Abstract
The form of compounds and their constituents are examined in Chap. 7. It is argued that constraints, allomorphy and lexically specified features have a central role in the development of compound structures. The so-called bare-stem constraint is responsible for hiding the overt realisation of compound-internal derivational suffixes, while another one, the Optimal Syllable Constraint, affects the combination of the two compound members by selecting a specific allomorph as the right candidate to occupy the left-hand position. It is also argued that, most of the times, an item participates in a compound with a specific allomorph, which may arise phonologically or be lexically specified. Finally, it is shown that the form of a compound can be affected by the presence of learned items, originating from Ancient Greek, which may occupy both structural positions. Compounds combining learned elements are mainly found in scientific term formation.
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Notes
- 1.
ksaná is a medieval formation, combining two AG preverbs, ek and aná. Initially, the result of this combination was a bound prefix, eksana-, which became a free adverb in MG (see Mendes-Dosuna 1997 for details). For the properties of formations with ksaná, the reader is referred to Rivero (1992), Smirniotopoulos and Joseph (1998) and Ralli (2004).
- 2.
-vol(ó) is a bound stem. Stems of this type are examined in Chap. 10.
- 3.
In this chapter, I will limit the discussion on the absence of derivational suffixes and will avoid considerations regarding the presence of absence of prefixes. It is generally known that the derivational status of several prefixes is not a clear-cut case (Chap. 11) and that in many respects several prefixes behave like the left-hand constituents of compounds. Suffice to mention the characteristics of stress subordination and categorial neutrality that are shared by the so called class II prefixes in English (e.g. pro- and en-, as in the words proclitic and enclitic) and the left-hand constituents of compounds (see, among others, Å tekauer 2005). Moreover, as noticed in Sect. 6.3.3, prefixes, like stems, participate in exocentric structures.
- 4.
The origin of each example is listed in parenthesis.
- 5.
As already noticed (Chap. 6, footnote 24), in the Northern Greek dialects, such as those of the islands of Lesbos and Imbros, there is high-vowel deletion and mid-vowel raising in unstressed position. Thus, the unstressed /o/ becomes /u/ and the unstressed /e/ becomes /i/ in the compounds kuklustsipázumi (< *kuklostsepázome) and maγirukinónu (< *maγirokenóno).
- 6.
Ralli and Xydopoulos (to appear) have demonstrated that blends obey some rules of compound formation, but they are also different, since they are deliberate formations displaying a gradable structural and semantic opacity, depending on the speakers’ intentions to transmit a clear or opaque message. See Arvaniti (1998), Koutita and Fliatouras (2001) and Ralli and Xydopoulos (to appear) for detailed information regarding Greek blends.
- 7.
The recent Greek dictionaries by Babiniotis (2002) and the Institute of Modern Greek Studies (1998) provide examples of the use of these terms.
- 8.
/γ/ becomes the unvoiced /x/ in front of the also unvoiced /t/ (e.g. aniγ + t(ós) - > anixtós ‘open’).
- 9.
- 10.
This rule, however, does not apply to items of AG origin, as the following example illustrates:
(i)
éfstoxos / *épstoxos < ef-  stóxos
 lit. well-targeted   well  target
 ‘accurate’
Since its application is not exceptionless, it could be characterised as a lexical phonological rule, along the lines of a lexical-phonology approach (Kiparsky 1982).
- 11.
Non-phonologically motivated allomorphy can be generally found in the inflection of fusional languages, such as Latin and Greek. For instance, in Aronoff’s (1994) work, attention is brought to allomorphy displayed by the Latin verbs of the first conjugation class, like amare ‘to love’, which have three stem variants, depending on the context:
(ii)
a.
ama- : present stem which derives from the root am and the thematic vowel /a/
 b.
amav-: perfect stem, as in amavi ‘I have loved’, and
 c.
amat-: participial stem, as in amatus ‘loved’.
A major difference between Aronoff’s view of stems and the one adopted in this book is that for Aronoff, a stem is not a meaningful unit, while I opt for the morphematic status of stems, as items carrying form and meaning.
- 12.
- 13.
An alternative solution would be to suppose that there is a single form X and that -δ- is inserted by a kind of morphological rule, as proposed by Thomadaki (1994). Since there is a range of formatives that can be added to basic stem forms, and not only -δ- (see kréa(s) ‘meat’ ~ kréa-t-(os) ‘of the meat’), depending on the particular noun one deals with, this solution presupposes that the selection of each formative is carried out by a special diacritic marker, which should characterise the lexical entry of the stem, and that each time, insertion is accomplished by a distinct rule for the specific formative. I would not opt for this solution because it presupposes a more complex system than the simple postulation of allomorphs.
