Abstract
It is well known that sonority is a major factor in determining the peaks and margins of the syllables in many languages. Recent studies report several languages in which the word accent (stress) is driven by the relative sonority of vowels. The present paper analyzes the interaction between compound accentuation and syllable structure in Tokyo Japanese and proposes that the relative sonority of vowels plays an important role in determining the position on which the accent falls. It is suggested, however, that sonority plays little or no role in foot formation.
