How to Count Hours, Rows, Steps, and More Correctly? Accentuation of Some Nouns in Combination with Cardinal Numbers

The article is devoted to the study of the orthoepic variants of the nouns час, ряд, шаг, шар, гол, след. In the genitive case of the singular, these words can be pronounced differently, depending, for example, on the lexical environment. For example, modern orthoepic dictionaries recommend placing the stress on the root in free combinations of the words час, ряд, and шаг, and placing the stress on the ending when a quantitative numeral is present (e. g., Эта головоломка займет до ча́са Вашего времени and Встречаемся через два часа́). At the same time, such monosyllabic masculine nouns as шар, гол, and след are not included in dictionaries. This paper identifies the factors that influence the choice of a particular pronunciation and compares the current usage with the existing lexicographic descriptions. The study has shown that the most significant factors affecting the stress placement are: the frequency of the word/word combination, lexical environment (free/bound meaning), and the belonging of the word to a certain sphere of use. The obtained observations are based on the results of a sociolinguistic experiment and corpus data; the presented conclusions can be used further in compiling orthoepic and accentological dictionaries.