83 Marko Simonović * UDK 811.163.6'367.622:81'373.611 University of Graz/ DOI: 10.4312/linguistica.60.1.83-102 University of Nova Gorica, Austria/Slovenia Petra Mišmaš ** University of Nova Gorica/ University of Graz, Slovenia/Austria √ov IS IN THE AIR: THE EXTREME MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF THE SLOVENIAN AFFIX OV 1 1 INTRODUCTION One of the classical features of Distributed Morphology (Halle/Marantz 1993, 1994) is the assumption that derivational affixes correspond to categorial heads (n, v, a). However, several recent proposals within Distributed Morphology (Lowenstamm 2014; Nevins 2015; Creemers et al. 2017) argue that (either some or all) derivational affixes should be analyzed as roots. As core evidence, these authors discuss affixes which are promiscuous both in terms of what categories they select and what cat - egories they can realize (or, be selected by, if they are viewed as roots). We observe that such promiscuous affixes discussed in the literature have either highly abstract or highly unpredictable meaning, potentially pointing in the direction of no stored meaning at all. Working in a related approach, Simonović and Arsenijević (2020) argue that certain affixes in Serbo-Croatian function either as inflectional or as deri- vational, deriving either passive participles or adjectives. Importantly, in this case as well, once the categorial content is removed, the affix/root appears rather light in terms of its semantic content. Testing the limits of the unification of affixes which appear both in inflection and derivation and with different categorial embeddings, we focus on the Slovenian affix ov, which can be found in nouns, adjectives and verbs. Based on this distribu - tion, one could at first sight take these occurrences of ov as several different af- fixes which coincidentally have the same phonological form. However, considering the semantic contribution of ov as well as its prosodic effects, we will argue for a single, extremely multifunctional ov. As a result, we will provide a comprehensive analysis of the morpheme ov in Slovenian and give further support for the unifica- tion approach of affixes proposed in the literature. Furthermore, in dealing with the specific contexts where ov appears, we further elaborate the model initially proposed * rkicma@gmail.com ** petra.mismas@ung.si 1 We acknowledge the financial support by the Austrian Science Fund FWF (grant I 4215) and the Slovenian Research Agency ARRS (grant N6-0113). Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 83 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 83 22. 12. 2020 15:07:35 22. 12. 2020 15:07:35 84 by Lowenstamm (2014), by answering the question what entry or entries for ov the Encyclopedia needs to contain. In what follows, we first give an overview of the account which treats affixes as roots in section 2. Then section 3 focuses on the morpheme ov in contexts which would be traditionally classified as derivational: derived verbs, possessive and kind adjectives and adjectives with the affix ov(e)n. Section 4 focuses on ov in nominal declensions. Section 5 is the conclusion. 2 DERIV ATIONAL AFFIXES AS ROOTS One of the postulates of Distributed Morphology is that roots do not carry infor - mation about the category of the word (Halle/Marantz 1993, 1994; Marantz 1996). Rather, the category of the word is determined by a categorial head. These heads can either have no phonological content (e.g. in travel, where the root √tra vel is combined with a mute categorizer v or n) or they can be phonologically realized, as is the case in most derivational affixes (e.g. in traveler). Recently, however, Lowen- stamm (2014) showed that the assumption that derivational affixes are exponents of categorial heads runs into problems and instead proposed that derivational affixes are a subset of roots. Put differently, Lowenstamm (2014) proposes that derivational affixes are like roots in that they do not carry information about their category, but receive a category by being merged into the complement position of a categorial head. This move entails a separation between phonological/semantic content, on the one hand, and categorial heads, on the other, for both ‘traditional’ roots and affixes. Roots (including derivational affixes) have phonological content and/or meaning, while categorial heads are mute and have no semantic contribution. In this revised picture, affixes such as the English ic (which can be found in adjectives such as atomic below) are not analyzed as in (1a), but rather as in (1b), both of which taken form Lowenstamm (2014: 232, (6)). (1) a. aP 3 a √ ic ATOM b. aP 3 a √P 3 √ √ IC ATOM As (1b) already indicates, a crucial distinction between ‘traditional’ roots (e.g. √tra vel ) and affixes comes from the affixes’ requirement to take complements. Cru- cially, affixes can select roots, as ic in (1b), or categories, as is the case for ness, shown in (2) below. Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 84 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 84 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 85 (2) a. nP 3 n √P 3 √ aP NESS 3 a √ GOOD One argument for the ‘affixes are roots’ treatment comes from the observation that certain derivational affixes, such as the English ic, surface under different categorial embeddings, as shown in (3). Note that in this respect affixes are no different from regular roots such as √work or √tra vel . (3) a. n: comic, academic, basics, sceptic b. a: comic, academic, basic, atomic One consequence of treating derivational affixes as roots is the necessity of storing them as such, an issue not explicitly tackled by Lowenstamm. Simonović (2020) argues that the categorial embeddings of affixal roots need to be stored in the Encyclopedia. Storing the categorial embedding of roots is classically assumed in DM for ‘traditional’ roots (such as √cat ), as summarized in the title of Marantz (1996) ‘Cat is a phrasal idiom’. Extending this to affixal roots, Simonović suggests that the categorial embed- ding of affixal roots should not be stored for each derived word, but once in an abstract schema, which also specifies the selectional behavior of the root. The Encyclopedia entries for the nominal and adjectival ic, and for ness would look as represented in (4). (4) a. nP 3 n √P 3 √ IC √ b. aP 3 a √P 3 √ IC √ c. nP 3 n √P 3 √ NESS aP Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 85 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 85 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 86 These Encyclopedia entries raise the further question of their stored meaning. Simonović suggests that, unlike ‘traditional’ roots, affixal roots are potentially stored without any meaning. This is compatible with the observation that the meaning of af- fixal roots is often extremely vague or unpredictable (especially of those that appear under different categorial embeddings). For example, as Creemers et al. (2017: 75) note, “[affixes such as ic] have, among other interpretations, meanings such as ‘of,’ ‘relating to,’ ‘engaged in,’ and ‘connected with.” Assuming (nearly) meaningless roots then leads to one further question, i.e. why such roots do not appear in all environments without any limitations. The tentative answer is that their insertion generally leads to well-formed items, but some items are dispreferred if a less complex structure is available. However, as will be shown, certain (nearly) meaningless roots do indeed appear in a variety of contexts, includ- ing inflection. One example of such an affixal root is ov, which we will consider in section 3. The second argument for the root analysis of affixes comes from English stress. While we will not go into the details of Lowenstamm’s account here, suffice it to say that under his approach the combination of affixes-as-roots analysis and phrasal spell- out can account for the prosodic contrast between stress-affecting affixes, (e.g. ity in at- omicity) and stress-neutral ones (e.g. ness in atomicness). The relevant trees are shown in (5) below. The stress-affecting behavior is not essentially a property of the affix ity, but of the structure it appears in. The structures with multiple roots heading each other, termed “radical cores” by Lowenstamm, always constitute a single phase and therefore a single stress-assignment domain. Here Lowenstamm assumes that phonological rules re-apply with each new root phrase, but the same result can be obtained by having the rules apply to the whole radical core at once, on the first spell-out. (5) a. nP 3 n √P 3 √ aP NESS 3 a √P 3 √ √ IC ATOM b. nP 3 n √P 3 √ √P ITY 3 √ √ IC ATOM Crucially for what follows, Simonović (2020) extends this approach to Slovenian and shows how observations about word stress first made in Marvin (2003) can be accounted for if we treat affixes as roots. Marvin observes that there exists a prosodic contrast in (apparently) deadjectival ost-nominalizations, illustrated by minimal pairs Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 86 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 86 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 87 such as mládost ‘youngness’ (prosodically faithful to the adjective mlád ‘young’) and mladóst ‘youth, young years’. Marvin’s analysis, which Simonović follows, is that mládost is a deadjectival nominalization (i.e. the more productive type, composition- ally interpreted and prosodically faithful to the base adjective), while mladóst is a root nominalization (i.e. the more rare, idiomatic type, characterized by stress-shifting). For Marvin, the stress-shifting behavior of ost is a consequence of a prosodic specification on the suffix, which is only realized phase-internally. Simonović dispenses with pro- sodic specifications on affixes altogether and proposes that the ‘idiomatic’ nominaliza- tion mladóst contains a radical core (a combination of two roots) and that radical cores always receive the default stress pattern. In Slovenian, the default stress is stem-final. Stem-final stress is also the most com- mon prosodic pattern in the language, as established based on the stress pattern of the 3,000 most frequent nouns, verbs and adjectives. For each of these 9,000 words, we marked the stress pattern and annotated whether stress is stem-final. Items which can either have stem-final stress or another stress pattern were excluded from the count. In each of the three categories the stem-final stress pattern is by far the most common one, and a majority of words have this pattern, specifically, 63% of verbs, 70% of nouns and 73% of adjectives receive the stem-final stress. While mladóst has a default stress pattern, mládost is a deadjectival nominalization in which the root ost takes an adjective as its complement, which naturally leads to faithful prosody. The relevant trees are shown in (6). (6) a. nP 3 n √P 3 √ aP OST 3 a √ MLAD b. nP 3 n √P 3 √ √ OST MLAD To sum up the theoretical background presented in this section, we assume an ap- proach under which derivational affixes can be treated as roots with potentially little or no meaning and according to which word stress is dependent on the structure of the word. In section 3, we show how this approach successfully captures the behavior of ov in the verbal and adjectival domain in Slovenian. 3 SLOVENIAN AFFIX OV IN THE DERIV ATIONAL MORPHOLOGY Before proceeding to the contexts in which ov can be found, we first need to note that ov surfaces either as ov or as ev, depending on the preceding consonant. This is a purely phonologically driven allomorphy, as illustrated in the possessive adjectives in (7). Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 87 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 87 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 88 (7) a. Vid-ov b. Rok-ov c. Maj-ev ‘Vid’s’ ‘Rok’s’ ‘Maj’s’ In traditional grammars, ov was in some instances taken to be a morpheme, for example in possessive adjectives as in examples such as (7) above, but it was primar- ily treated as a part of larger morphemes. For example, Toporišič (2000: 184) lists several affixes that are used to derive collective nouns. Among these we can find je (as in cvet-je ‘flowers’, related to cvet ‘flower’) but also evje and ovje (as in borovničevje ‘blueberry plants’, related to borovnica ‘blueberry’, and cvetovje ‘flowers’, related to cvet ‘flower’), stvo (as in članstvo ‘members’, related to član ‘member’) and ovstvo (as in judovstvo ‘Judaism’, related to jud ‘Jew’), while ov is not listed as a morpheme in this context. Notably, such treatment suggests that stvo as a morpheme has nothing in common with ovstvo. Marvin (2003) makes a similar point regarding morphemes ec and je in deverbal nominalizations. In order to avoid the undesirable reduplication of affixes, we assume as a null hy- pothesis that all instances of ov are instances of the same derivational affix, which can also combine with other derivational affixes. Especially illustrative of this behavior are the pairs with and without ov which have slightly different meanings and can be found among denominal adjectives (8), collective nouns (9) and denominal nouns (10). In each of these contexts, it is unclear what the semantic contribution of ov is or what conditions its presence. (8) a. jezik-ov-en b. jezič-en language-ov-en language-en ‘related to language’ ‘related to tongue’ (9) a. grm-ov-je b. sad-je bush-ov-je fruit-je ‘shrubbery’ ‘fruit’ (10) a. bank-ov-ec b. obraz-ec bank-ov-ec face-ec ‘banknote’ ‘form’ In the above contexts, the affix ov is sandwiched between other categorized ele- ments, therefore revealing no category with which it is associated. There are, however, instances of ov which would be analyzed as categorizers in classical Distributed Mor- phology. Such is the ov in possessive adjectives illustrated in (7). A similar analysis is plausible for denominal verbs in (11). (11) a. pot-ov-a-ti (cf. pot) b. glas-ov-a-ti (cf. glas) travel-ov-theme -inf vote-ov-theme -inf ‘to travel’ ‘path, travel’ ‘to vote’ ‘voice, vote’ Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 88 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 88 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 89 There appear to be no clear cases in which ov functions as a nominalizer (but we will argue that such cases actually exist in the inflectional domain in Section 4). In sum, the derivational uses of ov point towards ov being an extremely multifunc- tional affix, comparable to the English ic, i.e. a root that has little to no semantic con- tribution, which can appear in various categorial contexts. As is clear from the examples above, the contexts in which ov shows up are ex- tremely numerous and analyzing all of them would go beyond the scope of this article. We therefore made a representative selection of the derivational uses of ov. In 3.1, we turn to the verbal ov, which functions as a verbalizer and as an imperfectivizer. In 3.2 we offer an analysis of the adjectival ov in denominal adjectives. Finally, in 3.3 we turn to a case where ov itself reveals no category, as it is followed by the adjectivizing affix -n. In each case our discussion will be guided by the question what the prosodic and semantic effects of ov are and what needs to be stored in the Encyclopedia in order to obtain these effects. 3.1 The affix ov in verbs Before turning to the combinatorial possibilities of the verbal ov, it should be pointed out that ov in verbal contexts is characterized by allomorphy. The version ov shows up in the non-finite forms, where it is accompanied by the theme vowel a, (12a), whereas the version u shows up in the non-finite forms, where it is accompanied by the theme vowel je (12b). (12) a. pot-ov-á-ti b. pot-ú-je-mo travel-ov-theme -inf travel-u-theme -1sg .pres ‘to travel’ ‘we travel’ As the examples in (12) show, the two allomorphs display different prosodic pat- terns: while in the non-finite forms form the theme vowel is stressed, the stem-final vowel receives the stress in the present tense. As argued by Simonović (2020), these prosodic patterns are not a feature of the morpheme ov, but rather imposed by the theme vowels, since they are also attested with other roots (e.g. or-á-ti ‘to plough’, ór-je-mo ‘we plough’). When it comes to the categories which the verbalizing ov selects and the effects it has, there seem to be two large classes. In most cases, ov shows up as an imperfectiv- izer, (13), which derives imperfective verbs (13a, c) from perfective ones (13b, d). (13) a. kup-ov-ati b. kup-i-ti buy-ov-theme -inf buy-theme -inf ‘to buy.imperf ’ ‘to buy.perf ’ c. pre-pis-ov-ati d. pre-pis-a-ti over-write-ov-theme -inf over-write-theme -inf ‘to copy’ (imperf.) ‘to copy’ (perf.) Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 89 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 89 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 90 In other cases ov shows up as a verbalizer, as illustrated in (14), taking bases of all other categories: nouns, (14a), adjectives, (14b), phrases, (14c) and roots which do not surface as independent words, (14d). (14) a. pot-ov-ati (cf. pot) b. modr-ov-a-ti (cf. moder) ‘to travel’ ‘travel’ ‘to theorize’ ‘wise’ c. vseb-ov-a-ti (cf. v sebi) d. spošt-ov-a-ti ‘to contain’ ‘in oneself’ ‘to respect’ At first sight the imperfectivizing function seems to require a separate entry in the Encyclopedia. However, as proposed by Arsenijević (2018) for Serbo-Croatian, im- pefectivizers can be analyzed as re-verbalizers, which reverse the value of the verbal aspect to its default, which is imperfective. If this is the case, then the verbalized ov is a good example of a universal selector, which can have any kind of element (phrase or root) in its complement. The Encyclopedia entry of the verbal ov is shown in (15), where x represents any element. (15) vP 3 v √P 3 √ x OV Before turning to the adjectivized ov, a remark is in order concerning the stress of ov-verbs. The stress pattern described above and imposed by the theme vowels is preferred for all ov-verbs by all Slovenian speakers, and a majority of the consulted speakers report not ever using any other stress pattern on these verbs. However, some speakers (from Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola and Ljubljana) allow the exceptional pattern with the stress on the syllable preceding ov. These speakers have realizations such as pót-ov-a-ti ‘to travel’ and vér-ov-a-ti ‘to believe’, next to more common pot- ov-á-ti and ver-ov-á-ti. We take this exceptional stress as evidence of the incorporation of an nP into the verb (in these cases of pót ‘travel’ and vér-a ‘faith’, respectively), which enables the preservation of the nominal stress. This is not unexpected given the cross-linguistic evidence that nominal lexical stress tends to be more strongly protected than that of verbs (Smith 2011). Assuming that the incorporation of nPs is the general way of capturing exceptional (i.e. not theme-controlled) stress in Slovenian verbs leads to the postulation of some nPs which do not surface independently. In our data set var and napred in the verbs vár-ov-a-ti ‘to guard’ and napréd-ov-a-ti ‘to make progress’ are instances of such non-attested nPs. However, while var and napred are not attested nouns, they are attested (with the expected stress pattern) inside adjectives vár-en ‘safe’ and napréd-en ‘progressive’, respectively. Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 90 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 90 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 91 3.2 The affix ov in possessive and kind adjectives As already shown in the examples in (7), ov can be found in possessive adjectives, which are derived from either masculine or neuter animate nouns (but not feminine, which take the suffix -in). In (16) we provide further examples, together with bases, shown in the genitive singular form. (16) a. kralj-a b. vladark-e c. deklet-a king.m .sg .gen ruler.f .sg .gen girl.n .sg .gen a’. kralj-ev b’. vladark-in/*-ov c’. deklet-ov ‘king’s’ ‘ruler’s’ ‘girl’s’ Kind adjectives formed with ov, on the other hand, are derived from nouns of either masculine, feminine or neuter gender. Nouns in these cases are interpreted as mass nouns and the adjectives generally have the interpretation ‘made of x’. (17) a. fižol-a b. limon-e c. žvepl-a bean.m .sg .gen lemon.f .sg .gen sulfur.n .sg .gen a’. fižol-ov b’. limon-ov c’. žvepl-ov ‘bean’ ‘lemon’ ‘sulfur’ Given the two groups of adjectives, which behave differently with respect to the gender of the noun they are derived from, the first option to be considered is that (i) possessive adjectives are derived from nPs (18a), and (ii) kind adjectives are derived from roots, (18b). (18) a. aP 3 a √P 3 √ nP OV 3 n √ KRALJ b. aP 3 a √P 3 √ √ OV FIŽOL However, as we have seen in section 2 and as proposed in Simonović (2020), radical cores (i.e. roots directly adjacent to roots) trigger default stress, which in Slovenian is stem-final stress. This means that we would expect adjectives such as fižolov, (17b’), to be pronounced as *fižolóv (to be more precise, *fižol[ɔ́w]), which is not the case. In fact, the stress pattern of the two kind and possessive ov-adjectivizations is the same (and faithful to the stress of the nominal base). Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 91 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 91 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 92 (19) a. králj-ev b. vladárk-in/*-ov c. deklét-ov ‘king’s’ ‘ruler’s’ ‘girl’s’ (20) a. fižól-ov b. limón-ov c. žvépl-ov ‘bean’ ‘lemon’ ‘sulfur’ Furthermore, kind adjectives always take nominal bases (and not bound roots or other categories), which again indicates that the structure in (18b) is not accurate. There is only a very small class of ov-adjectives which does have all the expected features of root adjectivizations (such as stem-final stress): (21) a. kralj-év ‘royal’ (cf. kralj ‘king’) b. njeg-[ɔ́]v ‘his’ (cf. nj-ega ‘him’) c. kak-[ɔ́]v-ost ‘quality’ (implying the unattested adjective kak-óv) This means that we need three distinct structures in order to capture the three groups of adjectives and two of them need to include an nP. We suggest that nPs can be se- lected either with the inflectional class/gender specified or without such a specifica- tion. Then, the structure for possessive adjectives (králj-ev) incorporates an nP with a declension class specified on the n, see (22a). On the other hand, the structure for kind adjectives (fižól-ov) incorporates an nP without a declension class specified on the n, (22b), which explains the fact that kind adjectives can also be derived from femi- nine bases. Finally, adjectives like kralj-év are genuine root adjectivizations and are all stored with a specific meaning. (22) a. aP 3 a √P 3 √ nP OV 3 n √ [IC:n/m] b. aP 3 a √P 3 √ nP OV 3 n √ [IC:] c. aP 3 a √P 3 √ √ OV Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 92 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 92 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 93 As for the meaning of these adjectives, we argue that the morpheme ov has no concrete