DOI: 10.1017/s0952675726100426 ISSN: 0952-6757
Rhythmic optimisation in the Russian comparative: a corpus study
Anton Kukhto, Alexander Piperski Abstract
This article addresses the effect of phrasal rhythm on synthetic adjectival comparative forms in Russian that exhibit optional truncation of the final vowel, such as
s
i
l
′
n
e
´
e
${sil'n\acute{e}e}$
s i l prime n ModifyingAbove e With acute e
˜
s
i
l
′
n
e
´
j
s
l
o
n
a
´
${sil'n\acute{e}j}\ {slon\acute{a}}$
s i l prime n ModifyingAbove e With acute j s l o n ModifyingAbove a With acute
‘stronger than an elephant’. In a corpus study of such comparative forms, using a generalised mixed-effects model to analyse these data, we show that phrasal rhythm affects the distribution of truncation. It is dispreferred in contexts like
s
i
l
′
n
e
´
e
z
e
´
b
r
y
${sil'n\acute{e}e\ z\acute{e}bry}$
s i l prime n ModifyingAbove e With acute e z ModifyingAbove e With acute b r y
‘stronger than a zebra’, where it would yield two adjacent stressed syllables (
s
i
l
′
n
e
´
j
z
e
´
b
r
y
${sil'n\acute{e}j\ z\acute{e}bry}$
s i l prime n ModifyingAbove e With acute j z ModifyingAbove e With acute b r y
). This effect is categorical, and the study does not identify any gradient effect of distance on truncation. Stress placement in the comparative form itself also affects the distribution of
-ee vs.
-ej
: comparative forms with stress on the suffix exhibit a lower proportion of truncation. These findings show that Russian exhibits rhythmic optimisation at the phrase level.