Abstract
The foot is considered the basic constituent of rhythmical organization at the word level in many contemporary linguistic theories. Evidence for its existence stems from such diverse phenomena as the typology of the stress patterns of the world’s languages, the size of templates in prosodic morphology, minimal word restrictions, phonological processes taking the foot as its domain, and brain responses to the processing of prosodic structures. The shape of feet varies according to parameters determining the size of the foot and the position of its head, and according to the impact of syllable weight on foot construction.