Tonal alignment and preaccentuation

Abstract This paper develops a new analysis of the antepenultimate accent principle that determines the default location of the pitch accent in Japanese words (namely, on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora). The chief innovation is that this analysis also applies to compounds, where it predicts the location of accent in compounds with “short” N2 (one or two moras) – so-called “preaccentuation” at the end of N1, which often does not coincide with the penultimate mora. In addition, the paper sketches an extension of the analysis subsuming the N2-initial accent characteristic of compounds with “long” N2 (three or four moras).