In the present paper, we study the extent to which linear combinations of period matrices arising from stable curves are degenerate (i.e., as bilinear forms). We give a criterion to determine whether a stable curve admits such a degenerate linear combination of period matrices. In particular, this criterion can be interpreted as a certain analogue of the weight-monodromy conjecture for non-degenerate elements of pro-$\ell$ log etale fundamental groups of certain log points associated to the log stack $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g}^{log}$.