Diminutive Meaning Research Articles

Expressing diminutive meaning in heritage Spanish: linking the heritage experience to diminutive use in everyday speech

IntroductionThis paper studies the pragmatic force that heritage speakers may convey through the use of the diminutive in everyday speech. In particular, I analyze the use of the Spanish diminutive in 49 sociolinguistic interviews from a Spanish–English bilingual community in Southern Arizona, U.S. where Spanish is the heritage language. I compare the use of the diminutive in heritage Spanish to the distribution of the diminutive in the speech of a Spanish monolingual community (18 sociolinguistic interviews) from the same dialectal region. Although Spanish and English employ different morphosyntactic strategies to express diminutive meaning, the analysis reveals that the diminutive morpheme -ito/a is a productive morphological device in the Spanish-discourse of heritage speakers from Southern Arizona (i.e., similar diminutive distributions to their monolingual counterparts). While heritage speakers employed the diminutive -ito/a to express the notion of “smallness” in their Spanish-discourse, the analysis indicates that these language users are more likely to invoke a subjective evaluation through the diminutive -ito/a when talking about their family members and/or childhood experiences. This particular finding suggests that the concept “child” is the semantic/pragmatic driving force of the diminutive in heritage Spanish as a marker of speech by, about, to, or with some relation to children. The analysis further suggests that examining the pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech can provide important insights into how heritage speakers encode and create cultural meaning in their heritage languages.MethodsIn this study, I analyze the use of Spanish diminutives in two U.S.-Mexico border regions. The first data set is representative of a Spanish–English bilingual community in Southern Arizona, U.S., provided in the Corpus del Español en el Sur de Arizona (The CESA Corpus). The CESA Corpus comprises 49 sociolinguistic interviews of ~1 h each for a total of ~305,542 words. The second data set comprises 18 sociolinguistic interviews of predominantly monolingual Spanish speakers from the city of Mexicali, Baja California in Mexico, provided in the Proyecto Para el Estudio Sociolingüístico del Español de España y de América (PRESEEA). The Mexicali data set consists of ~119,162 words.ResultsThe analysis revealed that the Spanish diminutive morpheme -ito/a is a productive morphological device in the Spanish-discourse of heritage speakers from Southern Arizona. In addition to its prototypical meaning (i.e., the notion of “smallness”), the diminutive morpheme -ito/a conveyed an array of pragmatic functions in the everyday speech of Spanish heritage speakers and their monolingual counterparts from the same dialectal region. Importantly, these pragmatic functions are mediated by speakers' subjective perceptions of the entity in question. Unlike their monolingual counterparts, heritage speakers are more likely to invoke a subjective evaluation through the diminutive -ito/a when talking about their family members and/or childhood experiences. Altogether, the study suggests that the concept “child” is the semantic/pragmatic driving force of the diminutive in heritage Spanish as a marker of speech by, about, to, or with some relation to children.DiscussionIn this study, I followed Reynoso's framework to study the pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech, that is, speakers' publicly conveyed meaning. The analysis revealed that heritage speakers applied most of the pragmatic functions and their respective values observed in Reynoso's cross-dialectal study of Spanish diminutives, and hence providing further support for her framework. Similarly, the study provides further evidence to Jurafsky's proposal that morphological diminutives arise from semantic or pragmatic links with children. Finally, the analysis indicated that examining the semantic/pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech can provide important insights into how heritage speakers encode and create cultural meaning in their heritage languages, which can in turn have further ramifications for heritage language learning and teaching.

Реализация диминутивных значений глаголами с суффиксом -el(n) в современном немецком языке

The paper describes unprefixed diminutive verbs with the suffix -el(n) in modern German from the perspective of the interconnection between their semantics and pragmatics. The aim of the research is to identify the primary actualizations of diminutive meanings by the analyzed units. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the first attempt to thoroughly analyze the influence of a derivational affix (the German suffix -el(n)) on the development of diminutive semantics within the semantic structure of a verb. Additionally, the authors expand the understanding of the diminutiveness category by considering notions such as intensity and iterativity. As a result of conducting a corpus analysis of German verbs with the suffix -el(n) that manifest diminutive meanings, it was found that affixational means of expressing diminutiveness primarily possess a semantic nature and mainly mark the category of intentionality of verbs. It was also found that the meanings of diminutiveness in some derivatives ending in -el(n) are explicit only through various shades of attenuation, derived solely from the pragmatic content of verbal lexemes, simultaneously conveying implicit evaluative information about the action.

