantepenult Rhyme antepenult Rhyme penult Rhyme final Attested cases (CELEX) Stress preantepenult Stress antepenult Stress penult Stress final
    A A A A 22 0 12 8 2
    BC A A A 12 0 9 1 3
    A A BC A 6 0 0 1 0
    A A A BC 5 0 1 2 4
    B A A A 5 0 1 4 0
    A BC A BC 3 0 1 1 1
    B A A BC 3 0 0 2 1
    A A BC BC 2 0 0 2 0
    A BC A A 2 0 1 1 0
    BC A A BC 2 0 1 1 0
    BC A B A 2 0 0 2 0
    B A B A 2 0 0 2 0
    A A A AC 1 0 0 0 1
    A A B BC 1 0 1 0 0
    A A B A 1 0 0 1 0
    A A D A 1 0 0 1 0
    A B A A 1 0 0 1 0
    A BC B A 1 0 0 1 0
    AC A A A 1 0 1 0 0
    BC A A AC 1 0 0 0 1
    BC B A A 1 1 0 0 0
    BC BC A A 1 0 1 0 0

    References
    • Baayen, R. Harald, Piepenbrock, Richard & Gulikers, L1995The CELEX Lexical Database (CD-ROM), Release 2, Dutch Version 3.1
    About this article
    Author(s): Björn Köhnlein
    Category: Dutch Phonology
    Keywords: stressmonomorphemic wordsCelex
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Björn Köhnlein December 2015
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