The function of semantically motivated suffixes in gender inversion of Modern Greek derivatives

Abstract

The main issue of this study is to show that semantically motivated suffixes, such as diminutives and augmentatives, for instance, may change the grammatical gender of nouns in highly inflected languages such as Modern Greek (henceforth MG). For example, a semantic marker of diminution (Melissaropoulou & Ralli 2008), say {-aki} of neuter (NTR) gender, attached to a stem of masculine (MSC) gender (by nature), will convert it into neuter, e.g. andr ( as ) MSC ‘man’ (natural gender), plus the diminutive {- aki } NTR will invert to andraki NTR ‘little man’. Similarly, korits ( i ) NTR ‘girl’, feminine (natural gender), plus the augmentative {- aros } MSC will become koritsaros ‘big girl’. Also aet ( os ) MSC ‘eagle’ masculine (natural gender), plus the diminutive {- opoulo } NTR will turn into aetopoulo NTR ‘baby eagle’. Moreover, other categories of semantically motivated suffixes capable of changing gender, such as the case of – iera FEM or – ieris MSC denoting a container and an agent respectively (Roche 2000), as well as – ia FEM standing for a fruit tree will also be investigated. The scope of the paper will be to show not only that, in MG, gender is inherent to the stem noun and not to the word (Ralli 2002), but also discuss both natural and grammatical gender (normally shown formally by an inflectional suffix) as an inevitable consequence of gender inversion by means of the afore mentioned suffixes. The notion of agreement regarding the gender of the noun qualifiers, e.g. enas MSC isichos MSC andras MSC , ‘a quiet man’ vs. ena NTR isicho NTR andraki NTR ‘a quiet little man’, will also be investigated as a result of gender inversion (Anastasiadi et al 2003). Furthermore, particular attention will be paid on the fact that the natural/biological gender remains the same at least semantically –as it is inherent to the stem- despite the attachment of a different gender grammatical suffix, only when the latter is either a diminutive or an augmentative. In all other cases, where the gender is indicated by form only, and not by sex, i.e. it is not natural, it converts to the gender of the suffix, e.g. tsai NTR ‘tea’ plus – iera FEM/‘container’ will be tsa γ iera FEM ‘teapot’; milo NTR ‘apple’ plus – ia FEM/’fruit tree’ will be milia FEM ‘apple tree’.