Predicting English Native Speakers Intuition in Stress Placement by Using Metrical Grid Theory

Abstract

This paper examines the hypothesis that metrical grid principles would expect correct stress placement realized by English native speakers intuition. The two purposes of this paper are to review the metrical grid theory and to apply its principles to nonce words to see if the metrical grid theory correctly represents English native speakers intuition in placing stress. Two English native speakers, one Canadian woman and one British man, participated in this experiment. Two lists of nonce words, nouns and verbs respectively, were given to them within the contexts with a direction to read aloud. Although there are some exceptions, most of words and stress are explained by the phonological principles. Therefore, it is concluded that English native speakers have inherent abilities to place stress, and metrical grids present how stress placement is produced.