1. Accent distribution and morphemes
1.1. Derivational prefixes
(1) Prefixes of North and West Germanic origin classified by accent13 a. Prefixed words with Accent 1
Prefix Origin Base Imperative Infinitive Indef.sg. Gloss
be- WGmc verb be'tenk1 be'tenke1 to consider
er- WGmc verb er'far1 er'fare1 to find out
for- WGmc verb for'bedre1 for'bedre1 to improve
ge- WGmc noun ge'byr1 fee
b. Prefixed words with Accent 2
Prefix Origin Base Imperative Infinitive Indef.sg. Gloss
'for- ON noun 'forslag2 suggestion
adj. 'misnøyd2 displeased
verb 'miskjenn2 'miskjenne2 to misjudge
'mis- ON
noun 'mistanke2 suspicion
verb 'oversett2 'oversette2 to translate
'over- ON
verb 'undergå2 'undergå2 to experience
'under- ON
noun 'underhold2 upkeep
13. More comprehensive lists of affixes can be found in Appendix A.
Prefix Origin Base Imperative Infinitive Indef.sg. Gloss
verb 'vansir2 'vansire2 to disfigure
'van- ON
adj. 'vanskapt2 deformed
c. Prefixed words with Accent 1 and Accent 2
Prefix Origin Base Accent Imperative Infinitive Indef.sg. Gloss verb 1 'anstill1 'anstille1 to hire
The three sets of prefixed words in (1) contain the imperative and infinitive forms of verbs and the indefinite singular of nouns and adjectives. We give both the imperative and infinitive forms since the infinitive, although it is the usual citation form found in dictionaries, is in itself bimorphemic. The infinitive form consists of a stem (e.g. tenk) and infinitive suffix {-e}. Since we are only interested in the influence of prefixes on word accent at the moment, we must ensure that the infinitive suffix is not interfering with the accent. The imperative form has no inflectional suffix and is equivalent to the verb root. If the accent of the imperative is the same as the infinitive, we can be assured that the infinitive suffix has no effect on the accent. This is also what we find in (1), where the prefixed infinitive forms all have the same accent as the prefixed imperatives. This, in fact, holds true even with the unstressed prefixes in (1a), where the imperative of these verbs can only be Accent 1 because they have final stress (be'tenk1, includes both West Germanic and ON prefixes, and these prefixed forms are found with both accents.
Many of the prefixes listed in the last set (1c) are actually prepositions or adverbs, e.g. av
‘by’, på ‘on’, over ‘over’, under ‘under’, or adverbs ut ‘out’, or have homophones belonging to these groups, e.g. an ‘to’, for ‘before’. Nevertheless, regardless of whether we are dealing with genuine prefixes or particles, whether stressed or unstressed, all of these pre-positioned morphemes influence accent assignment, as we will see in this chapter and later on in Chapter 3. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, we treat these pre-morphemes (1c) as belonging to the same group as the other prefixes (1a,b), and label them as prefixes as well.
Below we summarise the various accentual possibilities of Germanic prefixes in Standard East Norwegian:
(2) Summary of general traits of Germanic prefixes a. Syllable count and stress
σ σ σ
Stressed 'av- 'over-
Unstressed be-
b. Accent of prefixes
Accent 1 Accent 2 Stressed monosyllabic 'an- 'an-, 'mis-
Stressed disyllabic 'over-
Unstressed be-
c. Stressed monosyllabic prefixes sensitive to syntactic category Accent 1 Accent 2
Noun 'an-
Verb 'an-
As (2a) shows, in Standard East Norwegian Germanic prefixes are either mono- or disyllabic if stressed and only monosyllabic if unstressed. Table (2b) illustrates that stressed prefixes can be found in either Accent-1 or Accent-2 derivations, while disyllabic prefixes are only found in Accent-2 forms and unstressed prefixes in Accent-1 derivations. Table (2c) exemplifies that the stressed prefixes found with both accents in set (2b) are sensitive to syntactic category (cf. set (1c)), i.e., the accent of these derivations corresponds to the syntactic category of the respective word. Nouns with these prefixes have Accent 2 and verbs Accent 1.
The next set of prefixes to be considered are of non-Germanic origin. Only a few of these prefixes are actually productive in Standard East Norwegian, therefore we will not spend much time on them. We will primarily focus on the effect of Germanic prefixes in this study.
