The Prosody of Ø-Suffixed Deverbal Nouns in Ukrainian

Abstract:Ukrainian Ø-suffixed deverbal nouns such as perépyt 'repeated inquiry' are derived from perfective and/or imperfective verbs (< perepytátyPFV 'to ask again, re-interrogate', perepýtuvatyIPFV 'to ask repeatedly'). In some nouns, a complete match in segments and prosody between a base and the derivative is found in the infinitival stem of either or both aspects, as in nadríz 'cut, incision', nadrízatyPFV, nadrízuvatyIPFV 'to make a slight cut'. For other nouns, a segmental match is found in the infinitival stem, but another verb form would be needed to provide the prosodic match, as in rozrýv 'rupture, break', rozryvátyIPFV, rozirvátyPFV 'to tear, rend, break apart', with a stress match only in rozrývanyjPPP. But for many nouns with stress on the prefix, as in perépyt, there simply is no derivational base available for a prosodic match. The proposal is that stress on the prefix in deverbal nouns is a morphosemantic innovation in Ukrainian motivated by hypostasis, i.e., the process of a noun becoming more concrete, designating a result or product of the action rather than nominalizing the action itself (Townsend 1980). The derivation of deverbal nouns can be seen as a stem-level process subject to a grammar with some version of Base-Derivative faithfulness (Stress Faith >> Stress Prefix). But in hypostatic masculine deverbal nouns, the prosodic adjustment takes place on words and here stress is (re)assigned to the prefix by Stress Prefix >> Stress Faith. Ukrainian thus presents a notable case of prosodically marked semantic change.