On the problem of the lexicographic representation of diminutives in the Serbian-Russian dictionary

The article is a comparison of diminutives and functionally similar lexical units in Serbian and Russian languages (hereinafter SL and RL). Crosslinguistic lexical comparison is conducted as a preparation for a large bilingual Serbian-Russian dictionary, which is a part of the project on comparative lexicology and lexicography. The article deals with the lexico-semantic category, which in the SL consists of the two subcategories, diminutives and terms of endearment, while in the Russian linguistic tradition it is united under the name diminutives. Lexical units of this group consist of motivated derivatives formed by affixation with a common primary semantics of diminution in relation to the norm. In terms of grammar, this group consists mainly of nouns, followed by adjectives and adverbs, as well as diminutive verbs in Serbian. The analysis of lexical items beginning with the letters A and B with qualifiers ???. ?diminutives?, ???. ?a term of endearment? or ? ???. ??????? ?in diminutive meaning? from the one-volume Dictionary of the Serbian Language of Matica Srpska (2018), as well as their potential equivalents in the RL, apart from classification differences, reveals a number of inconsistencies at the level of functions and pragmatics of the units in SL and RL, which make their lexicographic representation difficult. Although the frequency of diminutives is higher in RL, the formal equivalent of the SL derivative is sometimes expressed through a synonym (a synonym of the derivative word is searched for and its diminutive form is built), a hyperonym or a syntagm. In the Russian part of the dictionary, the difference between meanings of diminutives and terms of endearment may be neutralized, since Russian derivatives carry a whole paradigm of potential connotations, which are actualized only in communicative situations. Not all communicative situations coincide with those in SL - for example, in RL the use of diminutives in polite communication is known. The lexicographic problem lies not only in finding a suitable congruent form, but also in the fact that by identifying lexemes in the dictionary one can impose on the Serbian lexeme connotations from RL that it did not possess in SL. An additional difficulty of semantics is related to the adequacy of interpretation of diminutives in SL formed from polysemantic words. Namely, it is not always obvious whether ?diminution? refers to one of several separated meanings or to all meanings, because there is no qualifier referring to it, there is no illustration of usage, and the electronic corpus of SL does not provide an adequate number of usage examples. The paper also describes the problem of possible narrowing of the meaning of a lexeme. Finally, the stylistic status of the units is unequal: in RL derivatives with diminutives and / or meaning of subjective evaluation belong mainly to the verbal and colloquial style (and are limitedly recorded in dictionaries), while in SL diminutives are ?accepted? in the language and dictionary, which means that they demonstrate a higher degree of lexicalization. The problem of representing diminutives and other lexical structures in a bilingual dictionary should be considered on a broader linguistic material and at the level of the methodology of bilingual lexicography.

Germanic diminutives: a case study of a gap in Norwegian

It is well known that German and Dutch have productive diminutive morphology. What is much less discussed is the fact that several other Germanic languages do not have such productive morphology, notably the Scandinavian languages. Instead, these languages form compounds to express a diminutive meaning. This paper addresses the puzzle of why the Scandinavian languages do not have productive diminutive morphology. The paper argues that the culprit is the particular definite suffix that the Scandinavian languages have. This is a postnominal definite suffix that occupies a low position in the nominal functional spine. It is argued that the presence of this suffixed article accounts for the lack of productive synthetic diminutive formation in these languages.

Diminutivizing L-reduplication in Norwegian

AbstractThis paper gives a broad overview of how Norwegian productively makes use of L-reduplication to convey diminutive meaning. I argue that this previously undescribed phenomenon is a diminutivizing process that copies the stressed vowel and any consonants until the next morpheme boundary. The construction can be attested as far back as the start of the 20th century and its realization varies geographically between two main variants. I show that L-reduplication is restricted phonologically, but applies productively (unlike other echo reduplicative processes) across different parts of speech.