semantic contribution, but that the possessive and kind meanings are a conse- quence of the structure. That is, we suggest that the possessive meaning might be the default meaning for an adjective derived from an animate noun. This seems especially plausible given possessive constructions in other languages where no overt possessive morphology is used, but rather simple adjacency. Such a language is Egyptian Arabic in which possessive phrases have the structure as in (23). (23) a. kitaab Hasan b. kitaab il-walad book Hasan book the-boy ‘Hasan’s book’ ‘the boy’s book’ Similarly, we suggest that the mass meaning of kind adjectives is essentially a de- fault. This meaning is achieved by simple adjacency in a variety of languages, includ- ing English, as shown in (24). (24) a. bean soup b. lemon juice As for the third group, listed in (21), their meaning is simply stored. 3.3 The affix ov with n in adjectives While staying in the adjectival domain, we now focus on a context in which ov does not appear to be immediately headed by any category, as it is selected by another root. The selecting root in this case is √n , which is part of the most general adjectivizer in Slo- venian (surfacing as en in the citation form). As mentioned in Section 2, en-adjectives are one of the contexts in which minimal pairs with and without √ov are attested, as illustrated in (25). (25) a. jezik b. jezik-ov-en c. jezič-en ‘language, tongue’ ‘related to language’ ‘related to tongue’ a’. plod b ’. plod-ov-en c ’. plod-en ‘fruit’ ‘related to a/the fruit’ ‘fertile’ Not surprisingly, in the face of such data, traditional grammars list three differ- ent affixes used to derive adjectives that express ‘the relation to what the noun (from which the adjective is derived) expresses’: oven (as in časoven ‘temporal’ related to čas ‘time’), but also en (as in čajen ‘tea [adjective]’, related to čaj ‘tea’) and ov (ogljikov ‘carbon [adjective]’, related to ogljik ‘carbon’) (Toporišič 2000: 197–198). Our analysis only assumes roots √n and √ov , which can be in the complement of an adjectival head, but can also combine with each other in more than one configura- tion, as shown by the prosody. Adjectives in oven display prosodic variation with a major and a minor pattern, comparable to the situation in the verbs in ovati in 3.1 and Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 93 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 93 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 22. 12. 2020 15:07:36 94 adjectives in ov in 3.2. The major pattern is stem-final prosody, while a few items have either optional or obligatory preservation of the prosodic pattern of the base noun. This once again points in the direction of the exceptional preservation of nominal prosody under other categorial embeddings. The three possibilities are illustrated in (26), where all the adjectives are in the definite form because the citation form (e.g. posloven), which has no ending, contains an epenthetic shwa vowel, which obscures the stem-final stress position. (26) a. posl-[ɔ́]v-n-i b. dél-ov-n-i c. blók-ov-n-i/blok-[ɔ́]v-n-i ‘business-related’ ‘work-related’ ‘bloc-related’ In order to establish the quantitative relations between the three patterns, we ex- tracted the adjectives in -oven attested more than ten times in the Slovenian national corpus Gigafida. The search yielded 210 adjectives which were plausibly analyzable as containing ov+n. The relevant figures are shown in the Table 1 below. Table 1: Stress on ov+n-adjectives Stress pattern Stem-final On the base noun Either stem-final or on the base noun Number of adjectives 195 11 4 Given the stem-final stress on the majority of the oven-adjectives, we propose that the structure in (27) is the stored structure. Note that we remain agnostic as to which category ov selects (a root or an nP), as we do not have enough data to tease apart these two options. More generally, the well-formedness of structures in which a category appears below a radical core and their predicted stress pattern need to be addressed by further research. (27) aP 3 a √P 3 √ √P N 3 √ √/xP OV The instances of ov in what is traditionally considered to be derivation show that ov can be analyzed as a single root which has no specific meaning, can select different categories or roots and can in turn appear embedded under a root such as √n or different categories. In the next section, we turn to ov in inflection. Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 94 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 94 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 95 4 THE AFFIX OV IN THE NOMINAL DECLENSION In inflection we can observe ov acting as the genitive case ending in dual and plural of the main masculine declension: (28) ‘hill’ ‘address’ nom .sg hrib naslov gen .sg hrib-a naslov-a nom .du hrib-a naslov-a gen .du hrib-ov naslov-ov nom .pl hrib-i naslov-i gen .pl hrib-ov naslov-ov Additionally, we can also observe ov in about 40 monosyllabic nouns, which take an ov augment in dual and plural (see Mirtič 2016 for a recent list of nouns taking the augment). (29) ‘edge’ nom .sg rob nom .du rob-[ɔ́]v-a nom .pl rob-[ɔ́]v-i The genitive and the augment ov display an interaction. In the plural dual/paradigms where there is an augment, the genitive form only contains one ov, as shown by the genitive dual/plural form rob-[ɔ́]v in (30). (30) ‘hill’ ‘address’ ‘edge’ nom .sg hrib nasl[ɔ́]v rób gen .sg hrib-a nasl[ɔ́]v-a rób-a nom .du hríb-a nasl[ɔ́]v-a rob-[ɔ́]v-a gen .du hríb-ov nasl[ɔ́]v-ov rob-[ɔ́]v ( ?? rob-ov­ov ) nom .pl hríb-i nasl[ɔ́]v-i rob-[ɔ́]v-i gen .pl hríb-ov nasl[ɔ́]v-ov rob-[ɔ́]v ( ?? rob-ov-ov) Crucially, this is not due to haplology, as examples such as nasl[ɔ́]v-ov ‘address. gen .du /pl ’ show. The natural question is