Form in flux: The development of exceptional degree morphology in Bulgarian and Macedonian

Abstract

This paper focuses on two South Slavic languages, Bulgarian and Macedonian, which are famously exceptional among Slavic languages for having no case declension on non-pronominal nouns or adjectives and for having post-nominal articles. In this paper, I explore a different (and far less recognized) property of these languages that also makes them distinctive, not only among Slavic languages but among most, if not all, natural languages. I trace the historical development of the Bulgarian and Macedonian degree morphemes po- (comparative) and naj- (superlative), which are not only of interest from a traditional philological perspective but furthermore present complex issues with respect to a synchronic analysis of degree adjective morphology. Specifically, I address Bobaljik’s (2012) Containment Hypothesis, which states that superlative degree modifiers are morphologically derived directly from comparative degree modifiers. I investigate the Bulgarian and Macedonian degree quantifier series ‘many-more-most’ – Bg: mnogo-poveče-najmnogo and Mac: mnogu-poveќe-najmnogu – which appear straightforwardly to contradict his claim and provide evidence that this exception arose due to a diachronic shift which may still be underway.