- 14.
Note that, as opposed to suffixes, prefixes are not affected by non-phonologically conditioned allomorphy. However, they are subject to lexical phonology (phonologically conditionned allomorphy). For instance, the negative prefix a- (e.g. á-γnostos ‘unknown’ assumes the form an- when the item it combines with begins with a vowel (e.g. an-étimos ‘not-ready’)).
- 15.
There are also cases, where the compound marker is absent and the consonant-final allomorph is combined with items beginning with a vowel, like émboros ‘trader’ (e.g. somatémboros lit. body trader ‘pimp, procurer’). As argued in Sect. 2.3.4, the compound marker -o- does not usually show up when the second member of a compound begins with a vowel stronger than /o/ on the sonority hierarchy, in this case, /e/.
- 16.
Neuter nouns in -i have exactly the same inflectional paradigm as the other productively built neuter nouns in -o (e.g. vunó ‘mountain’ in iii), with the exception of the syncretic nominative, accusative and vocative cases in the singular number (Appendix 2).
(iii) NOM/ACC/VOC.SG vun-ó  versus xartÃ-Ø
 GEN.SG      vun-ú    xarti-ú
 NOM/ACC/VOV.PL vun-á     xarti-á
 GEN.PL      vun-ón      xarti-ón
Historically, the two types of nouns were not distinct till the early Middle Ages (Browning 1983), when both types shared an -on ending in the singular number, namely, in the nominative, accusative and vocative case. For instance, compare the medieval form ospÃtion ‘house’ with the MG one spÃti.
- 17.
/i/ is pronounced as a semi-vowel /j/ in front of a stressed vowel.
- 18.
Tentatively, another solution would be to suggest that the word-final /i/ of the neuter nouns has been reanalysed as part of the inflectional ending (−i, -iu, -ia, ion). This solution has the advantage of allowing the stem to have the same consonant-final form (e.g. xart-) in inflection, as well as in derivation (e.g. xárt-in-os ‘(made of) paper) and compounding (e.g. xart-ó-kuto ‘paper box’). There are reasons why I do not opt for this solution: first, /i/ appears in all paradigmatic forms, something which suggests that it belongs to a constituent whose form does not vary according to the morphosyntactic context, that is, to the stem. Second, the adoption of a new set of endings (−i, -iu, -ia, ion) is not economical, since it multiplies the set of endings for the neuter nouns. Third, the assumption that the final /i/ belongs to the inflectional ending would not explain why compounds such as konservokúti ‘tin box’ (< konsérv(a) ‘can, tin’ + kutà ‘box’) and θalasopúli ‘sea bird’ (< θálas(a) ‘sea’ + pulà ‘bird’) exist (see also 18ab). As shown in Sect. 5.4.3, these forms display a different stress position from that of the second constituent (the neuter noun in -i); when taken in isolation, a property which could be interpreted if the entire form in -i is taken to be a stem (i.e. a Xi stem) and not a fully inflected word. See Appendix 2 for the inflection of neuter nouns in –i.
- 19.
In the singular number, feminine nouns in -i (tÃxi ‘chance’), -a (xará ‘joy’), and -u (alepú ‘fox’) have a stem coinciding with a word form, except in the genitive case (e.g. tÃxi-s/xará-s/alepú-s). In contrast, they present an overt ending in all plural forms (e.g. tÃx-es/xar-és/alepúδ-es). See Appendix 2 and Ralli (2000, 2005) for more details on Greek nominal inflection.
- 20.
After the independence war in the nineteenth century, and the liberation from the Ottoman empire, the creation of the modern Greek state has undergone a long struggle (the ‘language question’) between the written and spoken language, termed respectively Katharevousa ‘purist’ and Dimotiki ‘demotic, popular’, as to which would become the official language. SMG (officially established in 1976) is based mainly on Dimotiki but has assumed a strong influence from Katharevousa, which resulted in the ‘cleaning out’ (hence the term ‘purist’) of the greatest amount of loanwords and the retention of some archaic inflectional patterns (see Appendix 1 for details).
- 21.
/n/ was deleted before the /s/ of the nominative singular suffix (γéron + s - > γéros), when the word changed inflection class, around the early Middle Ages (Browning 1983).
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Ralli, A. (2013). Constraints, Allomorphy and Form of Compound Constituents. In: Compounding in Modern Greek. Studies in Morphology, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4960-3_7
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