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Papers by Emily Barth

A hypothetical process of ‘adverbial shift of accent’ is universally assumed, e.g. by Grassmann (... more A hypothetical process of ‘adverbial shift of accent’ is universally assumed, e.g. by Grassmann (1873), Lanman (1880), Whitney (1889), and as recently as Gotō (2013), to explain the irregular accent of several dozen Vedic case-forms in adverbial use, which are differentiated from nonadverbial comparanda by a contrast in accent. The pool of affected forms is so morphologically wide-ranging and inconsistent that it is difficult to define the rules and distributional restrictions of the supposed process. For example, adv. dravát ‘at a run, quickly’ beside drávant- ‘running’ appears to show rightward accent shift to a suffix. But among numerous adverbial neuter accusative participles, only dravát (and possibly patayát ‘in flight’) shows any trace of abnormal accent. Likewise loc. sg. upāké ‘close by’ apparently shows adverbial accent shift onto a case ending, contrasting with several attested forms in a barytone stem úpāka- ‘neighboring(?)’. But adverbial accent shift cannot explain the oxytone accent of an unambiguously adnominal form upākáyos (RV I.81.4). Nor can it account for the semantic change that accompanies the leftward accent ‘shift’ from inst. sg. divā́ ‘through heaven’ to dívā ‘by day.’ Other forms show additional formal irregularities beyond the accent that must be explained before we may reasonably suppose that a shift of accent has occurred.
In many individual cases, traditional analyses that rely on ‘adverbial accent shift’ have been rejected in favor of more concrete explanations, but this has not led to a systematic reappraisal of adverbial accent shift itself. In other cases, the persistent assumption that any adverbial case-form in the language may be targeted for a contrastive shift of accent—as if by a suppositious [+adverb] feature—has forestalled further morphological investigation into a number of formally ambiguous or problematic adverbs. In this dissertation I argue that the data does not support a generalized rule of adverbial accent shift that is either inherited or synchronically active in Vedic. The majority of purported examples are better explained as derived adverbs in accented suffixes, as old retentions that maintain the original accent of synchronically remodeled paradigms, or as analogical innovations based on accentually regular models. By providing alternative analyses for key cases I show that we must either eliminate ‘adverbial accent shift’ entirely, or at least severely limit its scope of application within the Vedic grammar to concrete analogical scenarios.

This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun deriva... more This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun derivatives characterized by a stem formant that appears as either-ών-or-εών-depending on the dialect. In the classical period and afterward, the stem formant acts as a simple productive suffix that derives place-nouns from noun bases. I propose that these place-nouns were originally formed as further derivatives of derived adjectival bases. Later, but still at a relatively early stage of Greek, the combination of the genitival suffix-ε(ι)ο-and the substantivizing 'Strabon suffix'-ō ̆ n was re-analyzed as monomorphemic and propagated as a productive unitary formant.

Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramacc... more Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramaccan exhibit phonological tone in addition to stress. Previous attempts to explain this historical divergence understand tone loss in Sranan to be directly associated with its innovation of complex onsets modeled after Dutch. Appealing to the argument of Aceto (1996) for the presence of CR-onsets in early Surinamese Creole, I contend that it was the opposite innovation in the maroon creoles—removal of liquid clusters via epenthesis and consequent intervocalic liquid deletion, producing heavy syllables—that contributed to the survival of distinctive phonological tone.

