Abstract
This is a study of Russian short first names (or ‘hypocoristics’) formed by a truncation of the corresponding full name. I propose that, syntactically, hypocoristics are associated with their own noun head that occupies a particular hierarchical position in a syntactic tree. This noun head is specified for the grammatical feature inflectional [class II]. Evidence comes from a change in the inflectional class of masculine first names, as only noun heads are capable of changing the grammatical features of a base. I also show that hypocoristics have morphological properties that are very similar to those of Russian truncated common nouns, which means that there is no need to posit a specific grammar of proper names, different from the grammar of common nouns. This work is an elaboration of my 2014 study The syntax of expressive suffixes in Russian. The research for the present paper was carried out based on the Distributed Morphology framework, which distinguishes between √roots and syntactic categories and thus provides formal tools for handling syntactic processes that take place within individual words—in this case, within Russian proper names.
Аннотация
Статья изучает краткие формы имен (т.н. ‘гипокористические имена’) в русском языке. Гипокористические имена формируются путем сокращения (транкации) соответствующего полного имени. По мнению автора, синтаксически такие имена ассоциированы с их вершинами-существительными, которые занимают особую позицию в синтактическом дереве и которые имеют грамматический признак [склонение II]. Подтверждением этому может служить изменение формы склонения имен мужского рода, так как только синтаксические вершины-существительные способны менять грамматические признаки основы. С точки зрения автора статьи, морфологические свойства гипокористических имен практически идентичны сокращенным именам нарицательным. Следовательно, нет необходимости постулировать специфическую грамматику имен собственных, отличающуюся от грамматики имен нарицательных. Данная работа является продолжением более раннего (2014) исследования The syntax of expressive suffixes in Russian, в котором автор исследовал экспрессивные формы словообразования в русском языке. Данное исследование было проведено в рамках теории дистрибутивной морфологии, в которой проводится различие между основой из корня слова (‘√root’) и основой из синтаксической категории (‘syntactic category’), и которая представляет таким образом формальный способ описания синтактических процессов в слове, включая имена собственные.
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Notes
Abbreviations used in this paper: attit—attitude; attitude suff.—attitude suffix; aug.—augmentative; dim.—diminutive; EXPRattitude—attitude expressive; EXPRsize—size expressive; fem—feminine; inf—infinitive; masc—masculine; nom—nominative; nom. suff.—nominal suffix; sg—singular; size—size; verb.pref—verbal prefix.
In Russian, nouns of different inflectional classes differ in their morphological properties. For example, class I nouns have the morphological ending -ø in nom.sg, while class II nouns have the ending -a in nom.sg.
The notation is from Pesetsky (1995).
However, the augmentative suffix -išč is able to change the gender of the base forming a neuter noun (e.g., the example in (13b) can have either masculine or neuter grammatical agreements). This seems to be problematic for the current analysis, but see Steriopolo (2008, 2009) for a discussion and an attempted account of this phenomenon.
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I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for the comments on the paper. This research was supported by a DFG (German Research Foundation) research grant (4/2016-3/2019) to the author.
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Steriopolo, O. Morphosyntactic properties of short first names (hypocoristics) in Russian. Russ Linguist 42, 57–68 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-017-9186-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-017-9186-0