then which of the two ovs is pronounced in rob-[ɔ́]v ‘edge.gen .du /pl ’. The stress pattern provides a clear clue. The augment ov is always stressed, as can be seen from the augmented forms of rob in the table above. On the other hand, the genitive ov is never stressed, as can be seen from the forms hríb-ov ‘hill.gen .du /pl ’ and nasl[ɔ́]v-ov ‘address.gen .du /pl ’ (the only exceptions being the few nouns in which the ending contains the only stressable syllable nucleus in the word, e.g. ps-a ‘dog.nom .du ’, ps-i ‘dog.nom .pl ’, ps-[ɔ́]v ‘dog.gen .du /pl ’). The stress pattern in rob-[ɔ́]v ‘edge.gen .du /pl ’ is the same as in all the forms with the augment, but different Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 95 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 95 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 96 from all forms with just a case ending (e.g. the genitive singular rób-a), from which we can infer that it is the genitive ov that is deleted and hence that it is the augment ov that survives. (31) singular dual plural nominative rób rob-[ɔ́]v-a rob-[ɔ́]v-i genitive rób-a rob-[ɔ́]v rob-[ɔ́]v dative rób-u rob-[ɔ́]v-oma rob-[ɔ́]v-om accusative rób rob-[ɔ́]v-a rob-[ɔ́]v-e locative rób-u rob-[ɔ́]v-ih rob-[ɔ́]v-ih instrumental rób-om rob-[ɔ́]v-oma rob-[ɔ́]v-i The question is then how we can account for the two instances of ov in the nominal declension, as well as their interaction. Starting with the genitive ov, our proposal is that ov is the Elsewhere allomorph in the nominal paradigm and that its insertion is conditioned by phonological constraints. The Vocabulary Item for this item is as shown in (32). (32) /ov/ ↔ [ ] The assumption that there is no specialized genitive dual or plural ending in Slove- nian is confirmed by the broader picture. The genitive dual and plural form is typically the form with no ending in both most common feminine (e.g. ženska ‘woman’) and most common neuter (delo ‘work’) declensions, but also in some nouns of the mascu- line declension class to which nouns such as hrib ‘hill’ belong. In addition to the ones that receive the augment ov, we find zero genitive plural/dual ending in otrok ‘child’, konj ‘horse’, las ‘hair’, zob ‘tooth’ etc. (Toporišič 2000: 283). 2 Below we show exam- ples of plural paradigms with a zero ending in the genitive form. (33) ‘teeth’ ‘women’ ‘works’ nominative zob-je žensk-e del-a genitive zob žensk del dative zob-em žensk-am del-om accusative zob-e žensk-e del-a locative zob-eh žensk-ah del-ih instrumental zob-mi žensk-ami del-i In sum, based on this lack of an overt genitive ending in two major feminine and neuter declension classes and in several exceptions in the masculine class, we can 2 Additional evidence for this claim comes from plurale tantum nouns such as možgan-i ‘brain’, which can have a bare genitive plural možgan (but also možgan-ov). Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 96 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 96 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 97 assume that Slovenian has no specialized genitive dual/plural ending, and that what shows up in gen.du/pl is the Elsewhere allomorph. Importantly, the insertion of the Elsewhere allomorph is restricted to very few cases, while being generally blocked. The competition between forms including the Elsewhere allomorph and those without it can be modeled in an Optimality Theory model. The issue of the relation between Lexical Insertion and phonology proper is a complex one (see Wolf 2013 for an overview). For the simplicity, we assume here that phonology (con - strued as an OT grammar) evaluates the candidates which are results of Lexical Insertion. Since Lexical Insertion is guided by the Subset principle, there is, as far as the Subset principle is concerned, no limit on inserting Elsewhere allomorphs. What filters those Elsewhere allomorphs out in most forms is a phonological constraint. One of the con - straints that can be used to model this is the Optimality Theory’s classic * structure (Zoll 1992; Prince/Smolensky 1993). This constraint militates against structure in general, al- ways picking the candidate that has less structure. Given the Vocabulary Item in (32), any number of additions of ov are lexically sponsored, so they will never incur a violation of Faithfulness. However, each of them will incur a violation of * structure , which, for the purpose of this example we assume to assign a violation mark for each morpheme. In (34) this is illustrated using the tableau for the Instrumental Singular form of hrib. (34) hrib + om f aithfulness *s tructure a. ☛ hribom ** b. hribovom ***! c. ovhribovom ***!* d. hribomovovov ***!** e. hrib *! The only situations in which the elsewhere allomorph can survive in Slovenian are cases in which its addition prevents a violation of another constraint. In this case, the relevant constraint is one militating against syncretism with the citation form. (35) Contrast-Citation (Con C): Incur a violation if an output form A is segmentally identical to the citation form of the lexeme that A belongs to. (Pertsova 2015) Pertsova (2015) proposed this constraint based on Russian Genitive plural. Interest- ingly, Pertsova shows that, diachronically, Slavic genitive plural ov became general- ized as a consequence of homonymy avoidance. In Slovenian, the problem of syncretism of genitive dual/plural with nominative singular does not arise in declensions of the type žensk-a and del-o (as they have overt nominative singular endings). The situation in the type hrib is different, since leaving the genitive dual/plural without an overt ending would lead to a violation of c on c . This violation is avoided by allowing the Elsewhere allomorph in genitive dual/plural. The full picture obtained this way is that no big declension class in Slovenian violates c on c , as can be verified from (36). Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 97 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 97 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 98 (36) ‘hill’ ‘linden ‘work’ ‘thing’ nom .sg hrib lip-a del-o stvar gen .sg hrib-a lip-e del-a stvar-i nom .du hríb-a lip-i deli stvar-i gen .du hríb-ov lip del stvar-i nom .pl hríb-i lip-e del-a stvar-i gen .pl hríb-ov lip del stvar-i The tableau below shows the evaluation of the genitive dual/plural form of hrib form assuming the citation form hrib. (37) hrib CF: hrib f aithfulness c ontrast -c itation *s tructure a. hrib *! * b. ☛ hribov ** c. hribovov ***! The affix ov in the genitive dual/plural is therefore the Elsewhere morpheme used to avoid a c on c violation. As for the always-stressed augment ov, we propose that nouns like rob ‘edge’ have two stored allomorphs and the phonological constraints choose between them (as in various phonological models of root allomorphy, e.g. Kager 2008). One allomorph is the root rob with its category, the second is the root rob in a root complex with the root √ov . As we have seen above, the augment ov is always stressed (rob- ɔ́v-i), which provides evidence for the root complex structure: (38) a. nP 3 n √ ROB b. nP 3 n √P 3 √ √ OV ROB A crucial point for the evaluation below is that phonology does not have access to the internal structure of complex roots so it will consider the two stem allomorphs (rób ~ rob ɔ́v) as introducing the same amount of structure. As a result, the two allo- morphs will be deployed to cover the two different positions in which no overt ending is inserted. Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 98 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 98 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 99 (39) rób ~ robɔ́v CF: rob f aithfulness c ontrast -c itation *s tructure a. rob *! * b. ☛ robɔ́v * c. róbov **! c. robóvov **! Note that in the forms with an overt case ending, no preference can be established by the constraints. As a consequence, we assume that the forms which do have a pref- erence (nom .sg and gen .du /pl ) impose their selected allomorphs upon the remainder of the number sub-paradigm through a uniformity constraint, which leads to the entire singular sub-paradigm taking the root allomorph rob and the entire dual and plural sub- paradigms taking the root allomorph rob[ɔ́]v. (40) singular dual plural nominative rób rob-ɔ́v-a rob-ɔ́v-i genitive rób-a rob-ɔ́v rob-ɔ́v dative rób-u rob-ɔ́v-oma rob-ɔ́v-om locative rób-u rob-ɔ́v-ih rob-ɔ́v-ih instrumental rób-om rob- ɔ́v-oma rob-ɔ́v-i In sum, in this section we have shown that √ov figures as a root with no specific meaning and as the Elsewhere allomorph in the nominal declension. 5 CONCLUSION In this paper we have focused on the Slovenian affix ov, which can be found in nouns, adjectives and verbs. While these occurrences of ov appear prima facie to be several different affixes which only coincidentally have the same phonological form, we argue for a single multifunctional ov, which can appear both in inflection and derivation. In line with proposals within Distributed Morphology which claim that derivational af- fixes should be analyzed as roots, we have treated ov as a potentially meaningless root which can take as a complement other roots (thus forming a “radical core”) or phrases, resulting in different structures and consequently different stress patterns and mean- ings. In the nominal declension, ov acts as an Elsewhere allomorph, whose insertion is guided by an interplay of phonological and morphological constraints. Such a treatment of ov enables us both to give further support for the unification approach of affixes pro- posed in the literature and to further elaborate the affixes-as-roots model by addressing the question what the Encyclopedia entry or entries for ov need to contain. Our consideration of the multifunctional morpheme ov in Slovenian is by no means intended as a definitive account (of this morpheme or of multifunctional morphemes in general). We therefore hope that further research will address our claims and predic- tions and broaden the data set, but also provide formal modeling of aspects we have Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 99 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 99 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 100 not explored here. One aspect of the account which has not been entirely formalized is the ability of the (semantically light) root to surface as the Elsewhere allomorph in the nominal paradigm. While semantically light roots are more plausibly expected to appear as Elsewhere allomorphs than roots with a fully specified meaning, we leave it to future research to account for the relevant mechanism. Slovenian seems a good start- ing point for such an account, as the same kind of parallelism is attested in the verbal domain (see Simonović, this volume). Primary sources Gigafida. 24 February 2020. http://www.gigafida.net/. References ARSENIJEVIĆ, Boban (2018) “Serbo-Croatian suffix -va and the illusion of the im- perfective specification.” Paper presented at the conference Ambigo: Workshop on Ambiguity – Theory, Development, and Processing, University of Göttingen on 4–6 July 2018. Gottingen: University of Göttingen. CREEMERS, Ava/Jan DON/Paula FENGER (2017) “Some affixes are roots, oth- ers are heads.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 36/1 45–84. