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So the word 一歩 is Atamadaka but becomes Heiban in the sentence 「一歩も動けず」

Is there anybody with experience and study into pitch accent that can explain what's going on here?

I'm also in Dogen's Patreon, if anybody else is in and knows a lesson that addresses this, could you please point me in the right direction too?

Thanks.

ItsCheif
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    This is related: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/96227/43676 – aguijonazo Jan 16 '24 at 01:31
  • I do not believe so. I've got DMs with Dogen so waiting to see if he can maybe clarify this, but so far be biggest lead seems to be Counters losing their accent when used as an adverb. Negative sentences seem to also have an effect on counters losing their accent.

    Take for example: いっぽもうごか＼ない・ い＼っぽもうご＼く

     – ItsCheif Jan 16 '24 at 09:33
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    It's not limited to counters as you can see in the linked question. The pattern here is も with a negative polarity item pulling up the preceding word, not just a negative sentence as も is low in 三歩も動かない, which means the person does move but not so many as three steps. – aguijonazo Jan 16 '24 at 10:52
  • Ohhh, I see! Thanks for clarifying! – ItsCheif Jan 17 '24 at 11:39

1 Answers1

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edit: wrong

Solved.

Counters have quite an unpredictable effect on pitch when used as an adverb.

Lesson 73 of Dogen's course titled "Pitch-accent in adverbial counters" covers this.

To summarize without giving away too much from the course, there is no consistent rule for all adverbial counters and you'll basically have to figure out each one on a case-by-case basis.

In this case, the counter 歩 loses its accent and turns heiban, just like the counter 回 sometimes does.

ItsCheif
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    一歩 does not become heiban when used as an adverb (一歩近づく etc). What aguijonanzo said in the comment section is correct. It’s due to being a negative polarity item. – Darius Jahandarie Jan 16 '24 at 14:12
  • I see I see, time to look into this further. I wonder if Dogen has an episode on this as well, seems quite big. Thanks for the help! – ItsCheif Jan 17 '24 at 11:40