Семантика смягчительности в старославянском и русском языках (на материале глагольной лексики)

The article dwells on the verbs with a diminutive meaning in Russian and Old Slavonic. It describes particular diminutive meanings in action designation and determines originality of prefix models with po- pod-, pri- with the semantics “to do something a little, without making special efforts, not to the full extent, not for long, for some time” for these languages. The work is based on the studies of the Slavic language picture of the world reflected by derivational means. The authors claim that verbs with these prefixes are highly productive in the modern Russian language. They indicate the diminutuve nature of the designated action not fully performed and/or evaluated as such and reflect the mentality of native Russian speakers (uncertainty, emotionality, reflexivity). Old Slavonic and Ancient Greek lexicographic sources contain a small number of units with the meaning of incompleteness and limitation of action. The authors emphasise different shades of attenuation in comparison with the Russian language, an increasing number of verbal units with the meaning of incomplete action in the Old Slavonic language, and the expanded range of partioiral meanings of attenuation. The difference in diminutive verbs of the Old Slavonic and Russian languages is associated with the peculiar worldviews of their speakers. The authors conclude about the original “attentuation” models in the Russian language. They argue that it was important for native speakers to characterise the designated actions from quantitative, productive, temporal, and other aspects relevant to the sphere of the Russian verb.

«Pani zvelila zarazisinko stulyty hubu» (Expressive functions of diminutive adverbs in Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s prose works)

The article analyzes stylistic functions of adverbial diminutives in Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s small prosaic works, namely in the following stories: “Father’s Right”, “A Radical’s First Debut”, “Who really is to Blame?!”, “From the Manuscript of the Glorious Deeds of the Prystashis gentry” and “Beirut Stories”. Two categories of derivatives are identified: those derived from adjectives with diminutive meaning; those where diminutive siffix is added directly to the word-building stem in the process of adverb formation. Attention is paid to the fact that derivative adverbs-diminutives do not change the denotative meaning of the stem, but become an expressive means and give the utterance special colouring. Adverbial diminutives mainly have significant emotional and evaluative load which is as important as semantic one. Adverbs with diminutive suffixes do not always focus on the fact that that attribute of the attribute or the attribute of an action is diminished. Most frequently these word forms attract reader’s attention with the unusual form and enable the author of the work to send important signals to the reader. For example, emphasize compassionate and gentle attitude of the storyteller or a character to the other character of the work, make the utterance sound ironic, reduce too categoric statements, encode the meaning, etc. The rigorous analysis has proved that adverbial diminutives make Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s language more expressive and are characteristic feature of writer’s individual style.

ФОРМАЛЬНЫЕ И СЕМАНТИКО-ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАТОРЫ КАТЕГОРИИ ДИМИНУТИВНОСТИ В УКРАИНСКОМ, АНГЛИЙСКОМ И ЛАТИНСКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ (СОПОСТАВИТЕЛЬНЫЙ АСПЕКТ)

The article investigates common and ethnic-language features in formal and semantic-functional representation of category of diminutiveness in Ukrainian, English and Latin, that shows the peculiarities of evaluative-emotional world conceptualization in world models of these languages. The formal features of diminutivity representation in Ukrainian, English and Latin on that levels of language structure, where denoted category can be represented, are viewed, common and particular for each language semantic-functional varieties of diminutive meaning representation are highlighted.

Gulaim Formation of Nouns with Diminutive Meaning in Modern Karakalpak Language

The article deals with ways and forms of expressing subjective estimation of diminutive terms of nouns in modern Karakalpak. In spite ofn some works on this theme, it remains insufficiently explored in modern Karakalpak language. One of the forms of expressing subjective estimation of diminutive terms of nouns is affixation. This study presentsn the formation of diminutive affixes of nouns– sha/ - she, shaq/ -shek, -shyq/-shik , - ek// -k inn modern Karakalpak language.n The paper first presents the characteristics of subjective evaluation and expressiveness ofn nouns. Next, the paper reviews the studies on subjective forms of the noun in Turkic linguistics. Then analysis of the diminutive suffixes of nouns inn modern Karakalpak language is given, concluding that, diminutive forms in the Karakalpak language are expressed by means of diminutive affixes. These include the affixes -sha/ - she, - shak/ - shek, - shyk/ - shik, -ek /-k and give a diminutive meaning to a person, object, animal names, etc. and create a new form.

СЛОВОТВІРНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРАСЛОВ’ЯНСЬКИХ СОМАТИЗМІВ

The naming of body parts, acting as one of the most noticeable layers of vocabulary, which reflects the knowledge of native speakers about the world around them, and their idea of both their own body and the body of animals, is the subject of constant attention of linguists. In modern linguistics, as in the humanities in general, the anthropocentric approach to the separation of somatic vocabulary prevails, when only parts of the human body are included in body parts. However, such a view of the realm of the corporeal and, moreover, the understanding of the pair “somatic – mental” only as one that applies to a man, denies the corporeality (however, as well as the realm of the psyche) of other living organisms ‒ animals. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to include the names of body parts of animals as somatic names. The article found that the Proto-Slavic language had a fairly extensive system of names of body parts. Many somatisms called parts of the body of both humans and animals. The somatic lexical subsystem includes such large groups of nouns to denote parts of the human and animal body, as: sonymic, osteonymic, splanchnonymic, angionimic, myonymic, sensonymic, neoplasmonimic. The object of study is the vocabulary to denote parts of the human and animal body, including the name of the head and its parts, neck and torso, skeleton and bones, cardiovascular and circulatory system, internal organs, muscles, human and animal senses, and also the names of neoplasms recorded in monuments of different styles and genres and historical dictionaries that reflect the vocabulary of the Proto-Slavic period. The purpose of the article is to carry out word-formation analysis of somatic names in the history of the Ukrainian language of the Proto-Slavic era. The main research methods are descriptive, comparative-historical, structural (component) analysis. The description of somatic names is carried out according to a complex method that combines semantic-word-forming and etymological aspects of the study. The authors found that the derivation of somatic names in the Proto-Slavic language occurred in two ways: by morphological and semantic word formation. The most productive, among morphological, way of word formation of somatic names of the pre-written period was suffixation, much less active in derivation of new words was confixation, prefix and composite word formation was represented by single formations. The peculiarity of the derivational semantics of somatisms on the territory of ancient Slavia is that some formants already lost their diminutive meaning in pre-written times. Non-morphological methods were represented by semantic derivation, when somatisms were created by transferring meaning on the basis of similarity, which later laid the foundations for the formation of a significant layer of somatic vocabulary. Prospects for the study are a more detailed analysis of the development and formation of somatic names in the dialects of the Ukrainian language, as well as the creation of principles for concluding a terminological basis of natural, including medical, sphere based on specific Ukrainian lexical material.

Expression of diminutivity in Central Ring Grassfields Bantu

Studies on the expression of diminutivity in Bantoid languages of the Cameroonian Grassfields have tended to focus on the role that noun class derivation plays within the familiar Bantu paradigm. A closer look at individual branches of Bantoid, however, reveals a more complex picture, which rather suggests a division of labour between derivational strategies and compounding and/or periphrasis. This contribution zooms in on the languages of the Central Ring (CR) branch of Grassfields Bantu, presenting an overview of diminutivisation strategies found here: the notorious transfer to gender 19/6a, which is at times, accompanied by the addition of a semantically bleached suffix –CV, and periphrasis in associative constructions headed by nouns with inherent diminutive meanings such as ‘child’.

Tackling the Augmentative Puzzle in Turkish

This paper deals with the suffix -cIk in Turkish, and argues that the suffix -cIk has an augmentative meaning, as well as a diminutive meaning which has been mentioned in the literature extensively. The different meanings of the suffix -cIk are due to two different structures that I propose. While the structure of the diminutive is made of one single morpheme -cIk, that of the augmentative suffix is composed of two morphemes: -cI and -k. I offer phonotactic and morphological evidence that shows -k has its own life. I also show strict categorical selection properties for the diminutive and augmentative suffix: The augmentative one can only be attached to adjectival bases that express negative orderings. The diminutive -cIk, on the other hand, attaches to nouns. I capture this contrast using the nanosyntax model of spellout.

