There are two facets to the lyric rhythm of Taiwanese folk songs: beat alignment and metrical pattern selection. Because the lyrics are metrically derived from classical Chinese verse, a prosodic line may have syllable-beat symmetry. However, syllable-beat mismatches are also common. Lexical syllables have preference over functor syllables in beat alignment in such mismatches. Analysis of folk songs in Taiwanese reinforce the assumption that the prominence of lexical over functor syllables is pan-dialectal in Chinese. In these lyrics, beat alignment and metric pattern selection (metricality) can be seen as a result of matching phonological and syntactic constituents. The way in which syllables and beats are aligned yields the lyric rhythm. A set of well-formedness principles governs the process of beat alignment. These principles rely on two major syntactic factors: the categorical distinction between lexical and functor syllables and the hierarchy of immediate constituents. The rhythm principles also effectively filter out metrical patterns that would result in improper beat alignment. A 56-item bibliography is included. (MSE)