Persian 'word stress' is a syntax-driven tone

Abstract

Prominence in Persian words is generally referred to as ‘word stress’. An important aspect in which the notion of Persian ‘word stress’ is flawed is that the location of ‘stressed’ syllables is entirely governed by syntax. That is, neither is it the case that ‘stressed’ syllables are in any way determined in the lexicon, nor is it the case that they are determined in the phonology, whether lexical or post-lexical, Persian ‘stress’ functions in syntax much as would a segmentally encoded particle.