A functional typology of Austronesian and Papuan stress systems

Abstract

"The ultimate aim of linguistics is to understand how human language works. Typological research can help to reach this aim by revealing patterns in the languages of the world. In this chapter we will focus on stress typology, and we will try to explain why some word-based stress patterns are preferred over others. Our main focus will be on the stress patterns of two very different groups of languages, viz. the Austronesian languages and the so-called Papuan languages. Basing ourselves on existing descriptions, we will compare (samples of) the stress systems of these two groups of languages to the stress patterns of the world’s languages in general"