Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:40:27.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lexical specification of tone in North Germanic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2005

Aditi Lahiri
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz, Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, D-186 Konstanz 78457, Germany. E-mail: aditi.lahiri@uni-konstanz.de, allison.wetterlin@uni-konstanz.de, elisabet.joensson-steiner@uni-konstanz.de
Allison Wetterlin
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz, Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, D-186 Konstanz 78457, Germany. E-mail: aditi.lahiri@uni-konstanz.de, allison.wetterlin@uni-konstanz.de, elisabet.joensson-steiner@uni-konstanz.de
Elisabet Jönsson-Steiner
Affiliation:
University of Konstanz, Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, D-186 Konstanz 78457, Germany. E-mail: aditi.lahiri@uni-konstanz.de, allison.wetterlin@uni-konstanz.de, elisabet.joensson-steiner@uni-konstanz.de
Get access

Abstract

Accent 1 is very much accepted in the literature as the default tonal marker in Scandinavian languages. Consequently, stems and affixes are almost always specified for accent 2. Only rarely in some analyses is accent 1 specified for affixes, but never for stems. We believe that under these conditions, the resulting morphology/phonology interaction is rather complex, having to include special rules of accent marking, floating tones, deaccenting together with inexplicable exceptions. In our analysis of the tonal systems of Swedish and Norwegian, accent 1 is the lexically specified accent and accent 2 is postlexically assigned. Words and affixes may be lexically specified for accent 1, which inevitably dominates. Consequently, if a morphologically complex word includes a lexically specified affix or stem, the entire word will bear accent 1, giving us patterns of alternations like beskriva1, skriva2. This analysis enables us to account for all the facts almost exceptionlessly, with no special tonal rules, constraints or templates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)