Lexical and default accent assignment

The following two general rules in (4) represent the stepping stones required for correct accent assignment in Scandinavian. These rules refer to non-compounds, i.e., simplex words as well as prefixed or suffixed words. Some affixed forms, such as words with stressed prefixes, fall into the category of compounds because they consist of two prosodic words. However, since accent assignment for compounds follow the same rules as simplex words with only a few additions, as will become apparent in Chapter 4, we also include some stressed prefixes in this chapter – to give a foretaste of compound accent assignment.

(4) Rules of lexical and default accent a. Lexical Accent 1 always dominates.

b. Default accent assignment (if no lexical specification):

i. [. . . 'σσ . . .]_ω  Accent 2 ii. [. . . 'σ ]_ω  Accent 1

The first statement (4a) tells us that if a form includes any lexical specification, be it on a stem or affix, the outcome will be Accent 1. Thus, all words listed in (1a) with lexical specification, e.g. a+ksje‘stock’, Lo+ndon, etc., have Accent 1, as do their plurals, e.g. a+ksjer

‘stocks’. Rule (4b, (i)) infers that any word without lexical specification, consisting of at least one disyllabic trochee, receives Accent 2 as the default. Therefore, a word like 'kirke ‘church’,

36. The only exceptional cases where lexical accent is not realised concerns lexically specified monosyllabic words. Monosyllables are all Accent 1 on the surface because of the Disyllabic Trochee Rule, as we will see in (4), however, in our approach they can also differ underlyingly in lexical specification. We dedicate Chapter 5 to explaining the special status of monosyllables.

which consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one – and has no lexical specification for accent (i.e., ['σσ ] or /kirke/) – will have Accent 2, namely 'kirke2. Its plural will remain Accent 2, i.e., 'kirker2 ‘churches’, since as we claim the regular plural suffix {-er}

is also unspecified for accent. Rule (4b, (ii)) captures the fact that all monosyllables and words with final stress have Accent 1. We refer to (4b, (ii)) also as the “Disyllabic Trochee Rule”, which states that if a word bears no lexical specification, and does not contain at least a disyllabic trochee, it must receive Accent 1.³⁷ Therefore, in our analysis, words can only be specified for bearing lexical Accent 1. However, all monosyllables and words with final stress also have Accent 1 per default, since they lack a disyllabic trochee. We furthermore claim that, although both lexically specified words and words that receive Accent 1 per default, all have Accent 1 on the surface, underlyingly they may still differ. This difference surfaces in compounds as we will see in Chapter 4.

With the basic tools in hand for determining accent assignment in Standard East Norwegian, we now illustrate how lexical specification and default accent assignment function by going step by step through our analysis of accent assignment for nouns in the indefinite singular and plural.

(5) Lexical specification and default accent assignment: Indefinite singular and plural Lexical

37. Since tonal accent only anchors to syllables bearing main stress, the Disyllabic Trochee Rule refers only to disyllabic trochees bearing main stress. Secondary stress is irrelevant.

38. When the plural suffix is added to stems ending in schwa, the suffix vowel deletes. Plural formation will be discussed in more detail in section 2.1.

39. Words ending in -er like tiger often have a second possible plural form 'tigere1 ‘tigers’, which is preferred by many speakers. We discuss this plural ending in section 2.1 of this chapter.

Examples (5a,b) illustrate the first rule of accent assignment which implies that if a stem or morpheme is lexically specified, i.e., contains a diacritic in our transcriptions, the result is Accent 1. These examples both have lexically specified stems (/a+ksje/, /do+kument/) and thus Accent 1 in the singular ('aksje1 ‘stock’, doku'ment1 ‘document’) as well as the plural ('aksjer1

