{{Short description|Size hierarchy of phonological units}}
The '''phonological hierarchy''' describes a series of increasingly smaller regions of a [[Phonology|phonological]] utterance, each nested within the next highest region. Different research traditions make use of slightly different hierarchies. For instance, there is one hierarchy which is primarily used in theoretical phonology, while a similar hierarchy is used in [[discourse analysis]]. Both are described in the sections below.
==Theoretical phonological hierarchy==
Listed in order from highest to lowest are the categories of the hierarchy that are most commonly used in theoretical phonology. There is some disagreement on the arrangement and inclusion of units, especially those that reside higher in the hierarchy. For example, the clitic group is not considered to be a separate level in [[Elisabeth Selkirk|Selkirk]]'s version of the hierarchy,<ref name="selkirk1996">{{cite journal|last=Selkirk|first=E. O.|date=1996|editor-last=Martin|editor-first=J.|editor2-last=Demuth|editor2-first=K.|editor2-link=Katherine Demuth|title=The prosodic structure of function words|journal=International Conference on Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition| editor-last = Martin | editor-first = J. | editor2-last = Demuth | editor2-first = K. | ___location=Hillsdale, NJ|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum | date = 1996}}</ref> while the minor phrase or accentual phrase are not considered to be separate from the phonological phrase in [[Bruce Hayes (linguist)|Hayes]]'<ref name="hayes1989">{{cite journal | last = Hayes | first = Bruce | title = The prosodic hierarchy in meter | journal = Phonetics and Phonology Vol. 1: Rhythm and Meter | editor-last = Kiparsky | editor-first = P. | editor-last2 = Youmans | editor-first2 = G. | publisher = Academic Press | ___location = San Diego | pages = 201–260 | date = 1989}}</ref> and [[Marina Nespor|Nespor]] & [[Irene B. Vogel|Vogel]]'s hierarchies.<ref name="nespor1986">{{cite book | lastlast1 = Nespor | firstfirst1 = M. | author2last2 = Vogel | first2 = I. | title = Prosodic Phonology | publisher = Foris Publications | ___location = Dordrecht | date = 1986 }}</ref><ref name="shattuck1996">{{cite journal | lastlast1 = Shattuck-Hufnagel | firstfirst1 = Stephanie | last2 = Turk | first2 = Alice | title = A Prosody Tutorial for Investigators of Auditory Sentence Processing | journal = Journal of Psycholinguistic Research | volume = 25 | issue = 2 | pages = 193–247 | date = 1996 | doi = 10.1007/BF01708572 | pmid = 8667297 | s2cid = 31515990 }}</ref>
# Intonational phrase (I-phrase, [[ι]])<ref name="selkirk1996" /> also known as:
#* Full intonational phrase<ref name="pierrehumbert1988">{{cite book | lastlast1 = Pierrehumbert | firstfirst1 = J. | last2 = Beckman | first2 = M. B. | title = Japanese Tone Structure | url = https://archive.org/details/japanesetonestru00pier | url-access = registration | ___location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = MIT Press | date = 1988}}</ref>
#Phonological phrase (P-phrase, [[Φ]]),<ref name="hayes1989" /><ref name="nespor1986" /> also known as:
