VARIATION IN THE STRESS OF RUSSIAN FEMININE NOUNS OF MOBILE TYPES D (ЖЕНА́) AND D´(СПИНА́)

Abstract

In this article two key mobile stress patterns of Russian are analysed, patterns d and d´. The former is characterised by ending stress in the singular and stem stress in the plural, while the latter has the same pattern except for the accusative singular which has stem stress, i.e. it has a mobile sub-paradigm in the singular. Pattern d has been established as not only the largest mobile stress type among first-declension feminine nouns, but also the only pattern which is in the ascendancy. This article attempts to analyse empirically what variation exists within nouns of this paradigm, since it is to be expected that variation would indicate earlier stress types ‒ as an ascendant type, pattern d itself would be expected to be stable as an endpoint for nouns from other stress types, particularly patterns d´, f and f´. Pattern d´ is also briefly analysed in order to establish whether it can be considered a sub-type of pattern d in the sense that nouns which have variation tend to be moving towards pattern d. The hypotheses for both patterns are borne out by the data: pattern d is largely stable and most variation which occurs within it indicates earlier stress types, while pattern d´ exhibits a weak tendency towards pattern d.