Structure and Stress in the Phonology of Russian
J. L. Melvold, 1990
This thesis investigates the interaction between phonology and morphology in the stress system of Russian. Russian has an accent-based stress system, in which morphemes are characterized by two accentual properties: [+/-accented, +/-dominant]. Dominant morphemes trigger deaccentuation of the stem to which they attach.
Words surface with one stress, regardless of whether they contain zero or several lexically accented morphemes. I show that the stress rule in Russian applies cyclically, assigning stress to the leftmost accented vowel. Words with accented roots have stress fixed on the root. In the inflectional paradigm of words with unaccented roots, stress alternates between the initial and final vowels, depending on the accentual property of the inflectional suffix. I refer to this as mobile stress.
In Chapter One I observe an important correlation between stress and the derivational status of words. The generalization is the following: mobile stress occurs only in nonderived words or words derived from a nonsyllabic derivational suffix. To account for this fact, I show that it is crucial to assume not only that the stress rule is cyclic, but that all suffixes are cyclic. My analysis poses a challenge to theories which argue that morphemes which delete previously assigned metrical structure are necessarily cyclic while those which preserve previously assigned structure are noncyclic.
I adopt the framework of autosegmental phonology, whereby segmental, syllabification, and metrical processes operate on independent places linked to a series of timing slots. Since vowels are the only stressable elements in Russian, they are the only elements represented on the stres plane. This allows us to explain the fact that a nonsyllabic morpheme which triggers a cyclic rule on the segmental place fails to trigger the cyclic stress rule, which operates on the stress plane.
In Chapter Two I introduce a class of apparent counterexamples to the claim that mobile stress can only occur in words derived from a nonsyllabic suffix. All of the problematic cases involve morphemes which exhibit vowel-zero alternations. I argue that these morphemes contain abstract vowels which consist of a floating feature matrix. Futheremore, I present both segmental and metrical evidence to show that there are three distinct abstract vowels in Russian. They have the representations (where f = [-hi, -lo, +/-bk]):
(i) (ii) (iii)
Syllable plane: N N
| |
Skeleton: X X
Segmental plane: f f
Chapter Three addresses certain complexities in the adjectival system, which involve rules of post-accentuation and retraction.
Verbs exhibit stress alternations not found among other lexical categories. These alternations result from vowel sequences which are unique to derived verb stems. In Chapter Four, I show that stress assignment in these verbs involves a complex interaction between the stress rule, syllabification, and vowel truncation rules.
The thesis thus provides strong evidence for current theories of abstract elements in phonology, and suggest a different view of cyclicity than the one recently proposed by Halle and Vergnaud (1987) and Halle and Kenstowicz (1989). These authors have argued that only the dominant (stress-deleting) morphemes are cyclic. This thesis shows that both dominant and nondominant morphemes constitute cyclic domains, but the structural properties of a morpheme may prevent application of a cyclic rule on a particular plane.
Thesis Supervisor: Morris Halle
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Cyclicity and stress in Russian 12
1.1 Introduction 12
1.2 Lexical accent and stress assignment 13
1.2.1 Patterns of nominal stress 13
1.2.2 Russian declension 15
1.2.3 The basic accentuation principle (BAP) 16
1.2.3.1 Post-accentuation 22
1.2.3.2 Two minor stress patterns: retraction in nouns with 26
unaccented roots
1.2.4 Summary 28
1.3 Vowel-zero alternations, null inflections, and the Yers 29
1.4 Formal representation of stress 37
1.5 Dominance, cyclicity, and stress assignment in derived nouns 48
1.5.1 Introduction 48
1.5.2 The nonderived noun generalization 48
1.5.3 [-Accented, -dominant] derivational suffixes 50
1.5.3.1 Dominance, cyclicity and the nonderived noun
generalization 58
1.5.3.2 Level-ordering and the relation between
morphological and phonological processes 60
1.5.3.3 Stress assignment and the strict cycle condition 64
1.5.4 [+Accented, -dominant] derivational suffixes 65
1.5.5 [+Accented, +dominant] derivational suffixes 70
1.5.6 [-Accented, +dominant] derivational suffixes 75
1.6 Nonsyllabic suffixes and the strict cycle condition: stress
assignment in nonderived verbs 78
1.6.1 Introduction 78
1.6.2 Verbal inflection 79
1.6.3 Data: stress patterns of nonderived (athematic) verbs 79
1.6.4 Morphological composition of the present tense 1st sg and
3rd pl 83
1.6.5 The nonsyllabic suffix l 90
1.7 Summary 93
1.8 Appendix A Mobile stress paradigms 94
1.9 Appendix B Exceptional stress in a small class of loan words 96
Notes Chapter 1 98
Chapter 2 Abstract vowels in Russian 112
2.1 Introduction 112
2.2 Mobile stress in derived short-form adjectives 117
2.2.1 The problem 117
2.2.2 Data 119
2.3 An autosegmental analysis of the Yers: background 121
2.4 A floating feature segment in Russian 125
2.4.1 The adjectival suffix "l 135
2.4.2 Summary 136
2.5 A segmentally unspecified syllabic Yer 137
2.5.1 Introduction 137
2.5.2 Data 139
2.5.3 Metrical and segmental evidence 140
2.5.3.1 Default features 144
2.5.4 Further evidence for an X-Yer 146
2.5.5 Summary 154
2.6 A third type of Yer 155
2.6.1 The accentual property of the diminutive suffix Ek 158
2.6.2 The feminine diminutive suffix Ek 164
2.6.3 The suffix Ec 167
2.7 Summary 172
Notes Chapter 2 175
Chapter 3 Adjectival stress 181
3.1 Introduction 181
3.2 Short form adjectival stress 183
3.3 Stress in nonderived long form adjectives 188
3.4 Co-occuring patterns of short and long form stress 190
3.5 Stress assignment in derived adjectives 196
3.5.1 Introduction 196
3.5.2 Adjectives derived with the suffixes at and ast 197
3.5.3 Post-accentuation and the adjectival suffixes ist and liv 198
3.6 Stress and the adjectival suffix ov 204
3.7 Appendix: adjectives derived with the suffix ov 212
Notes Chapter 3 215
Chapter 4 Vowel truncation, syllabification, and verbal stress 223
4.1 Introduction 223
4.2 Verbal inflection 223
4.3 Underlying vowel inventory of Russian 227
4.4 Review of stress in nonderived (athematic) verbs 227
4.5 The problem of alternating stress in derived verbs 233
4.5.1 Introduction 233
4.5.2 Data: thematic verb stems 236
4.5.3 The accentual properties of theme vowel suffixes 240
4.6 Glide formation and accent shift 242
4.6.1 Thematic verbs 242
4.6.2 Further evidence: verbs with the suffix ova 258
4.6.3 Summary 266
4.7 Vowel deletion and accent shift 267
4.7.1 Thematic verb stems ending in a [-lo] vowel 267
4.7.1.1 The underyling form of the 3rd pl agreement suffix 277
4.7.2 Post-accentuation in thematic verbs 280
4.7.3 Appendix: nonderived nouns and adjectives related to
thematic verbs in "i and "e with stress pattern (iii) 288
4.7.4 Post-accentuation and retraction: stress pattern (iv) 290
4.8 Other verbal suffixes 295
4.8.1 Introduction 295
4.8.2 The suffix aj 295
4.8.3 The suffix nu 296
4.8.4 Verbs derived with the suffix ej 298
4.9 Bracketing paradoxes, cyclicity, and stress in prefixed nonderived
verbs 299
4.10 Summary 306
Notes Chapter 4 309