--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:
> Maybe I'm missing something here, but how can "the IE accent [be]
> assigned by considerations of animacy"?
We do not need to explain everything we can observe to be sure the
observations are correct. I do see a possible locus of diffusion
however: When adjectrives were formed from nouns by the addition of
the thematic vowel, as *bhr.-t- 'carrier' => *bhr.tó- 'carried', the
accent shifted to the second syllable, so, in this type, the
substantive had an earlier accent than the adjective, so tomós
backformed tómos. Substantives are of lower animacy than adjectives.
I would however like there to be a broader basis for that.
Jens