14 Morphological richness and priority of pragmatics over semantics in Italian, Arabic, German and English diminutives
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Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the typological property of morphological richness on diminutive formation in Italian, Austrian German, English, and Tunisian Arabic. It investigates the priority of the pragmatics over the semantics of diminutives in these languages, i.e., of pragmatic meanings such as mitigation, endearment, sympathy, empathy, and irony over smallness and youth. Hypocoristics and quasi-hypocoristics are also dealt with. Diminutive formation in Arabic is root-based, in English word-based, in German and Italian it is both. Morphological richness has an impact on high type/token frequencies (Italian > Arabic > or ≈ German > English), number of productive diminutive patterns, number of different patterns applying to the same base (if pragmatic, no pattern or lexical blocking, e.g., Italian vipp-ino/-etto/-uccio/-ar-ello), combinations of diminutive suffixes. Italian is the freest language in attributing to diminutives both the head and the non-head property of changing (or not) the gender, and of transforming (or not) adjectives into nouns. English and German turn adjectives into nouns, German also changes gender into neuter, with the exception of (quasi-)hypocoristics and of child-/pet-centered speech. The data analyzed are from Viennese German, Tunisian Arabic, Tuscan Italian, and British English. Our focus is on diminutives in asymmetric communication with pet animals.
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the typological property of morphological richness on diminutive formation in Italian, Austrian German, English, and Tunisian Arabic. It investigates the priority of the pragmatics over the semantics of diminutives in these languages, i.e., of pragmatic meanings such as mitigation, endearment, sympathy, empathy, and irony over smallness and youth. Hypocoristics and quasi-hypocoristics are also dealt with. Diminutive formation in Arabic is root-based, in English word-based, in German and Italian it is both. Morphological richness has an impact on high type/token frequencies (Italian > Arabic > or ≈ German > English), number of productive diminutive patterns, number of different patterns applying to the same base (if pragmatic, no pattern or lexical blocking, e.g., Italian vipp-ino/-etto/-uccio/-ar-ello), combinations of diminutive suffixes. Italian is the freest language in attributing to diminutives both the head and the non-head property of changing (or not) the gender, and of transforming (or not) adjectives into nouns. English and German turn adjectives into nouns, German also changes gender into neuter, with the exception of (quasi-)hypocoristics and of child-/pet-centered speech. The data analyzed are from Viennese German, Tunisian Arabic, Tuscan Italian, and British English. Our focus is on diminutives in asymmetric communication with pet animals.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction: Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains 1
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Part I: Theoretical approaches to diminutive formation
- 2 On a low and a high position for diminutive non-manual markers in Italian Sign Language 37
- 3 Diminutive or singulative? The suffixes -in and -k in Russian 65
- 4 Slavic diminutive morphology: An interplay of scope, templates and paradigms 89
- 5 Diminutive formation in Spanish: Evidence for word morphology 115
- 6 The syllable as the basis for word formation: Evidence from diminutives, hypocoristics and clippings in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish and French 131
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Part II: Corpus-based and other empirical studies
- 7 The Swedish suffix -is and its place within evaluative morphology 153
- 8 Diminutives and number: Theoretical predictions and empirical evidence from German in Austria 179
- 9 Diminutive verbs in the Austrian language area: Morphological and semantic challenges 205
- 10 Challenges in analyzing Polish diminutives 231
- 11 Diminutives among other -k(a) words in colloquial Russian: Frequency and suffix variation 253
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Part III: Sociolinguistic, pragmatic and acquisitional studies
- 12 Borrowed or inspired? Komi diminutive under Russian influence 277
- 13 Acquisition of diminutives in Russian and Estonian from a typological perspective 305
- 14 Morphological richness and priority of pragmatics over semantics in Italian, Arabic, German and English diminutives 335
- 15 Diminutive variation in Austrian Standard German: A corpuslinguistic study 363
- 16 Gender discrepancies and evaluative gender shift: A cross-linguistic study within Distributed Morphology 387
- Index 415
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction: Diminutives across languages, theoretical frameworks and linguistic domains 1
-
Part I: Theoretical approaches to diminutive formation
- 2 On a low and a high position for diminutive non-manual markers in Italian Sign Language 37
- 3 Diminutive or singulative? The suffixes -in and -k in Russian 65
- 4 Slavic diminutive morphology: An interplay of scope, templates and paradigms 89
- 5 Diminutive formation in Spanish: Evidence for word morphology 115
- 6 The syllable as the basis for word formation: Evidence from diminutives, hypocoristics and clippings in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish and French 131
-
Part II: Corpus-based and other empirical studies
- 7 The Swedish suffix -is and its place within evaluative morphology 153
- 8 Diminutives and number: Theoretical predictions and empirical evidence from German in Austria 179
- 9 Diminutive verbs in the Austrian language area: Morphological and semantic challenges 205
- 10 Challenges in analyzing Polish diminutives 231
- 11 Diminutives among other -k(a) words in colloquial Russian: Frequency and suffix variation 253
-
Part III: Sociolinguistic, pragmatic and acquisitional studies
- 12 Borrowed or inspired? Komi diminutive under Russian influence 277
- 13 Acquisition of diminutives in Russian and Estonian from a typological perspective 305
- 14 Morphological richness and priority of pragmatics over semantics in Italian, Arabic, German and English diminutives 335
- 15 Diminutive variation in Austrian Standard German: A corpuslinguistic study 363
- 16 Gender discrepancies and evaluative gender shift: A cross-linguistic study within Distributed Morphology 387
- Index 415
