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Quantity-sensitivity is an important property of prosodic constituents, which are subclassified along this dimension as either light or heavy. In a typical hierarchical organization of prosodic units, as in (1) ( Selkirk 1978, 1980 ; Nespor and Vogel 1986 ), each of the prosodic levels may be instantiated by constituents that vary in length, segment quality, or structural complexity (see chapter 33 : syllable-internal structure; chapter 40: the foot; chapter 51: the phonological word; chapter 84: clitics; chapter 50: tonal alignment ). This variation, in at least some of its aspects, introduces distinctions in quantity among constituents at the same level of the hierarchy, evidenced by distinctions in phonological behavior. While quantity-sensitivity is most clearly manifested at the level of the syllable, other prosodic levels exhibit this property as well. Quantity-sensitivity characterizes a wide range of phonological phenomena, including stress, tone, poetic meter, and various prosodic effects on morphosyntax. Moreover, quantity-sensitivity can be manifested either as a binary or as a scalar property. For these and other reasons to be addressed in this chapter, prosodic quantity needs to have its place in the formal representation of prosody, and is a central issue in any discussion of phonological representations. The chapter is organized as follows: §2 addresses crucial ... log in or subscribe to read full text