JSL Volume 5 No.1
Contents
Articles
Ilija Casule
The Functional Load of the Short Pronominal Forms and the Doubling of the Object in Macedonian 3
Sung-ho Choi
Aspect and Negated Modality in Russian: Their Conceptual Compatibility 20
Lawrence E. Feinberg
An Automorphic Approach to Paradigm Structure: Toward a New Model of Russian Case Morphology 51
Keith Langston
Pitch Accent in Croatian and Serbian: Towards an Autosegmental Analysis 80
John R. Leafgren
Bulgarian Clitic Doubling: Overt Topicality 117
Remark
Vladimir Orel 'Freedom' in Slavic 144
Reviews
Robert Orr
Laura A. Janda. Back from the brink: A study of how relic forms in languages serve as source material for analogical extensions 150
Gilbert C. Rappaport
David K. Hart. Topics in the structure of Russian: An introduction to Russian linguistics 164
Gary H. Toops
Marek Nekula. System der Partikeln im Deutschen und Tschechischen: Unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Abtonungspartikeln 175
Article Abstracts
Ilija Casule
The Functional Load of the Short Pronominal Forms and the Doubling of the Object in Macedonian
Abstract: The article analyses the causation of the doubling of the object in Macedonian (where it reaches its most extreme development in comparison to the other Balkan languages) and argues that it is due to fundamental, intralinguistic systemic develop-ments. In addition to the well-known factors, both synchronically and diachronically extensive syntactic and other argumentation is provided to substantiate the claim that the preverbal and sentence-initial position of the short pronominal forms is crucial in the development of the doubling of the object in Macedonian. The article claims that the position of the clitics is a result of a major historical syntactic change in the order of the constituents in Macedonian, whereby it was transformed from a SOV language into a SVO language, leaving the pronominal clitics on the left side of the verb as a consequence of this transformation. This restructuring gave the short pronominal forms a greater functional load (as markers of finiteness, transitivity, definiteness, etc) thus strengthening their syntactic position within the doubling of the object.
Sung-ho Choi
Aspect and Negated Modality in Russian: Their Conceptual Compatibility
Abstract: This paper examines aspectual choice in the context of two negated modal predicates, ne moã´ and nel´jza. It argues the following points: first, a quantity of empirical data disconfirms the traditional view of the association of morphological aspect (imperfective vs. perfective) with the "kind" (deontic vs. dynamic) or "degree" (non-necessity vs. impossibility) of modality. Second, lexical aspect, in particular the aspectual property of [telicity], plays a role in determining aspectual selection in these contexts. Third, ne moã´ behaves differently from nel´zja with respect to aspectual semantics; these two show the differences in usage and criteria conditioning aspect. It is demonstrated that this stems from the fact that the ne moã´ construction may be "agentive", while the nel´zja construction may not. Fourth, while for the syntagm"ne moã´ + telic infinitive" aspect selection is based upon the topological nature of the telic situation, for the syntagm "nel´zja + telic infinitive" aspect selection is determined by the modal meanings. The modal domain relevant for aspectual choice, however, turns out to be the "direction" of modality; "abductive" impossibility triggers the use of the imperfective, and "deductive" impossibility, the use of the perfective. Finally, it is suggested that the proposed correlation between aspect and negated modality may well be explained in terms of conditional relation holding between states of affairs.
Lawrence E. Feinberg
An Automorphic Approach to Paradigm Structure: Toward a New Model of Russian Case Morphology
Abstract: Previous approaches to Russian case morphology have generally assumed that form directly follows function, at least in the sense that the shape of desinences and paradigms may be specified in terms of a small set of semantic or syntactico-semantic features. This paper proposes that the relationship between case function and form is indirect&emdash;mediated by a template or master paradigm in which morphosyntactic properties such as Nom and Loc are encoded as positions in abstract space according two coordinates, anterior/posterior and exterior/interior. Nom, defined as anterior and exterior, constitutes the base line of the system, consistent with its status as "zero case". Morphological marking is primarily a function of distance from nom along each of the template dimensions, with secondary marking occurring where the basic hierarchy is attenuated: loc (posterior-interior) is most marked according to the primary hierarchy and instr (posterior-exterior) according to the secondary. Actual paradigms represent variant interpretations of the template, ranging from optimal (threefold asymmetrical: nom-acc/gen-loc-dat/instr) to minimal (direct/oblique). While previous analyses of Russian declension are content to specify case mergers and paradigms, the automorphic model allows us to motivate both the direction of syncretism and the division into paradigms. In this way many long-standing quandaries, such as how to accommodate gen2/loc2 within the overall system of forms, find plausible solutions.
Keith Langston
Pitch Accent in Croatian and Serbian: Towards an Autosegmental Analysis
Abstract: Pitch accent systems, such as that of standard Croatian and Serbian (Cr/S), pose a number of problems for any phonological analysis. Although an approach operating with nonlinear representations seems best suited to this type of system, relatively little research has been done on Cr/S within this framework. The most promising attempts to provide an autosegmental account of Cr/S accentuation are represented by the work of Zec and Inkelas. While adopting certain aspects of their approach, the present study argues that some of the basic assumptions of their analysis need to be reconsidered. An alternative analysis is proposed which differs from this previous work in a number of respects, including the identification of the tone-bearing unit in Cr/S and the way in which phonological and morphological rules interact, both issues of some general theoretical significance.
John R. Leafgren
Bulgarian Clitic Doubling: Overt Topicality
Abstract: The phenomenon in Bulgarian referred to here as "clitic doubling", in which a direct or indirect object is formally represented not by a single NP, but rather by a clitic personal pronoun cooccurring in one and the same clause with some other, coreferential NP type, is interesting not only for its formal characteristics, but also for its distributional, functional properties. This article presents an analysis of the function of this construction which both accounts for its distribution in a data base of literary prose fiction and explains why attempts to account for clitic doubling using notions such as definiteness, emphasis, and word order are almost, but not quite, successful. The proposed analysis, which assigns to clitic doubling the function of overtly marking the topicality of the object, also bears on the important linguistic issue of optionality in language and on the definition of "topic".
Vladimir Orel
'Freedom' in Slavic
Abstract: The Slavic word for 'freedom' is reconstructed as *sveboda and its etymologies are evaluated. A new solution is suggested, based on the hypothesis of an original adjective *svebodú 'wildly growing'. This form is compared with Slav *sverûpú 'wildly growing, wild, furious, fierce' with a similar derivational structure and original meaning. While the first component of *svebodú is identified with IE *suªe- , Slav *svoj¸, its second part, *-bodú, is compared with Slav *bodú, *bodakú and other words for 'thorn' and 'thistle'. Thus, *svebodú happens to be fairly close to *sverûpú, with its second component identical with Slav *rûpú 'thorn, burdock, thistle'. Both words describe the state of wild growth as 'having one's thorns to oneself' but their further semantic development is different. In *svebodú the original meaning 'wildly growing' changes into 'independent' and 'free', and then an abstract noun *sveboda is created from feminine nominative singular of this adjective.
