Modeling metrical stress acquisition through alignment constraint induction

The paper models the acquisition of quantity insensitive metrical stress through constraint induction. A single constraint format is specified that regulates the alignment of prosodic categories. A binary and ternary foot-based prosodic hierarchy are compared in their conduciveness to learning a range of stress patterns, with clear advantages for the latter. The paper also points out the interaction between grammatical modeling and acquisition modeling with regards to the typological predictions of the grammar formalization.