Nomina abstrаcta with suffix -к(а) in the history of the Ukrainian language

The article deals with the dynamics of lexical and word-forming types of abstracts with suffix -к(а) in the history of the Ukrainian language, considers the productivity of the mentioned formant. It is established that nouns with abstract meaning are the names of concepts that have no real embodiment, indicate the state, feelings, process, quality, character traits, various manifestations of human intelligence, relationships between individuals, peoples, etiquette, are scientific and industrial terms. Nomina abstracta, formed with the suffix -к(а), functioned already in the Old Slavic Language. The general significance of objective action and the results of human mental and speech activity in the semantic structure of such derivatives have remained leading to this day. Sources of the of the Ancient Russian-Ukrainian language of the ХІ – ХІІІ centuries record a small number of analyzed derivatives (ласка, гадка). However, in the Middle Ukrainain Language of the ХІV–ХVІ centuries the activity of their use was gradually increasing (валка, висилка). There were also desubstantives, in the semantic structure of which there were no indication of diminutive meaning. The number of such derivatives continued to increase in the monuments of the New Ukrainian Language (бійка, вымовка). There were also nomina abstracta, indicating the peculiarities of human behavior, his actions, feelings, and a small group of nouns to denote agricultural actions and processes. At the beginning of the XX century accounted for the most active functioning of new works of abstracts on ‑к(а) because of the influence of historical circumstances of this time (вирубка, відставка, доставка). Occurrence during the ХХ century a significant number of names of materialized actions was also determined by the socio-economic development of society, because a significant number of such nouns denote various production processes and their features (опалубка, плавка). Many abstract names of actions in the Modern Ukrainian language are created from the bases of verbs with the help of confixes with the postpositive component -к(а) (несогласка, похибка). Today, the process of replenishing the composition of abstracts with this formant is not very intensive. Keywords: a historical word-formation, nomina abstrаcta, lexical and word-forming type, word-forming structure, suffix -к(а).

Aktionsverben im inter- und intralingualen Vergleich:

This paper examines transparent and non-transparent diminutive forms in Akan and the range of meanings associated with each group, as presented in Appah/Amfo (2011). It takes the discussion of Akan diminutives a step further by showing that some of the meanings communicated by transparent diminutive forms are dependent on the context, including the semantic properties of the base to which the diminutive morpheme is attached. In addition, it demonstrates that even though the non-transparent diminutive forms communicate diminu-tive meanings and contain what appears to be the Akan diminutive morpheme, synchronical-ly they are formally unanalyzable since the putative diminutive morpheme cannot be deline-ated from the base. Also, it is argued that these forms have come from a lexicalization pro-cess that resulted in the reanalysis of the base+diminutive morpheme as a single unanalyza-ble unit. It is observed that the process of lexicalization could have been facilitated by a number of factors, including the loss of the bases from the language, which meant that the putative base could only be found in the context of their diminutive use. Finally, the lexical-ization process is schematized using formalism from Construction Morphology.

Lexicalization of Akan Diminutives:

This paper examines transparent and non-transparent diminutive forms in Akan and the range of meanings associated with each group, as presented in Appah/Amfo (2011). It takes the discussion of Akan diminutives a step further by showing that some of the meanings communicated by transparent diminutive forms are dependent on the context, including the semantic properties of the base to which the diminutive morpheme is attached. In addition, it demonstrates that even though the non-transparent diminutive forms communicate diminu-tive meanings and contain what appears to be the Akan diminutive morpheme, synchronical-ly they are formally unanalyzable since the putative diminutive morpheme cannot be deline-ated from the base. Also, it is argued that these forms have come from a lexicalization pro-cess that resulted in the reanalysis of the base+diminutive morpheme as a single unanalyza-ble unit. It is observed that the process of lexicalization could have been facilitated by a number of factors, including the loss of the bases from the language, which meant that the putative base could only be found in the context of their diminutive use. Finally, the lexical-ization process is schematized using formalism from Construction Morphology.

Про козаченьків і воріженьків: семантичні аспекти деривації

У статті йдеться про словотвірні засоби вираження демінутивності у фольклорних текстах, проаналізовано стилістично марковані одиниці з суфіксами демінутивності в українських народних піснях і думах. Здійснено лексико-семантичну диференціацію іменників із значенням об’єктивної зменшеності. Досліджено особливості функціонування безеквівалентних демінутивів, утворених від основ негативної семантики. Задля правильного тлумачення функції морфеми з модифікаційним демінутивним значенням рекомендовано вдаватися до прийому контекстного аналізу.

