A data-oriented (empiricist) alternative to the currently pervasive (nativist) Principles and Pa-rameters approach to the acquisition of stress assignment is investigated. A similarity-based algorithm, viz. an augmented version of Instance-Based Learning is used to learn the system of main stress assignment in Dutch. In this nontrivial task a comprehensive lexicon of Dutch monomorphemes is used instead of the idealized and highly simplified description of the empirical data used in previous approaches. It is demonstrated that a similarity-based learning method is effective in learning the complex stress system of Dutch. The task is accomplished without the a priori knowledge assumed to pre-exist in the learner in a Principles and Parameters framework. A comparison of the system's behavior with a consensus linguistic analysis (in the framework of Metrical Phonology) shows that ease of learning correlates with decreasing degrees of marked-ness of metrical phenomena. It is also shown that the learning algorithm captures subregularities within the stress system of Dutch that cannot be described without going beyond some of the theoretical assumptions of metrical phonology.

In this paper a new analysis is presented of the allomorphy of the Dutch diminutive suffix. There is one long allomorph (-etje) and four short allomorphs (-tje,-pje,-kje and-je). With respect to the choice between the long and short versions, this article compares two types of analyses, which appeal to the structural organisation of the stem (rather than to the segmental properties of the stem). In the first type, the allomorphy is accounted for with reference to the foot structure of the stem, while in the second the allomorphy is accounted for with reference to the syllabic structure of the stem (specifically the final rhyme). The two types of analyses are developed in order to account for all relevant data and it is decided that the syllabic analysis must be chosen if is assumed that the tense (allegedly ‘long’) vowels are structurally short, an assumption that is supported by their behaviour with respect to stress (for which purpose they count as light). The article then offers a non-derivational account of the choice between all forms of the suffix, including the short forms.