Morphosemantics of Diminutive Morphemes in C’LELA (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains
Manova, Stela, Laura Grestenberger & Katharina Korecky-Kröll (eds.). 2023. Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] 380. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton., 2023
[This is the introductory chapter to Manova, Stela, Laura Grestenberger & Katharina Korecky-Kröll (eds.). 2023. Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] 380. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.] Although cross-linguistically the prototypical meaning of diminutives seems clear and easy to define, namely the expression of smallness, and diminutive formations, as a rule, exhibit overt markers, diminutive morphology itself presents a number of challenges to both linguistic descriptions and theoretical analyses. Diminutive(-related) meanings and forms have consequently received much attention in the literature (see the overview in Grandi & Körtvelyessy 2015). Some authors have even claimed that it is impossible to account for the peculiarities of diminutives with the regular mechanisms of grammar and that an additional component is needed: In generative morphology, Scalise (1986) labels this component evaluative morphology; in Natural Morphology, Dressler & Merlini Barbaresi (1994) term it morphopragmatics; in syntax(-based theories of morphology), the preferred label seems to be expressive morphology (Steriopolo 2009) or just expressives (for size and attitude) in the Principles and Parameters framework, see Steriopolo (2016); in the Cartographic Syntax diminutives are placed in the so-called extended nominal projection (with augmentative, pejorative, diminutive, and endearing heads), Cinque (2015); still others identify a complex functional affix (serving as both a head and a modifier), Gouskova and Bobaljik (2022) in a Distributed Morphology framework. Does linguistic theory need special mechanisms and tools to account for diminutives cross-linguistically? Or is everything a matter of method (Jurafsky 1996)? Do diminutive affixes have a domain of their own in the word form and should they be treated separately from all other affixes? The goal of the volume is to answer these and related questions based on empirical evidence from a wide variety of languages.
The Morphopragmatics of the Diminutive Morpheme (-ba/-wa
Lexis, 2011
The present paper is concerned with the diminutive morpheme-/-in Akan. It examines the form, the origin and the various meanings associated with diminutive forms in the language. We attribute the origin of the diminutive to the lexical word for 'child/offspring' ba, basing our argument on language internal evidence as well as cross-linguistic generalizations. The identified meanings of the Akan diminutive are as follows: small, young/offspring, feminine, member, insignificant/nonserious, affection/admiration and contempt/disdain. Having identified the basic meaning of the diminutive as 'small', Jurafsky's [1996] Radial Category theory provides us with a basis to adequately account for the various meanings; drawing a link, through metaphors and inferences, between the diachronic and the synchronic meanings.
Formation of Diminutives in English and Bangla: A Cross-linguistic Study
2019
Even though English and Bangla are geographically at an oceanic distance, the two languages have a genealogical connection. As members of the Indo-European (IE) language family, both the languages share some common features in the domains of lexis, grammar and morphology. At the same time, they have some dissimilar properties as well. The major purpose of this paper is to conduct a comaparative study on the formation of diminutives in English and Bangla. The processes of diminutive formation, in the parlance of linguistics, are known as diminutivization. 'Diminutive' literally means 'smallness'. Precisely speaking, it means 'small counterparts of the standard'. Diminutives have a variety of shades in terms of meanings. They can refer to intimacy, familiarity, contempt etc. This paper explores the procedures of the formation of diminutives in English and Bangla. Affixation and compounding are among two frequently used word formation processes employed by the E...
AN INVESTIGATION OF DIMINUTIVES IN ENGLISH AND HAUSA LANGUAGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY APPROACH
DUTSIN-MA JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND LITERATURE (DUJEL) Vol 8, No 3, 2024, 2024
This study examined the form and pattern of universal linguistic phenomenon of two genetically unrelated languages (i.e English and Hausa Languages) at the level of prosodic morphology in relation to diminutives of names. The study investigated how diminutives are formed, categorised based on their morphological structures, the morphological processes they undergo, the parts of speech they incorporate and consequently some points of similarities and differences using prosodic morphology theory of McCarthy and Prince (1995, 1998). Purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of these diminutive names. The study considered 20 names from both languages which could go with diminutive from selected documents. The data was sourced from The Online Dictionary of First Names (2006) and English Japanese Name Truncation (Avaram 2010) for English names. Also, Onomastic Treasure of the Central Intelligence Agency 1965 and Sunayen Hausawa na Gargajiya da Ire-Iren Abincin Hausawa (Yahaya 1979) were consulted. The study found that the two languages share similar diminutive formation processes and differ in some aspects where both languages use syllables in their diminutive formation.
