Syntax predicts prosody: Multi-purpose morphemes in Serbo-Croatian

We consider four Serbo-Croatian suffixes which appear in various structural positions and display different prosodic behaviour in these positions. Such suffixes allow us to establish the effects of the structural context on prosody by constructing minimal pairs between e.g. derivation and inflection. All four suffixes are shown to fit the generalization that derivational morphology is more accented than inflectional morphology. We propose a formal explanation and discuss the functional benefits of a surface differentiation between the two uses.