Dėl būdvardžių su priesaga <em>-intelis</em> (<em>-ė</em>) kilmės

ON THE ORIGIN OF ADJECTIVES WITH THE SUFFIX -intelis (-ė) Summary Diminutives with the suffix -intelis ( < -int- + -elis ) , in the 16th17th centuries characteristic not only of the West Lithuanian (as in Modern Lithuanian) but also of the East Lithuanian dialects (cf. mažintelis ‘very small’ DK 7 16 ; DP l0x; SD 1 76; SD 3 53,163, 434; SP 1299 18 - 19 , 366 3 ), are derived from archaic *-nt- nouns (cf. Lith. vien-int-elis and vien-unt-elis ‘quite alone’ wien-untas ‘someone’). In Indo-European they denote some kind of attributive (cf. participles and old hydronyms, e. g. Lith. Salantas) and diminutive meaning (cf. Lith. balt-int-elis and OCzech. bel-uci ‘very white’, also Hitt. assuwant- : assu- ‘good’).

Progressive Reduplication in Old Chinese

On the basis of an extensive investigation into ancient texts, this paper analyzes the semantic motivation and the corresponding phonological alternation in the process of changing from a monosyllabic form to a disyllabic form, discovering that there is a progressive pattern of reduplication in Old Chinese, which mainly conveys either diminutive meaning or vivid description. This research has been carried out based on the following principles: 1) pay close attention to the interaction between phonology and morphology; 2) try to recover the particular semantic relationship between the base and the reduplication form; 3) seek both phonological and sematic conditions for the derivational liquid consonant as well as its variants; 4) make comparison with the parallel cases in modern dialects; 5) make use of achievements in the phonological research of Old Chinese.

Derivational suffix productivity for students with and without language-learning disabilities.

The effect of productivity (a correlate of suffix frequency) on students' derivational suffix use was investigated with students with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD). Sixty-nine elementary- to middle-school-age students participated in an elicitation task (in which they produced derived forms) and a forced-choice task (in which they selected derived forms) to label nonsense objects and events. In each task, students used highly productive suffixes to convey a given meaning. For example, students used the highly productive suffix er rather than the less productive suffix ant to convey an agentive meaning and used the more productive suffix let instead of the unproductive suffix kin to convey a diminutive meaning. Also, productivity appeared to guide accuracy of suffix use across meanings. For example, the agentive suffix er was produced with much higher accuracy than the less productive diminutive suffix let. In general, patterns of performance within and across meanings were the same for students with and without LLD. LLD students were less accurate in determining the meanings conveyed by derivational suffixes than typically achieving students matched for chronological age. However, their performance was similar to typically achieving students with comparable language skills.

Nouns With Diminutive Endings in the New Testament

noun formed does not thereby gain a diminutive meaning. As a language is debased in dialect or popular speech, so diminutive suffixes often lose their force. In Swiss German for example the diminutive ending -li does not necessarily always denote diminution or even endearment. Good style or archaic style will therefore tend to dispense with meaningless diminutive suffixes. Koine Greek uses diminutive suffixes more frequently than the classical language. The New Testament has more nouns with these suffixes than some comparable texts of the period. RADERMACHER 1) says that 'Diminutiva fehlen im hohen Stil wie der attischen Tragodie ganzlich'. HOWARD writes 2) 'During the Hellenistic period the intimate language of the home and the speech of the lower social strata forced its way up into the vocabulary of literature. Words which originated in the nursery and the streets lost their hypocoristic meaning or became faded diminutives in many cases superseding the primitive noun'. It is therefore not surprising to find that Atticist stylists like Phrynichus objected to the proliferation of -Lto -capov endings in Greek and sought to eliminate these forms 3). D. C. SWANSON in an article 4) complains that New Testament grammars do not deal adequately with the diminutive forms, and he seeks to examine the frequency and force of nouns with diminutive endings in the New Testament. His article does not take fully into account textual variants involving diminutives. Variants however