JSL Volume 4 No.1

Contents

Articles

Alina Israeli
Discourse Analysis of Russian Aspect: Accent on Creativity     8

James S. Levine and Charles Jones
Agent, Purpose, and Russian Middles     50

Rosemary Kuhn Plapp
Russian /i/ and /y/ as Underlying Segments     76

Tom Priestly
On the Etymology of the Ethnic Slur Tschusch      109

Michael Yadroff
Modern Russian Vocatives: A Case of Subtractive Morphology     133

Remarks

Vladimir Orel
Slavic *mo,do 'Testicle'     154

Oscar E. Swan
An Exercise in Ghost Forms: The Declension of OCS vepr' ~ vepr^' 'Boar'     159

Review

Martina Lindseth
Uwe Junghanns. Syntaktische und semantische Eigenschaften russischer finaler Infinitiveinbettungen      167

Miscellaneous

JSL Abbreviations      172

Article Abstracts

Alina Israeli

Discourse Analysis of Russian Aspect: Accent on Creativity

Abstract: Obshchefakticheskoe znachenie 'general factual meaning' (OF) has traditionally referred to imperfective usage that constitutes a simple reference to an action in the past. But over time many different variants have been included under this rubric, making the traditional definition inadequate. While the current working definition is a negative one (not process or repetition), the article attempts to give a new positive definition based on the discourse relationship of the speakers, namely a pragmatic contract. At the same time, the article demonstrates that in verbs denoting creative acts, a completely different set of parameters guides the usage of perfective vs. imperfective OF: mastermind/implementor, individual/joint project, [+/-authority].

James S. Levine and Charles Jones

Agent, Purpose, and Russian Middles

Abstract: Given a current theoretical analysis of passive and middle constructions in Russian (e.g., Babby 1993, within the Government and Binding syntactic theory), the question of what conditions affect the distribution of agent-oriented adverbs and clauses arises in an interesting way. In this paper we argue against the notion that lexical assignment of some kind of Agent thematic role to subject position is relevant to the distribution of these adjuncts. Instead, we offer an account of their distribution in terms of a more formal property of the argument structure of certain verbs; namely, the absence of lexically determined thematic content for the verb's characteristic external argument.

Rosemary Kuhn Plapp

Russian /i/ and /y/ as Underlying Segments

Abstract: The present paper provides evidence that /i/ and /y/ must be distinct underlying segments within a derivational analysis of modern Russian. In general /i/ occurs after palatalized [-back] consonants in Russian and /y/ appears after non-palatalized [+back] consonants. Superficially, postulating an allophonic alternation in high unrounded vowels seems appropriate. However, careful analysis of details of Russian phonology shows that this is not warranted. Evidence from velar and surface palatalization indicates that both /i/ and /y/ exist underlyingly in modern Russian. In fact, ordering paradoxes occur if one attempts to derive all high unrounded vowels from /i/. This analysis raises issues pertinent to Underspecification theory and Lexical Phonology.

Tom Priestly

On the Etymology of the Ethnic Slur Tschusch

Abstract: Several origins have been suggested for the German ethnic slur Tschusch, used (primarily in the meaning 'Slav') in present-day Austria since at least 1919, and formerly used in German-speaking parts of Moravia and Bohemia. Using evidence from a variety of sources, it is concluded that there are two quite separate origins: the two became confused in southern provinces of Austria, but probably only one is the source for the usages in Vienna and elsewhere. There remain gaps in the history of this/these word(s); in particular, the various reports of forms with postvocalic /zh/ remain unexplained.

Michael Yadroff

Modern Russian Vocatives: A Case of Subtractive Morphology

Abstract: This paper shows that Russian vocative formation poses problems for any templatic approach to truncation. Possible base forms for derivation of the vocatives are discussed and several arguments showing that it is a Nominative form and not a bare stem are presented. Vocative truncation is treated as a prosodic circumscription, i.e., deletion not of segments but of a prosodic unit (deprosodization); the output forms of vocatives are the result of subsequent resyllabification (reassociation of stranded onset consonants to the adjacent coda). In a sense, vocative formation is a mirror-image of Compensatory Lengthening: vocative formation reflects deletion of a prosodic unit with subsequent reassociation of segments, while Compensatory Lengthening reflects deletion of a segment with subsequent reassociation of a prosodic unit (mora).

Vladimir Orel

Slavic *mo,do 'Testicle'

Abstract: Various etymological interpretations of Slav *mo,do are analyzed and their formal and semantic inadequacy is demonstrated. A new etymology of *mo,do is tentatively suggested, linking this term to the Indo-European word for 'man' *manu- or *monu-. The suffix *-d- of *mo,do is studied in comparison with other Slavic derivatives in *-do, -d" from IE *dhe:- < *dheH-.

Oscar E. Swan

An Exercise in Ghost Forms: The Declension of OCS vepr' ~ vepr^' 'Boar'

Abstract: Two prominent dictionaries of Old Church Slavic assign the word vepr' 'boar' to the jo-stem declension, citing the gen sg ghost form veprja. There is as much reason to think that this word, cited only once in OCS, belonged to the i-stems.