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Evidence is presented that Serbo-Croatian, in contrast to other Slavic languages with lexical prosody, is developing a prosodic system in which stressed non-stem material is avoided and surface stress is becoming a property of the word stem. Five case studies are shown in which stress is moving from non-stem material to stems. We analyse the general move towards stem-stressed prosody as the final step in a chain of language changes initiated by the Neo-Štokavian retractions, which were automatic and contrast-preserving, but led to a massive removal of stress from inflectional endings. We discuss the general reasons behind this language change in terms of markedness and, more specifically, the constraints proposed within Optimality Theory. We propose an analysis of the change under consideration in terms of a promotion of the markedness constraint StemStress, which requires stems to be stressed independently of lexical prominence.

Po kartografskih raziskavah sodeč je hierarhija funkcijskih projekcij za vse naravne človeške jezike enaka (Cinque in Rizzi, 2010). Ob tem se pojavlja vprašanje, ali ima ta univerzalna hierarhija temelje v splošni kogniciji (Marušič in Mišmaš, 2018, Mišmaš, Popović in Žaucer, 2018). Če povezava med tem kartografskim modelom in splošnimi kognitivnimi sposobnostmi obstaja, lahko sklepamo na povezavo med vrstnim redom funkcijskih projekcij, ki gostijo določeno vrsto pridevnika, in vrstnim redom otrokovega usvajanja konceptov, ki jih pridevniki določene vrste izražajo. Ker otrok skladenjsko zgradbo usvaja od najnižje projekcije k najvišji (Radford, 1996), lahko sklepamo, da bodo otroci najprej usvojili koncept, ki je v hierarhiji postavljen nižje, kot tistega, ki je postavljen višje. V tem diplomskem delu to povezavo iščemo s preverjanjem usvajanja konceptov velikosti, barve in oblike pri predšolskih otrocih. V diplomskem delu sta predstavljena univerzalna hierarhija pridevnikov v samostalniški zvezi in usvajanje jezika pri predšolskih otrocih, v drugem delu pa še rezultati, ki smo jih pridobili s testiranjem otrok. Na podlagi pridobljenih rezultatov lahko vsaj delno potrdimo, da otroci najprej usvojijo koncept barve, nato oblike in nazadnje velikosti, vendar bi za trdnejše zaključke morali testirati več otrok. According to the cartographic approach, the hierarchy of functional projections should be the same for all natural human languages (Cinque and Rizzi, 2010). This raises the question of the source of the universal hierarchy. One can hypothesize that the hierarchy is founded in general cognition. This would then suggest that the order of functional projections hosting a certain type of adjective is also the order in which a child acquires concepts expressed by a certain type of adjectives. Since children acquire sentence structures from the lowest projections to the highest (Radford, 1996), it can be assumed that the concepts occupying lower positions in the hierarchy will be acquired sooner that those in higher positions. This thesis tries to explore this possibility by studying the acquisition of three concepts (size, colour and shape) by pre-school children. The experiment that was conducted at least partly confirms that the sequence of acquisition of concepts goes in the predicted order: colour before shape before size. However, to be able to draw a more firm conclusion, the sample of children included in the experiment should have been bigger.

