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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?
But while I'm here: diminutive, augmentative, inchoative, nomen agentis (agentive), causative ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Wow, everything you ever wanted to know about affixes and lots of things you never wanted to know...
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.
The diminutive refers not to the affix or the word, but usually the referent.
Well, it refers also to the word in one sense, as in the word pookaroonie being a diminutive of the word pook. But the meaning of the word diminutive (in this context) comes from the referent if that's what you mean. It's called a diminutive not because it diminishes the word, but because it diminishes the person the word stands for. A nickname diminishes a person's social standing. It makes them lesser in relation to you.
A diminutive can be formed by changing or subtracting from a word as well by adding an affix. Bill is a diminutive of William. But Billy is a further diminutive of Bill.
Last edited by The Pook; 02/23/2008 3:37 AM.
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