The rise and fall of Mojeño diminutives through the centuries
This paper investigates the diachrony of diminutives in Mojeño across four centuries. First, it shows that the three Mojeño diminutives have two lexical sources: 'child' and 'seed'. This constitutes a counterexample to Jurafsky's (1996) theory concerning the universal source of diminutives. Second, the paper investigates the grammaticalization process of diminutives and their further distributional and functional changes. It shows that the extension of the distribution onto verbs and grammatical parts of speech correlates with the gain of emotional connotations. It describes the evolution of emotional connotations of the diminutives and the pragmaticalization of their interactional functions until the eventual shift to purely expressive morphemes when diminutives lose their core meaning of 'smallness'. Third, since each of the three language varieties has one 'true' diminutive only, two successive cycles of diminutive renewal are hypothesized, whereby an old diminutive is replaced by a new one.
The Morphopragmatics of the Diminutive Morpheme (-ba /-wa ) in Akan
The present paper is concerned with the diminutive morpheme -w a/-ba in Akan. It examines the form, the origin and the various meanings associated with diminutive forms in the language. We attribute the origin of the diminutive to the lexical word for ‘child/offspring’ ɔba, basing our argument on language internal evidence as well as cross-linguistic generalizations. The identified meanings of the Akan diminutive are as follows: small, young/offspring, feminine, member, insignificant/nonserious, affection/admiration and contempt/disdain. Having identified the basic meaning of the diminutive as ‘small’, Jurafsky’s [1996] Radial Category theory provides us with a basis to adequately account for the various meanings; drawing a link, through metaphors and inferences, between the diachronic and the synchronic meanings.
Diminutives and augmentatives in Beja (North-Cushitic)
Morphology and emotions across the world's languages, 2018
The evaluative morphology of Beja consists of four devices: gender shift to feminine on nouns, and sound change (r>l) on nouns, verbs and adjectives form the diminutives. A suffix -loːj on adjectives, and -l on Manner converbs, form the augmentatives. The analysis focuses on the evaluative, emotional and other pragmatic values associated with these morphemes, size, endearment, praise, romantic love, contempt, politeness and eloquence. When relevant, the links to the general mechanism of semantic change, lambda-abstraction-specification proposed by Jurafsky (1996), is discussed. This paper also discusses productivity, cases where the evaluative device has scope over an adjacent noun instead of its host, the distribution of values across semantic domains and genres, and cases of lexicalization. The corpus analysis shows that the proportional frequency of pragmatic expressive connotations compared to the denotational meaning is higher for diminutives than for augmentatives. Further,...
Diminutives derived from terms for children: Comparative evidence from Southeastern Mande
The study addresses the relationship between diachronic change and synchronic polysemy based on the use of diminutives in four closely related Southeastern Mande languages. It explores the synchronic patterns of use of cognate diminutive markers deriving from the word ‘child’, and accounts for differences between the languages in terms of a Radial Category network, which is designed to capture in one representation both mechanisms of diachronic change and mechanisms of regular meaning extension. The study argues that the same approach can be used to account for the ways diminutive markers acquire new meanings and for the ways an old diminutive category disintegrates, when new markers start replacing the old one in some of the core diminutive functions. The invasion and expansion of new markers may result in discontinuous semantic structures that can only be understood when the diachrony is taken into account (in this particular case study, the evidence for historical change comes from a synchronic comparison with closely related languages).
Morphophonological Processes of the C'Lela Noun
2015
This article discusses some aspects of the morphophonology of C’lela nouns. It will be shown that the addition of inflectional affixes to certain noun stems in C’lela, sometime motivate certain phonological processes. The analysis demonstrates that when the plural suffix [-nV] attaches to animate nouns in C’lela, it triggers certain morphophonological processes such as vowel copying, metathesis, vowel lengthening, final-vowel deletion, and initial-consonant deletion. For example, the paper argues that in plural formation, stem final-vowel sometimes undergoes metathesis when the plural marker /-nV/ attaches to a noun stem, thus; rm ‘man’ + na becomes r -n ‘men, as against the rule of vowel epenthesis assumed in (Dettweiler 2012). In addition, the analysis discovers that the processes of metathesis and vowel lengthening are simply conditioned by phonological structure.
The essay attempts to explore diminutive and augmentative formation in Indo-Aryan with data from Kashmiri and Hindi. Word-Formation in Indo-Aryan languages involves affixation, compounding, among other processes. Affixation and Compounding generate Diminutives and Augmentatives as well. An attempt will be made in this essay to explore patterns of Affixation and compounding that bring into being diminutives and augmentatives in Kashmiri and Hindi.