V središču diplomske naloge je možnost, da bi lahko temelje za univerzalno hierarhijo funkcijskih projekcij, ki jo opazujemo v jeziku, iskali v splošni kogniciji (Žaucer 2015). Če taki temelji obstajajo, lahko pričakujemo, da obstaja tudi povezava med vrstnim redom funkcijskih projekcij, v katerih se v samostalniški zvezi pojavljajo pridevniki, in vrstnim redom usvajanja konceptov, ki jih pridevniki v ustrezni funkcijski projekciji izražajo. Na podlagi preteklih raziskav (Radford 1996) pričakujemo, da bodo otroci koncepte, ki so v hierarhiji postavljeni nižje, usvojili prej in tiste, ki so višje, kasneje. V diplomskem delu so zato predstavljene kartografske raziskave, ki kažejo, da obstaja v samostalniški zvezi univerzalna hierarhija pridevnikov. Sledeč Scottu (2002)preverjamo, ali slovenščina potrjuje univerzalno hierarhijo, ki je bila predlagana predvsem na podlagi angleščine. Pri tem je posebna pozornost posvečena pridevnikom, ki poimenujejo velikost, obliko in barvo. Sklenemo, potrjujoč Scottove (2002) trditve, da si ti sledijo v zaporedju velikost → oblika → barva. V nadaljevanju so predstavljeni rezultati pilotne študije, s pomočjo katere smo pri otrocih preverjali razumevanje konceptov velikosti, oblike in barve. Na podlagi dobljenih rezultatov ne moremo sklepati o vrstnem redu usvajanja konceptov velikosti, oblike in barve, saj se je pokazalo, da so otroci, ki so nalogo razumeli, že usvojili vse tri raziskovane koncepte. At the heart of this thesis there exists a possibility to look at general cognition and within it search for the foundations for universal hierarchy of functional projections, which are observed in a language (Žaucer 2015). If such foundations do exist, we can expect there to be a link between the order of functional projections in which adjectives occur in noun phrases and the order of acquisition of concepts, expressed by adjectives in the appropriate function projection. Based on previous research (Radford 1996), we expect the children to acquire first the concepts which lie lower on the hierarchy, and later acquire those which are higher. This thesis therefore presents cartographic research which show that a universal hierarchy of adjectives exists within a noun phrase. Following Scott (2002) we investigate whether Slovene language confirms the universal hierarchy, which is proposed mainly on the basis of the English language. In doing so, special attention is paid to the adjectives describing size, shape, and color. Our conclusion affirms Scott's (2002) arguments which claim that the aforementioned adjectives are sequenced size→ form → color. In the following part of the thesis the results of the pilot study are presented. With the help of the study we examined the understanding of the concept of size, shape, and color in children. Based on the results we cannot conclude on the order of the acquisition of the concepts of size, shape, and color, as it was evident that the children who understood the task had already mastered all three researched concepts.

V diplomskem delu obravnavam glagole s predpono ob- s pomenom vztrajanja v stanju (npr. obsedeti). Del literature deli glagolske predpone na dve oziroma tri velike skupine (npr. Svenonius 2004, Tatevosov 2008), vendar kakršnihkoli trditev o uvrstitvi glagolov s pomenom vztrajanja v stanju v njej ne najdemo. Z izbranimi glagoli grem skozi vse teste, ki jih najdemo pri Svenoniusu (2004) in Tatevosovu (2008), in preverjam, v katero skupino jih lahko uvrstimo, med leksikalne glagolske predpone, med nadleksikalne glagolske predpone ali celo med vmesne predpone. Nadalje se v literaturi najde poskus razdelanega opisa možnih razporeditev predpon (Wiland 2012), zato poskušam ugotoviti tudi, kam se predpona ob- s pomenom vztrajanja v stanju uvršča v Wilandovi hierarhiji. Glede na Svenoniusovo delitev ugotavljam, da se vztrajalni ob- obnaša kot nadleksikalna predpona. Glede na Wilandovo hierarhijo predpon pa ugotavljam, da se obnaša kot najnižja nadleksikalna predpona. Kot skupni zaključek v nalogi ugotavljam, da imamo vztrajalni ob- lahko za najnižjo nadleksikalno predpono v Wilandovi hierarhiji predpon. A za trdnost te trditve so potrebne še nekatere domneve, ki zaenkrat ostajajo nepreverljive. Ob omenjeni interpretaciji rezultatov sledi tudi, da nekateri testi iz predhodne literature niso povsem zanesljivi. In my thesis I investigate verbs with the verbal prefix ob- in the meaning of persistence in a state (e.g. ob-sedeti [OB-sit] 'remain sitting'). One part of the literature divides verbal prefixes into two or three large groups (e.g. Svenonius 2004, Tatevosov 2008), but make no claims about the classification of prefixed verbs with the meaning of persistence in a state. I apply all the tests from Svenonius (2004) and Tatevosov (2008) to the group of investigated verbs in order to determine which group they belong to: lexical prefixes, superlexical prefixes or even intermediate prefixes. Furthermore, we canalso find in the literature an attempt of a detailed description of possible combinations of prefixes (Wiland 2012). Therefore I also try to determine where the prefix ob- in its meaning of persistence in a state fits in Wiland's hierarchy. With respect to Svenonius’ classification, the verbal prefix ob- in its meaning of persistence in a state is found to behave like superlexical prefix. With respect to Wiland's hierarchy, is found to behave like the lowest superlexical prefix. Combining these two sets of results, I conclude that the prefix ob- in its meaning of persistence in a state can be considerate as the lowest superlexical prefix in Wiland's hierarchy of prefixes. However, this conclusion can only be drawn if we make certain potentially questionable assumptions, so some reservations about it remains. The suggested interpretation of the results also leads to the conclusion that some of the tests from the previous literature are not completely reliable.