Universality of Selkirk's theory

Contents:

1. Introducti.

2. Definition and criteria for compoun.

3. Compound typ.

4. Headedne.

5. First order projection conditi.

6. Conclusi.

Reference.

1. Introduction

A particularly interesting subject in the area of morphology are the compounds as complex words with a specific semantic and formal structure. The aim of this paper is to support Selkirk´s universal theory for compounds by applying it to a typologically different language from English such as the south Slavic language - Serbian. The need for such an inquiry arises from the fact that Selkirk uses solely examples from English, although she claims that her theory can be applied universally. The research on this subject will comprise few steps, the first of which will be to look at the definitions and criteria for compounds both in Serbian and English in order to establish what word units are considered compounds in both languages. Then, the compound types generated by Selkirk´s general rewriting rule will be investigated as well as the 'systematic gaps' that occur both in English and in Serbian. Furthermore, an application of the principles of headedness, feature percolation and the first order projection condition in Serbian compounds will be carried out. These points should illustrate as already stated that Selkirk´s theory accounts for Serbian compounds as well, despite certain language specific characteristics. For the Serbian compounds the presented analysis will be primarily based on two articles of the Serbian linguist Dusanka Vukicevic as well as on the compound part of Matthias Rammelmeyer´s work on word formatio.

2. Definition and criteria for compounds

In order to be able to analyze the structure and function of compounds, one should be able to give a definition for them. Most of the lingustists exploring this part of English morphology agree that compounds are combinations of two or more words i.e. elements in one word (Spencer 1991, Selkirk 1982, Bauer 1996). This definition can be applied to Serbian as well with one exception. Namely, the concatenation of two elements in a complex morphological structure is carried out with an extra element - a binding vowel between the two constituents. However, the process of compound production in Serbian differs from the process of simple concatenation in English. According to Dusanka Vukicevic´s theory, a compound is a word that has been formed out of a syntactic structure, which means that is the intermediate step in the process of generating complex units. Furthermore, she explains that not every syntactic structure can produce a compound, but only syntactic structures whose constituent parts form a separate unit if one of the following three conditions is fulfilled. The first condition is what she calls 'unitary' accent for both constituents, the second condition is, if one of the words stops being used independently and the third condition is, if both words display meaning different from the meaning they have as independent lexemes (Vukicevic 1995:145). For instance, the compound 'krivokljun' is derived from the phrase 'kriv kljun' ('crooked beak'), but its meaning 'a bird with a crooked beak' is different than the separate meaning of the two constituents. The compound 'zakónocùvar' is derived from the phrase 'cùvar zakóna' ('law guardian') and is distinguished from it by the stress pattern.¹ These complex processes and conditions behind the compound forming in Serbian can explain the speakers´ tendency to avoid their usage on a regular basis. 'Der serbokroatische Sprecher kann zwar ebenfalls neue Komposita bilden, die grammatisch korrekt sind; doch werden solche Neubildungen zunächst meist als ungewöhnlich, als gewollt originell oder als irgendwie anders stilistisch belastet empfunden und nur selten akzeptiert.' (Rammelmeyer 1975:29) It can be surmised that Serbian language users tend to create more frequently phrases than compounds in order to express a complex entity, as these syntactic structures incorporate relational adjectives. This confinement is mainly due to the fact that Serbian as Slavic language is rich in expressing entities and ideas with compositional meaning by coining phrases with relational adjectives and nouns. Thus, word concatenations that are regarded to be compounds in English such as 'student society' or 'New York architecture' cannot be expressed with corresponding compounds in Serbian. They have to be paraphrased with relational adjectives and nouns, which means the resultat will be 'studentSKO drustvo' and respectively 'NjujorSKA arhitektura.

The most important criterium for the distinction of compounds and phrases in English is the stress and it has already been defined by Chomsky & Halle in their bookThe Sound Pattern of English.According to these scholars, compounds have a lefthand stress (Compound Stress Rule -CSR) and syntactic phrases have a righthand stress (Nuclear Stress Rule-NSR). (1968:18) For instance, the compound 'bláckbòard' opposed to the syntactic phrase 'blàck bóard'. (Chomsky & Halle 1968:16) Yet there are systematic exceptions to this stress pattern for English compounds. Most of the compounds consisting of adjective and noun display a righthand stress typical for syntactic phrases, whereas most of the compounds consisting of noun and noun display a lefthand stress. This ratio is in exact numbers, according to Liberman & Sproat, 90% righthand stress for [A N] compounds and 75% lefthand stress for [N N] compounds (Liberman & Sproat 1992:134). Despite refering to a unitary accent in Serbian compound constructions, Vukicevic does not reflect at any point in her work, whether this is a righthand or lefhanded accent. Rammelmeyer has a much clearer attitude in this matter and it can be gathered from his work, that the lefthand stress applies also to compounds in Serbian. However, it is referred to as 'logical accent', which is according to Matthias Rammelmeyer assigned to the concretizing part of the compound, that is, the prefix or lexeme of the first constituent. (Rammelmeyer 1975:79.) For instance, the compound 'pòdoficir' (corporal) has the logical accent on the first constituent. In contrast to this pattern, a small number of compounds display a sistematically ascending stress at the second syllable of the first compound comstituent. An interesting phenomena in this area is the existence of doublets of stress patterns in certain compounds. For instance, malòkrvan versus màlokrvan ('anemic'). (Rammelmeyer 1975:80) The doublets in certain compounds point to the fact that the stress pattern in Serbian compounds was influenced by the stress pattern of other languages, in first line German. In contrast to English compounds with righthand stress, there are very few compounds in Serbian according to Rammelmeyer that have such stress pattern and are built under the influence partly of the German and partly of the Turkish compound scheme. However, righthand stress in Serbian N+N compounds is not indicative of meaning, but solely a result of linguistc borrowing from other languages. These compounds are, for the most part, nominal compounds consisting of a lingustically borrowed noun at the position of the first constituent and a noun from the language´s register at the position of the second constituent. For example, radio stànica (radio station), auto mèhanicar (auto mechanic). (Rammelmeyer 1975:70)²

3. Compound types

Elisabeth Selkirk claims that all compound types in English are generated by a general rewriting rule P < Q R, that is, P rewrites as Q R. This context-free recursive rule captures all the possible constituent combinations of a compound, but it is limited. As presented in Selkirk´s bookThe Syntax ofWords (1982) the following word combinations can be found in English compound nouns, adjectives and verb.

i) N> {N,A,V,P} N :bedroom ( N N),high school (A N),swearword (V N),overdose (P .

ii) A> {N,A,P} A: heartbroken (N A), easygoing (A A), above-mentioned (P A) iii) V >P V: outli.

When the general rewriting rule for compounds is applied to Serbian, the following possible word combinations can be foun.

i) N > A+compound morpheme +N :blag +o + stanje 'prosperity' Numeral +c. morpheme+ N: deset +o+boj 'decathlon' Pronoun + N: samo+odbrana 'self-defense' Adv. +N: vele+sila: 'big powe.

V (imperative 2 person sg.) +N: kazi+put: 'signpost' N+c. morpheme+N:glav+o+bolja: 'headach.

[...]

¹ Vukicevic concentrates herself merely on the third condition and therefore the above presented examples are based for the most part on conclusions drawn from an individual observatio.

² The accent notation in the Serbian compounds has been kept identical to the original notation in Rammelmeyer´s wor.