The justification for the Chomsky-Halle Auxiliary Reduction Rule III, called Pretonic Stress Placement (PSP), is questioned from the point of view of the native speaker. The similarity of the PSP and the Main Stress Rule (MSR) is examined through the application of these rules to polysyllabic monomorphemic and polymorphemic words. This analysis is based on the hypothesis that the native speaker divides polysyllabic words considered by the linguist to be monomorphemic, such as "Monongahela" and "Oklahoma," into two morphic units. For these words the PSP is found to be a repetition of the MSR in that two cycles through the MSR achieve the results of the PSP without the addition of the latter rule. Indirect evidence for the native speaker's hypothesized morphic division is found in the morph reshaping processes of clipping and iconic reshaping of loanwords. The need for further attention to speakers' intuitions about lexical analysis is stressed. (KM)