THE LEXICAL SPECIFICATION OF NORWEGIAN TONAL WORD ACCENTS Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades des Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) an der Universität Konstanz Geisteswissenschaftliche Sektion Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft vorgelegt von Allison Wetterlin Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 7. Februar 2007 Referentin: Prof. Dr. Aditi Lahiri, Universität Konstanz Referent: Prof. Dr. Frans Plank, Universität Konstanz Referent: Prof. Dr. Gjert Kristoffersen, Universitet i Bergen Referent: Prof. Dr. Henning Reetz, Universität Frankfurt ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The challenge of writing a thesis is not only an external, academic and intellectual process; choosing a topic, formulating a hypothesis and putting it on a solid theoretical foundation and substantiating one’s claims, it is also an internal struggle; against the will and stubbornness of one’s self. I am so fortunate to have had a winning team behind me, one that helped me reach this goal (despite myself) and I would like to express my gratitude to them all. First of all, I am gratefully indebted to Aditi Lahiri for having so much faith in me, that she even put me out on the pitch in the first place – and god knows made me run. Without her I would certainly still be sitting on the bench. I would also like to thank my so-called opponents – Frans Plank, Gjert Kristoffersen and Henning Reetz, who were much more fellow team mates than opponents – for giving me the perfect flanks, and pointing me towards the goal, when I got trotting around in circles at midfield. Gjert Kristoffersen along with Tomas Riad, were also kind enough to voluntarily jump in the position of referee when needed. The likes of their fairness and good sportsmanship has yet to be equalled on the pitch. The other star team members backing me up were: Astrid Kraehenmann, Frank Zimmermann, Irene Wolke, Janet Grijzenhout, Mathias Scharinger, Paula Fikkert, Simone Mikuteit, Verena Felder and especially, playing opposite me at left wing, Elisabet Jönsson- Steiner. I would also like to express thanks to Wim van Dommelen, Randi Alice Nilsen and Jørn Almberg from the NTNU in Trondheim for their support, for taking part, and letting us conduct experiments in their laboratory. Not to forget my technical assistance team in Konstanz: Achim Kleinmann, Barbara Werner and Willy Nagl. Who all very much deserve to be thanked. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of course a winning team also needs fans and supporters, here I would like to mention my two Norwegian fan clubs; the Konstanz fraction lead by Anne Nilsen-Foschiani, Kristine Hermanrud and Monique Nordeide; and my Rosenborg fanclub lead by Gustav Erik Karlsaune, Karin Lervik and Sverre Stai. Thanks also goes to my Minnesota fan club lead by my favourite poet Julia Klatt Singer, my sister Wendy Custard and my parents Alfred & Dorothy, who were two of my best fans even though they didn’t always have the most current schedule. Special thanks also goes to Susanne Trissler who was able to decipher my game plans and put the actual thesis in top form to be handed in and printed. In order to play any game seriously, one needs sponsors and a venue to play it at. I was fortunate enough to be sponsored by the DFG, through our project in the SFB 471 at the University of Konstanz, and by money from Aditi Lahiri’s Leibniz-Preis. These institutions also sponsored many conferences and workshops at the nearby Schloss Freudental that my research benefited from immensely. A thank you also goes to all the participants of those workshops. Where would a player be – star or bench sitter – without a general manager and most loyal fan? I would like to thank Christof Locher for never losing faith and for giving me more support than I could have ever dreamed of. Finally I must grudgingly express my gratitude to my little feathered friends; the clever crows, cheerful starlings and the ever so pertinacious sparrows, who sang and chirped me out of bed very early every morning. Often one does not recognise that the small things in life also contribute to the quality of the whole. Scherzingen, 2009 Allison Wetterlin iv CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................. XI INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 1: SCANDINAVIAN TONAL WORD ACCENT ...................................................................15 1. Two tonal patterns: Accent 1 and Accent 2 ..........................................................................15 2. Traditional descriptions of tonal contrast in Scandinavian ...................................................17 2.1. Restrictions on tonal opposition ....................................................................................18 2.2. The lexical or “marked” accent .....................................................................................19 2.3. The nature of the accent distinction ...............................................................................21 2.4. Dialectal differences ......................................................................................................23 2.5. Typologically one approach to cover all .......................................................................24 CHAPTER 2: MORPHEMES AND TONES: A HISTORICAL SURVEY ..................................................27 1. Accent distribution and morphemes ......................................................................................28 1.1. Derivational prefixes .....................................................................................................28 1.2. Derivational suffixes .....................................................................................................33 1.3. Inflectional suffixes .......................................................................................................36 2. Previous morphological analyses ..........................................................................................38 2.1. Withgott & Halvorsen (1984, 1988) ..............................................................................39 2.1.1. Tonal opposition and stems ................................................................................39 2.1.2. Three-way opposition in affixes .........................................................................40 2.1.3. Prefixes with Accent 1/Accent 2 according to syntactic category of stem ........44 2.1.4. Classes of dominance .........................................................................................46 2.1.5. Levels of word formation ...................................................................................49 2.1.6. Present tense and underlying tonal opposition of monosyllables .......................54 2.1.7. Remaining problems and open questions ...........................................................55 2.2. Kristoffersen (2000) ......................................................................................................57 2.2.1. Constraints on the tonal foot ...............................................................................58 2.2.2. Locality Constraint .............................................................................................59 2.2.3. Tonal-Foot-Left Constraint ................................................................................60 2.2.4. Exceptions ..........................................................................................................62 CONTENTS 2.2.5. Accent assignment and prefixes ......................................................................... 63 2.2.6. Consequences and conclusions .......................................................................... 64 2.3. Riad (1998a,b, 2003) ..................................................................................................... 65 2.3.1. Locality Constraint ............................................................................................. 69 2.3.2. Accent assignment and derivational suffixes ..................................................... 70 2.3.3. Two-Morpheme Constraint ................................................................................ 72 2.3.4. Consequences and conclusions .......................................................................... 75 3. Preliminary summary of Accent-2 analyses (derivation) ...................................................... 75 CHAPTER 3: A NOVEL APPROACH TO SPECIFY TONE ................................................................... 77 1. Lexical specification and default accent assignment ............................................................ 78 1.1. Lexical specification of Accent 1 .................................................................................. 79 1.2. Lexical and default accent assignment .......................................................................... 81 2. Inflectional morphology and accent assignment ................................................................... 85 2.1. Noun inflection .............................................................................................................. 85 2.1.1. Definite singular and plural formation ............................................................... 86 2.1.2. Analysis of definite singular and plural formation and accent assignment ........ 91 2.1.3. Summary: Noun inflection and accent assignment ...........................................