An Essay on Stress
Worth buying if: You study phonology or prosody in linguistics.
Skip it if: You want a popular-audience overview or light reading.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780262581059. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
If this page helped you decide, purchasing through the Amazon button above supports UPB Books at no extra cost to you and helps us continue improving the site. Thanks for visiting today.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Affiliate disclosure: purchases made through links on this site may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.
Summary
An Essay on Stress (1990) presents Halle and Vergnaud’s theoretical analysis of stress patterns and their role in phonology, offering formal argumentation and data-driven discussion across languages.
Why this book now
Readers interested in foundational phonology will find this 1990 MIT Press treatment still central for understanding stress theory and its legacy.
30-second preview
Two quick cards, fifteen seconds each.
Card 1 of 2
Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You study phonology or prosody in linguistics.
- You want formal analyses of stress patterns and arguments.
- You want a popular-audience overview or light reading.
- You prefer experimental or psycholinguistic studies over formal theory.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780262581059
Worth buying if: You study phonology or prosody in linguistics.
Skip it if: You want a popular-audience overview or light reading.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Balanced Moderate time
At 314 pages, this MIT Press scholarly monograph requires focused, sustained reading and some background in generative phonology to follow formal arguments.
What stands out here
This 1990 MIT Press edition preserves Halle and Vergnaud’s formal theoretical presentation and detailed cross-linguistic examples central to stress theory.
Best way to approach it
Approach the book slowly, working through the formal analyses and examples with paper notes and familiarity with generative phonology concepts.
Was this page helpful?
Quick thumbs only. No login.
Loading feedback…
Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780262581059
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.