Conference Presentations by Emily Barth

A hypothetical process of ‘adverbial shift of accent’ is universally assumed, e.g. by WHITNEY 188... more A hypothetical process of ‘adverbial shift of accent’ is universally assumed, e.g. by WHITNEY 1889 through GOTŌ 2013, to explain the irregular accent of several dozen adverbially-used case forms in Vedic, which are differentiated from non-adverbial counterparts purely by a contrast in accent. But the pool of affected forms is so broad and inconsistent that it is difficult to define the rules and distributional restrictions of the process. For example adv. dravát ‘at a run, quickly’ beside drávant- ‘running’ appears to show rightward accent shift to a suffix. But among numerous adverbial n.sg.acc participles, only dravát (and perhaps patayát ‘in flight’) shows any trace of abnormal accent. Likewise loc.sg. upāké ‘close by’ apparently shows adverbial accent shift onto a case ending, in comparison with f.du. úpāke ‘neighboring(?).’ But adverbial accent shift cannot explain the oxytone accent of unambiguously adnominal loc.du. upākáyos RV I.81.4. Nor can it account for the semantic change that accompanies the leftward shift from inst.sg. divā́ ‘through heaven’ to dívā ‘by day,’ which both function adverbially. In this paper I argue that when we reject the idea of a generalized rule of adverbial accent shift and instead analyze the examples individually, more convincing derivational explanations present themselves. For example dravát can be analyzed as a neuter *-(E)t-stem abstract, or as the product of analogy with oxytone -vát adverbs. The accent of upāké can be taken as underlying; it is more economical to take barytone f.du. úpāke as the outlier, with substantive retraction. Attributing their accentual irregularities to ‘adverbial accent shift’ has forestalled further philological investigation into a number of formally ambiguous or problematic adverbs. By providing alternative analyses for key cases I show that we must either eliminate ‘adverbial accent shift’ entirely, or at least severely limit its scope of application within the Vedic grammar.

The suffix accent and equative specialization of productive -vát adverbs in the Rgveda is indepen... more The suffix accent and equative specialization of productive -vát adverbs in the Rgveda is independently motivated in nr̥vát from possessive nr̥vánt-, and the semantics of the basis are appropriate for it to have served as an analogical base for the rest of the class. We do not need to theorize a separate, synchronically identical -vat- morpheme, nor do we need the cumbersome ‘adverbial shift of accent’ process to account for the origin of suffix-accented equative -vát adverbs.

This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun deriva... more This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun derivatives characterized by a stem formant that appears as either -ών- or -εών- depending on the dialect. In the classical period and afterward, the stem formant acts as a simple productive suffix that derives place-nouns from noun bases. I propose that these place-nouns were originally formed as further derivatives of derived adjectival bases. Later, but still at a relatively early stage of Greek, the combination of the genitival suffix -ε(ι)ο- and the substantivizing ‘Strabon suffix’ -ō̆n was re-analyzed as monomorphemic and propagated as a productive unitary formant.

Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramacc... more Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramaccan exhibit phonological tone in addition to stress. Previous attempts to explain this historical divergence understand tone loss in Sranan to be directly associated with its innovation of complex onsets modeled after Dutch. Appealing to the argument of Aceto (1996) for the presence of CR- onsets in early Surinamese Creole, I contend that it was the opposite innovation in the maroon creoles—removal of liquid clusters via epenthesis and consequent intervocalic liquid deletion, producing heavy syllables—that contributed to the survival of distinctive phonological tone.

This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun deriva... more This paper sets forth a new theory for the origin of the ancient Greek class of place-noun derivatives characterized by a stem formant that appears as either -ών- or -εών- depending on the dialect. In the classical period and afterward, the stem formant acts as a simple productive suffix that derives place-nouns from noun bases. I propose that these place-nouns were originally formed as further derivatives of derived adjectival bases. Later, but still at a relatively early stage of Greek, the combination of the genitival suffix -ε(ι)ο- and the substantivizing ‘Strabon suffix’ -ō̆n was re-analyzed as monomorphemic and propagated as a productive unitary formant.

Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramacc... more Among the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramaccan exhibit phonological tone in addition to stress. Previous attempts to explain this historical divergence understand tone loss in Sranan to be directly associated with its innovation of complex onsets modeled after Dutch. Appealing to the argument of Aceto (1996) for the presence of CR- onsets in early Surinamese Creole, I contend that it was the opposite innovation in the maroon creoles—removal of liquid clusters via epenthesis and consequent intervocalic liquid deletion, producing heavy syllables—that contributed to the survival of distinctive phonological tone.