Women and other 'small things': -ette as a feminine marker
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Lucia Kornexl
Abstract
Among the inventory of English nominal suffixes, -ette stands out as a relative latecomer with a rather limited productivity and a variety of meanings. Apart from small size, -ette can also indicate imitation or female sex, with the resultant formations often being classed as derogatory. This range of applications has been ascribed to universal tendencies in the semantics and pragmatics of the diminutive. A closer look at the origin and development of personal formations in -ette reveals, however, a number of special traits that can only be explained as the results of specific conditions operative in the English system. This paper sets out to trace the history of female -ette nouns and tries to explain why this minor pattern with its structural and semantic peculiarities has managed to survive in a language in which neither gender marking nor diminution are regular morphological categories.
Abstract
Among the inventory of English nominal suffixes, -ette stands out as a relative latecomer with a rather limited productivity and a variety of meanings. Apart from small size, -ette can also indicate imitation or female sex, with the resultant formations often being classed as derogatory. This range of applications has been ascribed to universal tendencies in the semantics and pragmatics of the diminutive. A closer look at the origin and development of personal formations in -ette reveals, however, a number of special traits that can only be explained as the results of specific conditions operative in the English system. This paper sets out to trace the history of female -ette nouns and tries to explain why this minor pattern with its structural and semantic peculiarities has managed to survive in a language in which neither gender marking nor diminution are regular morphological categories.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Pragmatic and stylistic choices
- Politeness in the history of English 3
- The which is most and right harde to answere : Intensifying right and most in earlier English 31
- The diachronic development of the intensifier bloody : A case study in historical pragmatics 53
- Variation and change in the writings of 17th century scientists 75
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Part II. Lexical and semantic change
- The convergence of two need verbs in Middle English 97
- Rivalry among the verbs of wanting 117
- A look at respect : Investigating metonymies in Earle Modern English 139
- Germanic vs French fixed expressions in Middle English prose: Towards a corpus-based historical English phraseology 159
- Latin loanwords of the early modern period: How often did French act as an intermediary? 185
- Disseisin : The lexeme and the legal fact in Early Middle English 203
- Was Old Frech -able borrowable? A diachronic study of word-formation processes due to language contact 217
- Women and other 'small things': -ette as a feminine marker 241
- Index of subjects 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Pragmatic and stylistic choices
- Politeness in the history of English 3
- The which is most and right harde to answere : Intensifying right and most in earlier English 31
- The diachronic development of the intensifier bloody : A case study in historical pragmatics 53
- Variation and change in the writings of 17th century scientists 75
-
Part II. Lexical and semantic change
- The convergence of two need verbs in Middle English 97
- Rivalry among the verbs of wanting 117
- A look at respect : Investigating metonymies in Earle Modern English 139
- Germanic vs French fixed expressions in Middle English prose: Towards a corpus-based historical English phraseology 159
- Latin loanwords of the early modern period: How often did French act as an intermediary? 185
- Disseisin : The lexeme and the legal fact in Early Middle English 203
- Was Old Frech -able borrowable? A diachronic study of word-formation processes due to language contact 217
- Women and other 'small things': -ette as a feminine marker 241
- Index of subjects 259