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11049-017-9372-1 HALLE, Morris/Alec MARANTZ (1993) “Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection.” In: K. Hale/S. J. Keyser (eds), The View from Building 20: Es- says in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 111–176. HALLE, Morris/Alec MARANTZ (1994) “Some key features of distributed morphol- ogy.” In: A. Carnie/H. Harley/T. Bures (eds), MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 21. Cambridge, MA: MITWPL, 275–288. KAGER, René (2008) “Lexical irregularity and the typology of contrast.” In: K. Hanson/S. Inkelas (eds), The nature of the word: studies in honor of Paul Kiparsky. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 397–432. LOWENSTAMM, Jean (2014) “Affixes as roots.” In: A. Alexiadou/H. Borer/F. Schäfer (eds), The syntax of roots and the roots of syntax. Oxford: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 230–259. MARANTZ, Alec (1996) “‘Cat’ as a phrasal idiom.” Manuscript. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MARVIN, Tatjana (2003) Topics in the stress and syntax of words. Doctoral disserta- tion. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIRTIČ, Tanja (2016) “Podaljševanje osnove z morfemom -ov- pri samostalnikih prve moške sklanjatve v sodobni knjižni slovenščini.” In: F. Marušič/P. Mišmaš/R. Žaucer (eds), Škrabčevi dnevi 9. Zbornik prispevkov s simpozija 2015. Nova Gori- ca: Založba Univerze v Novi Gorici, 16–33. NEVINS, Andrew (2015) “Free-Rides in Morphological Classification: The Case of Catalan Pre-Stressing Suffixes.” In: M. Lloret/C. Pons-Moll/E. Bosch-Roura (eds), Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 100 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 100 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 101 Clàssics d'ahir i d'avui en la gramàtica del català. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 105–118. PRINCE, Alan/Paul SMOLENSKY (1993) Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science. SIMONOVIĆ, Marko (2020) “Derivational affixes as roots across categories.” [In press.] SIMONOVIĆ, Marko/Boban Arsenijević (2020) “Syntax predicts prosody: Multi- purpose morphemes in Serbo-Croatian.” In: F. Marušič/P. Mišmaš/R. Žaucer (eds), Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2017. Berlin: Language Science Press, 277–304. SMITH, Jennifer (2011) “Category-specific effects.” In: M. van Oostendorp/C. J. Ewen/E. Hume/K. Rice (eds), The Blackwell companion to phonology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2439–2463. TOPORIŠIČ, Jože (2000) Slovenska slovnica. Maribor: Obzorja. WOLF, Matthew (2013) “Lexical insertion occurs in the phonological component.” In: E. Bonet/M. Lloret/J. Mascaró (eds), Understanding allomorphy: perspectives from Optimality Theory. London: Equinox Publishing, 361–407. ZOLL, Cheryl (1992) “When syllables collide: a theory of alternating quantity.” Manu- script. Brandeis University. Abstract √OV IS IN THE AIR: THE EXTREME MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF THE SLOVENIAN AFFIX OV In this paper we consider several instances of the Slovenian affix ov, which surfaces in many, apparently unrelated contexts. Here we focus on (i) ov in verbs, where it can act as an imperfectivizer or a verbalizer, (ii) ov found in possessive adjectives and kind adjectives derived from nouns, (iii) ov which precedes the adjectiviser (e)n in denomi- nal adjectives, and (iv) ov in nominal declension (acting as a genitive case ending in dual and plural or as a dual/plural augment). Building on the observation that certain affixes function either as inflectional or as derivational (see Simonović and Arsenijević 2020), and working within a Distributed Morphology approach which postulates that derivational affixes should be analyzed as roots (e.g. Lowenstamm 2014), we argue for a single multifunctional ov. This ov is a potentially meaningless root that can take as a complement other roots (thus forming a “radical core”) or phrases, resulting in different structures and consequently different stress patterns and meanings, but can also act as an Elsewhere allomorph, whose insertion is guided by an interplay of phonological and morphological constraints. Keywords: morphology, Distributed Morphology, Slovenian, multifunctional affix, roots Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 101 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 101 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 102 Povzetek EN ALI VEČ MORFEM-√OV: IZJEMNA VEČFUNKCIJSKOST SLOVENSKEGA MORFEMA OV V prispevku obravnavamo več funkcij slovenskega morfema ov, ki se pojavlja v številnih, med seboj navidezno nepovezanih okoljih. Osredotočamo se na (i) ov v gla- golih, v katerih določa nedovršnost ali samo besedno vrsto, (ii) ov, ki ga najdemo v svojilnih in vrstnih pridevnikih, izpeljanih iz samostalnikov, (iii) ov, ki se v izsamos- talniških pridevnikih pojavlja pred pridevniškim morfemom (e)n, in (iv) ov v samos- talniških sklanjatvah, kjer služi kot rodilniška končnica v dvojini in množini ali za po- daljšanje osnove. Na osnovi trditve, da so nekateri morfemi bodisi oblikotvorni bodisi besedotvorni (gl. Simonović in Arsenijević 2020), in v skladu s pristopom, ki v okviru t. i. razpršene morfologije predlaga, da je treba besedotvorne morfeme analizirati kot korene (npr. Lowenstamm 2014), trdimo, da obstaja v slovenščini en sam večfunkcijski morfem ov. Gre za potencialno brezpomenski koren, ki lahko za svoja dopolnila izbira druge korene (in tako tvori korenski skupek) ali zveze, kar vodi v različne strukture in se posledično odraža v različnih naglasnih vzorcih in pomenih. Poleg tega ima lahko morfem ov tudi vlogo zapolnjevalnega alomorfa, katerega rabo določajo tako fonolo- ške kot morfološke omejitve. Ključne besede: morfologija, razpršena morfologija, slovenščina, večfunkcijski mor- fem, koreni Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 102 Linguistica_2020_1_FINAL.indd 102 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37 22. 12. 2020 15:07:37