Definition
In a language that uses a paradigmatic stress system, stress is largely dependent on the morphology of a language. This includes whether or not a language has affixes, is only a root, or if a word is a noun versus a verb. There may still be unpredictable stresses found on certain words, however (Zsiga, 2013, p. 356)
Examples
- Skwxwú7mesh
- Dyck (2004) discusses stress patterns of Skwxwú7mesh, in which it is noted that a word’s stress pattern may change depending on whether an affix is reduplicative or non-reduplicative. This is exemplified in the following examples, where only reduplicative affixes can bear stress, and is thus an example of a paradigmatic stress pattern.
- Note that in example (8), none of the prefixes are stressed, leaving the roots to be stressed (Dyck, 2004).
- Compare example (8, above) to the following example (37, below). Here, Dyck (2004) provides evidence that prefixes can be stressed under certain morphological conditions, specifically, if they are reduplicated prefixes.
INLP Linguistic Glossary 