The Stress of Russian Nouns in -ик and -ица

David Hart

doi:10.7557/6.3451

Abstract

This article presents a computational basis for a default position of stress in Russian nouns with the final sequence -ик or -иц(a) and their variants (e.g. the suffixes -ник, -овица, etc.). The position of stress in all such words is classified as root, stem, or final (desinential) and tallied. The results of the examination suggest that stress in Russian derived nouns functions to define the boundary between the root and suffix. The presence of a phonological factor in what traditionally has been seen as a strictly morphological phenomenon in the modern language is also indicated. This investigation supports conclusions made by Shapiro (1986) and experimental work by Crosswhite et al. (2003) and Lavitskaya et al. (2014) which show that stress in Russian nouns is essentially tied to the final stressable stem syllable.

Highlights

This article presents a computational basis for a default position of stress in Russian nouns with the final sequence -ик or -иц(a) and their variants
In the first (382), he maintains that an earlier system, where the stress of derived words depended on the stress of the deriving partners, evolved into the current system, where the stress of derived words is determined by their own morphological makeup, including the totality of words that bear a given affix, essentially a “product-oriented” process as defined by Bybee et al (1982, 285)
A greater number of words in this category have stem stress, but this is due to the fact that all these words have either the suffix -ик or -ик, neither of which is ever stressed; stress falls on the nearest stressable vowel

Summary

Introduction

This article presents a computational basis for a default position of stress in Russian nouns with the final sequence -ик or -иц(a) and their variants (e.g. the suffixes -ник, -овица, etc.). The presence of a phonological factor in what traditionally has been seen as a strictly morphological phenomenon in the modern language is indicated This investigation supports conclusions made by Shapiro (1986) and experimental work by Crosswhite et al (2003) and Lavitskaya et al (2014) which show that stress in Russian nouns is essentially tied to the final stressable stem syllable. Having determined the source of stress in modern Russian, Zaliznjak (386) is not sanguine about the possibility of developing a single fundamental rule (базисное правило) for locating stress in any given word. He states that, given the complexities of inflectional and derivational morphology, any attempt to formulate it would be pointless (нецелесообразно).

Root stress

Stem stress

Findings

End stress