The limits of Russian derivation

"lhe present article seeks to answer the following questions: When and under what circumstances does successive suffixal derivation in Russian stop ? Does suffixation taper off =lue to decreasing numbers of potential deri~ng bases, or is it blocked by certain conditions which necessarily terminate the derivational process as a function of language competence, not performance ?rl Such an investigaticn requires the examination of derivation as a system, not as a series of individual relationships. This global view of Russian derivational morphology has begun to emerge in the literature only recently. ~) The most significant departure fr)m established procedure in the present work is that we shall deal w ith relationships which have been treated by scholars as being beyond the realm of derivational morphology; specifically, those which may be interpreted as 'etymological' (voda'water' : vodka 'vodka'; beda 'misfortune' : bedny~'poor') on the one hand, and those which are commonly dealt with as part of x) The data used in this reso~rch all assume the original aeriving base, 'the point-of-origin' to be a non-derived substantive. The material for this a~ic!e is taken from a work in preparation Russian desubstantival derivation. ~) See for e~ample V. P. Danilenko 'Imena su~estvitel'nye (naricatel'nye) kak proizvodja~ie osnovy sovremelmogo slovoobrazovan~ja' and 'Imena sobstvennye kak proizvodja~ie osnovy sovremenv.ogo slovoobrazovanij~', Razvitie gratnmatiki i leksiki sovreme~mogo russkogo ~azyka., (Moscow, 1964), p. 63-76 and p. 77-92, respectively; N. A. Janko-Triinickaja, 'Osnovy su~estvitel'nyx na -onok, -ata v kafiestare proizvodja~ix i suffiksy soder~a~ie -at-', Ogerki po slovoobrazovaniju i slovoupoi~.rebleniju, (Leningrad, 1965), p. 159-167; D. S. Worth, A. S. Kozak, D. B. Johnson, Russian Derivational Dictionary, (New York, 1970) G.S. Zenkov, Voprosy teorii slovoobrazovanija, (Frunze, 1969); O.G. Revzina, Struktura slovoobrazovatel'nyx polej v slavjanskix jazykax, (Moscow, 1969).