"Topics in Tiberian Biblical Hebrew Metrical Phonology and Prosodics",
by Henry Churchyard (University of Texas, May 1999):

                         [Abstract]

              TOPICS IN TIBERIAN BIBLICAL HEBREW
                      METRICAL PHONOLOGY
                         AND PROSODICS

                       Henry Churchyard
            The University of Texas at Austin, 1999


This dissertation examines a number of linguistic issues in the phonology
of ancient Hebrew, using the extremely rich prosodic information available
in the Tiberian orthography of Biblical Hebrew.  In addition to a basic
analysis of syllabification and stress-assignment, and an examination of
the exact linguistic interpretation of the orthography, a detailed
analysis of Hebrew vowel reduction has been undertaken.  Explaining the
occurrences of reduced and unreduced vowels requires the creation of a
layer of foot-like constituents below the level of feet responsible for
stress in the usual sense.  Also, certain previously-unconsidered
linguistic patterns provide evidence that the distribution of syllable
types in Hebrew phonological representations obeys a trochaic ``Trimoraic
Law'' generalization, and that the metrical constituents governing vowel
reduction are systematically maximally trimoraic in certain contexts.

It is also shown that the Hebrew rhythm rule does not apply in a
fundamentally different way from that of rhythm rules in other languages --
though the particular nature of Hebrew metrical representations does
have certain effects on the rhythm-rule (casting some light on the nature
of rhythm rules in general).  The analyses of vowel reduction and the
rhythm rule together throw doubt on the necessity and desirability of
multiplanar metrical analyses of Hebrew (or in general).

The relationship between two distinct sources of phrasal prosodic
constituency information provided by the orthography is also examined in
detail.  The first is the system of Tiberian cantillational ``accents''
(Hebrew _t.@`aamiim_), which provides an Immediate Constituent parse
(largely prosodic in nature) for the Hebrew Bible.  The second is a set of
phonological phenomena which are sensitive to the greater prominence
connected with phonological-phrase final (or ``pausal'') position.  A
computer-assisted empirical textual-statistical study of the congruences
and discrepancies between the accentual system and such pausal phonology
was undertaken, which throws light on the linguistic nature of the
accentual system.  A number of biblical verses that show apparent
discrepancies between accentual and pausal constituency are collected and
individually discussed, and while the accentual and pausal constituency
systems are often parallel, they cannot always be fully reconciled as
variant orthographic manifestations of a single type of
linguistic/prosodic constituency.

Finally, the history of Hebrew main stress and the origins of the
consecutive imperfect stress shift are also discussed.

[Here's a brief summary of the table of contents:]

  o Chapter 1. Syllabification, Stress, and Vowel Reduction in Hebrew
       o §1.1-1.2. Syllabification and Main Stress
       o §1.3. Tiberian Biblical Hebrew Vowel Reduction, Surface
         Trimoraic Trochees, and Multiplanar Metrical Theories
       o §1.4. Transliteration and Interpretation of the Tiberian
         Masoretic Orthography
  o Chapter 2. The Tiberian Hebrew Rhythm Rule in the Typology of
    Rhythm Rules
       o Supplement B to Chapter 2: Hebrew Stress-shift Blocking and
         Optimality Theory
  o Chapter 3. Discrepancies between the Tiberian Hebrew Accentual and
    Pausal Systems
       o §3.1. The System of `Accents' (_t_@`aamíim)
            o §3.1.1. Details of Accentual Constituency Parsing
            o §3.1.2. The Nature of Accentual Constituency
            o §3.1.3. Contextually-determined Disjunctive Force
            o §3.1.4. Accentual Constituency as Prosodic Structure
            o §3.1.5. Binary-branching Prosodic Phrasal Structures in
              other Languages, and the Linguistic Significance of the
              Masoretic Parse
       o §3.2. Phonological Indications of Prosodic Phrasing
            o §3.2.1. The Blocking of Stress Shifts in ``Pause'' as a
              Prosodic Boundary Cue
            o §3.2.2. The Continuous Column Constraint
            o §3.2.3. The Pausal Parse
       o §3.3. The Relationship between the Constituency of Accents
         and that of Pausal Phonology
            o §3.3.1. Characteristics of the Accentual Parse for
              Comparison with Pausal Phonology
            o §3.3.2. Accentual Conditioning of Pausal and Non-pausal
              Forms
            o §3.3.3. Discrepancies between Accentual Constituency and
              Pausal Phonology
            o §3.3.4. Verses with Pausal/Accentual Discrepancies
            o §3.3.5. Classification of Pausal/Accentual Discrepancy
              Verse Types
       o Supplement A to Chapter 3: Accentual Conditioning of the
         Rhythm Rule (_n@siigáa_)
       o Supplement G to Chapter 3: List of Verses with both Pausal
         forms and Stress-shifted Disjunctive Non-pausal forms
  o Chapter 4. The History of Hebrew Main Stress and the Origins of
    the Consecutive Imperfect Stress Shift

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