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OP (Reposted from the topic in another forum about dramatic pauses in music)Originally Posted By: The PookOriginally Posted By: zmjezhdinteresting how the word 'diminutive' refers to making something bigger, isn't it?
Diminutive affixes indicate smallness (and in some languages, connotations of cuteness): e.g., Italian or Spanish -ino, German -chen. Augmentative affixes indicate bigness (and in some languages, pejorative connotations): e.g., Italian -one.
Yes, that's interesting. Or like -shka -ski etc in Slavic languages.
The point I was making was that a 'diminutive' denotes not just the affix itself, but the resulting word, which is bigger than the word was before the affix was affixed. As in "Pookaroonie is a diminutive of Pook." It's an example of definition by usage. A diminutive has come to mean an affectionate nickname or something similar.
Regarding affixes and suffixes, I was always taught that an affix was a prefix and therefore the opposite of a suffix, which is added to the end of a word. But looking at the nearest dictionary to hand it seems that a prefix or a suffix is merely a subset of an affix, which is the term used to describe any addition to a word? How do others use those terms? And if this is so, does an affix include letters added in the middle of a word? Which would be called what? An infix?
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Diminutives, affixes, prefixes & suffixes The Pook 02/23/08 01:09 AM Re: Diminutives, affixes, prefixes & suffixes zmjezhd 02/23/08 02:23 AM Re: Diminutives, affixes, prefixes & suffixes The Pook 02/23/08 03:09 AM Re: Diminutives, affixes, prefixes & suffixes The Pook 02/23/08 03:36 AM
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