Morphosyntactic properties of short first names (hypocoristics) in Russian

Abstract

This is a study of Russian short first names (or ‘hypocoristics’) formed by a truncation of the corresponding full name. I propose that, syntactically, hypocoristics are associated with their own noun head that occupies a particular hierarchical position in a syntactic tree. This noun head is specified for the grammatical feature inflectional [class II]. Evidence comes from a change in the inflectional class of masculine first names, as only noun heads are capable of changing the grammatical features of a base. I also show that hypocoristics have morphological properties that are very similar to those of Russian truncated common nouns, which means that there is no need to posit a specific grammar of proper names, different from the grammar of common nouns. This work is an elaboration of my 2014 study The syntax of expressive suffixes in Russian. The research for the present paper was carried out based on the Distributed Morphology framework, which distinguishes between √roots and syntactic categories and thus provides formal tools for handling syntactic processes that take place within individual words—in this case, within Russian proper names.