ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two general claims. First claim presents mora as a subsyllabic constituent for the representation of subsyllabic structure. Second claim argues that the mora is a prosodic constituent occupying the lowest position in the prosodic hierarchy. The chapter shows that the mora behaves like a prosodic constituent in several other respects as well. A further prediction of the present claim is that moras can form reduplicative templates, just like the syllable. An important consequence of adopting the mora as a prosodic unit is that people obtain a simple and unified characterization of constituent weight. In the case of the syllable, there is no need to identify a subsyllabic node relevant for this characterization, since all the information is contained right underneath the syllable node itself. The facts about prosodic weight thus independently argue for a subsyllabic level of prosodic structure with moras as its units.
