Compounds in Scandinavian predominantly have main stress on the first constituent.58 The last constituent of the compound is the head, which means that the gender and morphological characteristics of this constituent usually correspond to that of the whole compound. In the following, we have divided the compounds into groups according to the number of syllables of the first constituent. The first group that we examine contains polysyllabic first constituents.
(1) Compounds with polysyllabic first constituents
1st constituent 2nd constituent Compound Gloss (compound) 'møbel1 'trekk1 'møbelÆtrekk1 furniture fabric 'møbel1 'snekker1 'møbelÆsnekker1 furniture maker 'møbel1 'stopping2 'møbelÆstopping1 upholstery
'motor1 'vei1 'motorÆvei1 motorway
'motor1 'kutter1 'motorÆkutter1 motor-powered cutter
Accent-1 compounds
'motor1 'skade2 'motorÆskade1 engine trouble
'skole2 'barn1 'skoleÆbarn2 school child
'skole2 e'lev1 'skoleeÆlev2 pupil
'skole2 'hage2 'skoleÆhage2 schoolyard
'gummi2 'ball1 'gummiÆball2 rubber ball
'gummi2 fa'brikk1 'gummifaÆbrikk2 rubber factory
Accent-2 compounds
'gummi2 'støvel2 'gummiÆstøvel2 rubber boot
In (1), the compounds are divided into two sets according to accent. In the first two columns, the individual compound constituents are listed with the accent they have in isolation.
The third column then gives the entire compound and its accent. A quick glance over the first and third columns reveals that the accent of the first constituent in column 1 always matches the accent of the entire compound in column 3. This pattern presents no challenge for lexical Accent-2 analyses, or for our own as we will see in the following sections on the individual
58. There are a few complex compounds with main stress on the second constituent, e.g. lang'fredag1
‘Good Friday’, røde'kors1 ‘Red Cross’.
approaches. The first constituent of the compound, that which bears main stress, seems to determine the accent. However, the next two sets of compounds with monosyllabic first constituents seem to negate this assumption since this pattern does not persist.
(2) Compounds with monosyllabic first constituents
1st constituent 2nd constituent Compound Gloss (compound)
'fri1 'sted1 'friÆsted1 asylum
'fri1 mi'nutt1 'frimiÆnutt1 recess
'fri1 'tenker2 'friÆtenker1 free thinker
'fest1 'dag1 'festÆdag1 holiday
'fest1 hu'mør1 'festhuÆmør1 festive atmosphere
Accent-1 compounds
'fest1 'stemning2 'festÆstemning1 festive mood 'kniv1 'blad1 'knivÆblad2 blade of a knife 'kniv1 fa'brikk1 'knivÆfabrikk2 knife factory 'kniv1 'kjede2 'knivÆkjede2 (knife) sheath
'natt1 'tog1 'nattÆtog2 night train
'natt1 'møbel1 'nattÆmøbel2 chamber pot
Accent-2 compounds
'natt1 'arbeid2 'nattÆarbeid2 night work
Now we are confronted with monosyllabic first constituents, all of which necessarily bear Accent 1 in isolation. However, as we see in column three, monosyllables can make up the first constituents of either Accent-1 or Accent-2 compounds. At first glance, it may seem difficult to find any rhyme or reason for the resulting compound accent, yet column three evidences that the individual lexemes are very consistent in their correspondence to a particular compound accent. In this sample, compounds that have the same monosyllabic word as first constituent either always have Accent 1, or Accent 2 depending on the particular word. This consistency, however, disappears when we consider the next sets of examples (3) and (4).
(3) Compounds with homophonic monosyllabic first constituents
1st constituent 2nd constituent Compound Gloss (compound)
'ball1 'sal1 'ballÆsal1 ballroom
'ball1 'tre1 'ballÆtre2 bat/stick
'ball1 'kjole2 'ballÆkjole1 ball gown
'ball1 'føring2 'ballÆføring2 ball control
(4) Compounds with linking morphemes
1st constituent 2nd constituent Compound Gloss (compound)
'land1 'mann1 'landÆmann2 farmer
'land1 'gang1 'landÆgang2 landing
'land1 'skap1 'landskap2 landscape
'land1 /s/ 'mann1 'landsÆmann1 compatriot
'land1 /s/ 'lag1 'landsÆlag1 national team
'land1 /e/ 'vei1 'landeÆvei2 highway
'land1 /e/ 'merke2 'landeÆmerke2 landmark
'landgang2/s/ 'bru1 'landgangsÆbru2 gangplank 'landskap2 /s/ 'bilde2 'landskapsÆbilde2 natural scenery
'landskap2/s/ 'vern1 'landskapsÆvern2 environmental protection (5) Compounds with first constituents ending in syllabic sonorants ( /-el/, /-er/)
1st constituent 2nd constituent Compound Gloss (compound)
'aksel1 'ben1 'akselben2 shoulder bone
'aksel2 'brudd1 'akselbrudd2 broken axel
'stempel1 'merke2 'stempelmerke1 revenue stamp
'vinter1 'dag1 'vinterdag2 winter day
'sommer2 'dag1 'sommerdag2 summer day
'tiger1 'sprang1 'tigersprang1 (tiger) leap
Sets (3) and (4) offer examples of compounds that appear to contain the same first constituent, yet result in different compound accents. The first set in (3) contains the two homophones ball that also happen to be homophones in English and German. One lexeme means ‘social dance’, and the other ‘round object’. Although we are dealing with two different words here, both monosyllables in isolation, of course, have Accent 1. It is interesting that, as first constituents, they consistently make up Accent-1 compounds and Accent-2 compounds, respectively.
Set (4) contains compounds with the monosyllable land ‘land’ in first position. This monosyllable appears to cause Accent 2 in compounds, e.g. 'landmann2 ‘farmer’, 'landevei2
‘highway’. However, the presence of a linking morpheme {-s} can obscure this seemingly transparent pattern, e.g. 'land-s-mann1 ‘compatriot’, whereas a linking {-e} does not, e.g. 'land-e-vei2 ‘highway’. We include the derivational {-skap} in this set of compounds to substantiate our claim made in Chapter 3 that this derivational suffix forms a word of its own, and behaves exactly like a second constituent of a compound.
The third set (5) shows us that the accent of polysyllables is not always as stable as many would like to claim they are. Here we have one group of polysyllables ending in /-el/ or /-er/
that have Accent 1 in isolation, e.g. 'aksel1 ‘shoulder’, 'vinter1 ‘winter’, and Accent 2 in compounds, e.g. 'akselben2 ‘shoulder bone’, 'vinterdag2 ‘winter day’, and another group whose members act like normal polysyllables. They either have Accent 1 in isolation and in compounds, e.g. 'stempel1 ‘stamp’, 'stempelmerke1 ‘revenue stamp’; 'tiger1 ‘tiger’, 'tigersprang1 ‘(tiger) leap’, or Accent 2 in both forms, e.g. 'aksel2 ‘axel, 'akselbrudd2 ‘broken axel’; 'sommer2 ‘summer’, 'sommerdag2 ‘summer day’.
This summarises the different accentual patterns in Standard East Norwegian compounds.
We now precede to a discussion of how previous analyses have tackled this distribution of accents among Standard East Norwegian compounds in the following section, before presenting our own account in section 3.
2. Accent-2 accounts of compound accent assignment