Voprosy Jazykoznanija

In this paper, we analyze diff erent factors aff ecting gender assignment in Russian nouns. We conducted two studies combining experimental, dictionary, and corpus data (relying both on traditional corpora and on the web-as-a-corpus approach). The fi rst study is dedicated to gender assignment to expressive nouns in a situation when the gender of the base noun and the expressive suffix give contradictory cues. We demonstrated extensive gender variation in these cases and estimated the role of different factors affecting it. The gender of the base noun and the inflection associated with the expressive suffix appeared to be the most important. Animacy is also relevant (certain options are possible only for nouns denoting people) but statistically insignifi cant. The second study is on gender assignment to nouns that have a zero inflection in nominative singular and a palatalized, alveolo-palatal, or postalveolar stem-final consonant. In the previous studies, it was noted that the phonological properties of this consonant affect the gender distribution in these nouns. Our data confirmed this generalization and provided several new insights. We also demonstrated that native Russian speakers are sensitive to it. We discuss the implications of our results for different approaches in theoretical morphology and focus on gender markedness analyzing a special status of masculine gender.

This paper analyzes prosodic phrasing in Northern Russian dialects spoken in the Pinezhsky, Plesetsky, Verkhnetoemsky, Mezensky, Leshukonsky, Konoshsky, and Vinogradovsky districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast based on the material of dialectal speech corpora and the author’s tape recordings of dialectal speech made in 1987–1999 (49 hours in total). It deals primarily with the issues related to the local markers of prosodic phrasing, their hierarchy and phonetic means of realization. Based on the performed analysis, I suggest the following break index scale in Arkhangelsk dialects: 0 — break index showing strongest cohesion (absence of prosodic break), typical of boundaries internal to prosodic words (e.g., boundaries between clitics and hosts); 1 — break index marking prosodic word boundaries: marked on the right edge of a prosodic word followed by another prosodic word within the same accentual phrase (by means of reset of the word’s rhythmical structure); 2 — break index marking accentual phrase boundaries: marked on the right edge of an accentual phrase followed by another accentual phrase within the same intermediate phrase (phonetically manifested as a signifi cant — more than 1.5 semitones — tonal drop on a voiced consonant and/or on a poststressed vowel); 3 — break index marking a boundary between an intermediate phrase with nuclear pitch accent and an accentual phrase with non-nuclear pitch accent within the same intonational phrase (using a long, 300–1500 ms, interruption in articulation and high or low boundary tone); 4 — break index marking intermediate phrase boundaries: marked on the right edge of an intonational phrase (by means of high or low boundary tone and an optional pause); 5 — break index marking intonational phrase boundaries: marked on the right edge of an intonational phrase (by means of low boundary tone and an optional pause). The most characteristic features of Arkhangelsk dialects from the perspective of prosodic phrasing are 1) the accomodationof microprosodic features (tonal drop on voiced consonants) for macroprosodic purposes (marking accentual phrase boundaries); 2) the use of lasting physical breaks in articulation to mark prosodic phrasing within an intonational phrase; 3) the absence of a sraightforward correlation between the pause duration and the depth of prosodic breaks.

There are two most common approaches to analyzing noun incorporation: syntacticocentric, which derives this construction via syntactic movement, and lexicalist, which argues that this complex verbal stem is formed by compounding in the lexicon via rules operating in a verbal lexical entry. Without discussing the general theoretical possibility of such analyses, in this paper I advocate a much less widespread analysis of noun incorporation. I argue that noun incorporation rules are directly derivable from the event structure. Taking W. Croft’s approach to argument and event structure, I review previous studies and provide some new field data which point towards event-structural analysis of noun incorporation and promotion to direct object formulated in concepts of force dynamics, affectedness and subevents’ ordering. I also argue that the force-dynamic analysis I propose does not postulate idiosyncratic rules: the restrictions I formulate for noun incorporation and promotion in Amguema Chukchi are simultaneously cognitively and diachronically grounded.

The article presents an overview of the work of Russian and foreign authors concerning the phenomenon of computer-mediated communication in linguistic perspective. We describe the features of the digital communication channel that can infl uence different levels of language, with special attention to the studies focusing on vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and punctuation of texts generated during Internet communication. We consider specific quantitative studies of these levels of language and note the special lability of the lexical level. We also demonstrate the mixed nature of borrowing morphological, syntactic, and punctuation features from spoken and written language and highlight the role of the linguistic economy principle at each level. The paper gives a detailed description of the corpus studies by I. Karpov and A. Bodomo, and also draws on the material from the Russian National Corpus. In addition, the works dealing with the issues of speech patterns of communication and code-switching are described. Further, we address the problem of inheritance of features of spoken and written language by computer-mediated communication: we show how many elements are borrowed and transformed at different levels and explain which extralinguistic factors can influence those changes. Special attention is paid to such constructions as well-wishes and appeals, as well as their functioning in various Internet spaces (e-mail, messengers, social media, forums). The final part of the article summarizes the results, concludes about the intermediate position of computer-mediated communication between oral and written communication, and discusses the prospects for studying Internet communication using quantitative methods.