‘stocks’, doku'menter1 ‘documents’). Examples (5c,d) bear no lexical specification (/kirke/, /hest/), and since 'kirke2 ‘church’ contains a disyllabic trochee, it has Accent 2, which complies with rule (4b, (i)). Rule (4b, (ii)) applies to hest1 ‘horse’ because it lacks a disyllabic trochee and thus following the Disyllabic Trochee Rule, it must have Accent 1 in the singular. One generalisation captured by the Disyllabic Trochee Rule, which we have seen in all approaches up to now, is that Accent 2 is the phonetically more complex accent of the two accents in Standard East Norwegian, i.e., it requires a disyllabic trochee for its realization and all words without a trochee get Accent 1. Example (5e) 'vinter1 ‘winter’ is disyllabic on the surface, yet we assume it has a monosyllabic unspecified stem /vintr/, which surfaces with Accent 1, just like all monosyllabic words, e.g. hest1 ‘horse’. Schwa-epenthesis between the two final consonants in the cluster takes place after accent assignment ('vinter1). We know this must be the correct order of events because, when the unspecified plural suffix {-er} is added to the monosyllables /vintr/ and /hest/, both forms become disyllabic and receive regular Accent 2 'vintrer2 ‘winters’, 'hester2 ‘horses’. The plural suffix {-er} adds a second syllable to both /vintr/ and /hest/ creating disyllabic trochees 'vintrer2 ‘winters’, 'hester2 ‘horses’ – the required environment for Accent 2. If 'vinter1 ‘winter’, however, were genuinely disyllabic in the singular and had Accent 1, our analysis would assume it is lexically specified. We would therefore also expect it to have an Accent-1 plural, as in words such as the lexically specified /a+ksje/ 'aksje1 ‘stock’, 'aksjer1 ‘stocks’ in (5a) and /tig+er/ 'tiger1 ‘tiger’, 'tigrer1 ‘tigers’ in (5f).

The final example (5g) /hånd/ has a monosyllabic singular form and consequently Accent 1 for lack of a disyllabic domain ('hånd1 ‘hand’). Yet when the plural suffix is added creating a disyllabic trochee, it remains Accent 1 and undergoes umlauting ('hender1 ‘hands’). As we saw in (1b), we classify the umlauted plural as lexically specified, i.e., {-·e+r}PLURAL. The reason for this is that all umlauted plurals have Accent 1. Thus, the umlauted plural suffix must be

lexically specified causing Accent 1 in each and every case, as in hånd1 ‘hand’, 'hender1

‘hands’.⁴⁰

We can conclude from these examples, that there are basically four scenarios of accent assignment in the indefinite singular and plural:

(i) Stems can be specified for lexical accent, as /a+ksje/ in (5a), /do+kument/ in (5b), /ti+ger/ in (5f), and thus will have both Accent-1 singulars and plurals ('aksje1, 'aksjer1 ‘stock, stocks’;

doku'ment1,doku'menter1 ‘document, documents’; 'tiger1, 'tigrer1 ‘tiger, tigers’).

(ii) Stems can be monosyllabic as /hest/ and /vintr/ in (5d,e), with epenthesis after accent assignment for 'vinter1. Both forms have monosyllabic Accent 1 ('hest1 ‘horse’, 'vinter1

‘winter’) in the singular. When an unspecified suffix is added creating a true disyllabic domain before accent assignment, the result is Accent 2 as in the plural forms 'hester2 ‘horses’, 'vintrer2

‘winters’. Here, no lexical specification is at play.

(iii) Stems can be polysyllabic and lexically unspecified for accent, as in (5b) kirke.

Disyllabic unspecified stems with stress on the first syllable have default Accent 2 in the singular and plural if they take the regular unspecified plural suffix ('kirke2 ‘church’, 'kirker2

‘church/es’).

(iv) Finally, in (5g) hånd we see that there are also cases of unspecified monosyllabic stems which have Accent 1 in the singular for lack of a disyllabic trochee and Accent 1 in the plural because these stems take the lexically specified umlauted plural.

So far, we have presented a small taste of the basics of our approach. What follows is a discussion of inflectional and derivational morphology and accent assignment in Standard East Norwegian to show the advantages of our approach over Accent-2 analyses and to relate how our analysis can easily tackle problems or complications encountered by Accent-2 approaches.

We begin with the analysis of inflection in nouns in the following section and then proceed to verbs and adjectives before tackling derivational affixes in section 3.

40. There are a few cases of umlauted plurals that have Accent 2 (far, 'fedre ‘father/s’; mor, 'mødre

‘mother/s’). However, these are few, and we believe that Accent 2 can be attributed to the diachronic development of these words.

2. Inflectional morphology and accent assignment