However, accent distribution in forms with non-Germanic affixes borrowed from Greek or the Romance languages can also be accounted for within a comprehensive analysis of accent assignment, as will become apparent as our analysis unfolds. In the following, we list a selection of non-Germanic prefixes taken largely from Faarlund et al. (1997:96).
(3) Non-Germanic prefixes
a. Prefixed words with Accent 1
Prefix Example Gloss
'asosial1 unsocial
a- a'morf1 amorphous
'hypermoderne1 ultra-modern hyper-
hyper'bol1 hyperbole
'multimedier1 multimedia
multi-
multipli'kand1 multiplier
'nonsens1 nonsense
non-
non'figurativ1 non-figurative 'superelegant1 super elegant
super- superinten'dent bishop
'ultrafiolett1 ultraviolet ultra-
ultra'marin1 ultramarine
'økokrise1 ecological crisis øko-
øko'log1 ecologist
b. Prefixed words with Accent 2
Prefix Example Gloss
erke- 'erkefiende2 archenemy
vise- 'visepresident2 vice-president
c. Prefixed words with Accent 1 and Accent 2
As mentioned before, to exclusively illustrate the effect of prefixes on accent assignment, only words consisting of a prefix and stem should be taken into consideration. Words with final stress are also to be avoided since they can only be Accent 1. It was difficult to abide by these rules for set (3), thus some examples are listed that have final stress (e.g. a'morf1
‘amorphous’) and some with suffixes ('asosial1 ‘unsocial’).15
These non-Germanic prefixes also fall into three categories of those that have Accent 1 (3a) or Accent 2 (3b) or those that vary between accents (3c). Sets (3a) and (3b) differ from the Germanic prefixes where word stress was quite constant in that these words are found with varying stress. The placement of stress, i.e., whether it is initial or not, appears to depend on the age of the loans (3a). Older loans tend to have non-initial stress (hyper'bol1 ‘hyperbole’) and newer words initial stress ('økokrise1 ‘ecological crisis’). In fact, the pattern for new words coined with these prefixes is predominantly Accent 1 and initial stress, e.g. 'megakul1 ‘super cool’. This generalisation also applies to set (3c) although here we do not have as many productive prefixes, thus not as many examples of initial stress and Accent 1, except for 'metaspråk1 ‘meta language’ which consists of a non-Germanic prefix and indigenous stem.
14. Note that there are different {ad-} prefixes (also written <at->, <åt->): Nouns: 'advent2 ‘advent’
(loan from Latin), 'adgang2 ‘access’ (not borrowed, composed of native {ad}{gang}), 'adkomst2
‘access’ (not borrowed, composed of native {at} {komst}); Verbs: 'advare1 ‘to warn’ (only found in Bokmål), variant: åtvare2 (admissible to both Bokmål and Nynorsk), adskille1 (at-) ‘to part’.
15. In our approach, monosyllabic words and words with final stress can differ with respect to word accent underlyingly in Norwegian, therefore we also list some prefixed words with final stress here (cf. Chapter 4).
Prefixed words with Accent 2 (set (3b)) definitely make up the smallest set. The majority of non-Germanic prefixes occur in words with Accent 1. Most exceptions to this generalisation typically have a schwa following the stressed syllable, as we can see by the forms listed here in set (3b) 'erkefiende2 ‘archenemy’, 'visepresident2 ‘vice-president’ and in set (3c) meta'tese2
‘metathesis’ and syn'tese2 ‘synthesis’. We will discuss the special status of schwa and accent assignment, as well as why loans tend to have Accent 1 in Chapter 5. A further example of a word with a non-Germanic prefix and Accent 2, which however does not have a schwa, is 'substantiv2 ‘noun’. This word steps out of tune from all other {sub-} words, which all have Accent 1 and generally stress on the stem making it a candidate for set (3a). Also because new words coined with {sub-} follow the generalisation of having stress on the prefix and Accent 1, e.g. 'subkultur1 ‘subculture’, 'subprosjekt1 ‘subproject’. The lines between these three sets are not as distinct as those for Germanic prefixes. However, we are mostly interested in the effect of productive prefixes on word accent, thus considering the prefixes in the list of productive non-Germanic prefixes provided in Faarlund et al. (1997: 96f) (anti-, bio-, eks-, geo-, hyper-, kontra-, maksi-, mega-, mini-, mikro-, multi-, pro-, super-, ultra-, øko-), we can summarise the effect of these prefixes on word accent by saying that – when used to coin new words – the result will normally be initial stress and Accent 1.