POSSESSIVE, KIND AND NOT SO KIND: THE DIFFERENT USES OF THE ADJECTIVAL -OV IN SERBO-CROATIAN

The paper tackles correlations between prosodic and semantic properties of Serbo-Croatian adjectives with the suffix(es) -ov/-in. A corpus study was performed to identify: (i) the types of bases that these suffixes attach to, and (ii) semantic and prosodic properties of these derivations.  The results show that besides the strictly possessive/relational domain (e.g., Ivan-ov ‘Ivan’s) -ov and -in are productively combined with bases denoting plants to derive kind or material denotations (e.g., hrast-ov ‘made of oak’). These denotations also allow combinations of stems and suffixes that are not found with possessives. Specifically, only with kind or material denotations can feminine bases combine with -ov e.g., jabuk-ov ‘made of apple’ (cf. jabuk-in ‘belonging to an apple (tree)’). Moreover, kind or material forms can involve a shift in the prosodic pattern of the base. We approach these data from the perspective of Distributed Morphology (Halle-Marantz 1993). We argue that possessive -ov/-in forms always involve a phasal n projection which triggers spellout, resulting in full productivity, semantic transparency and prosodic faithfulness. Kind or material forms involve a ‘defective’ n head, which can lack a gender feature (explaining the occurrence of -ov on feminine bases). This n head acts as a phase at LF, triggering semantic transparency, while being permeable at PF, allowing prosodic shifts (Marušič 2005, 2009).