[Lexicog] Pejorative suffixes

David Tuggy david_tuggy at SIL.ORG
Sat Mar 26 16:10:53 UTC 2005


**Comments from David Tuggy below**

Peter Kirk wrote:

> On 26/03/2005 10:04, Fritz Goerling wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> >How productive is the pejorative suffix -ish
> >in English?
> >
> >
> >
> I don't think this suffix is pejorative in English, although "childish"
> is individually pejorative (contrast the positive "childlike"). Rather,
> in English -ish suggests a reduced amount of a quality e.g. "reddish" =
> a little bit red. A childish person is a little bit like a child, but
> not actually a child. And of course it also indicates nationality or
> language, as in "English".

**I both agree and disagree with you, Peter. (What else is new?) If you
take -ish as a whole, no, it is not pejorative. But that's like saying
that if you take -er as a whole, it is not agentive. I would also say
that if you take -ish as a whole it does not mean "possessing the
quality(ies) of the stem in diminished measure". But it does mean that,
as you point out, in many usages, and can be used productively with that
meaning, especially on adjectives but also on nouns. (E.g. if I said
something had "a grapefruitish flavor"I would expect to be understood to
mean "like that of a grapefruit [probably evaluated positively]".)
"Childish" is not unique in its negative overtones: "womanish", and
"mannish" are also pejorative, as is "girlish" in many usages (though
"boyish", interestingly, is likely to be positive), and "selfish", and
many other words, most of them built on stems denoting people. So a
pejorative sub-sense is well-established. Of course it often overlaps
with negative meanings already associated with the stem, as in
"slavish". The pejorative meaning can also be used productively: if I
were to describe someone as "nerdish" or "studdish", or as having a
"doctorish" manner, I would expect the words to be understood
negatively, in contrast to "nerdly", which would be relatively neutral,
and "studly" which is positive and only by sarcastic extension negative,
or "doctor-like", which would tend to be positive. I find it interesting
that the nationality/language sense, though extensively exemplified, is
not productive, in comparison with the -ese or especially the -an
suffixes with those meanings. The only -ish formation of this type that
I know of being coined in my lifetime is "Yerkish", the language taught
to chimpanzees at Yerkes, which was likely calqued on "Turkish".**

>
> >-aster in English
> >
> >criticaster = inferior or petty critic
> >poetaster = petty poet; writer of contemptible verses
> >philosophaster etc.
> >
> >This word formation seems quite procutive in English. ...
> >
> >
>
> If you mean "productive", I disagree. Indeed all of these words are so
> rare that I barely know them. I suspect (without checking) they go back
> to 18th-19th century neo-classicism, and are actually Greek words, or
> newly coined pseudo-Greek words based on a Greek model. Although it may
> be linked to your Spanish -astro.
>
**I agree, it is pedantic if not obsolete. Re -astro see below.**

> >...
> >
> >How productive is pejorative -ling in English?
> >
> >
>
> I don't think this is pejorative in English either, it is simply a
> diminutive.
> ...

**Though of course diminutives lend themselves to pejorative usages.
Calling someone a suckling or a stripling was not likely to be
complimentary. This is another near-obsolete suffix: I don't know of any
evidence for recent productivity, though there may be some.**

>
> >- astro: padre (father) --> padrastro = cruel, uncaring father

**Here in Mexico this is "stepfather", and does not at all strongly
connote that the stepfather is cruel or uncaring (though of course they
may be).  My Larousse does list "father who behaves badly towards his
children" as a figurative meaning. No such meaning is listed for
madrastra "stepmother", and I don't sense for madrastra the overtones of
cruelty that (wicked) stepmother has in English for me (perhaps from
reading the Grimms' fairy tales?).  Nor is a pejorative meaning listed
for hijastro "stepchild/son". -astro is not a common or productive affix
in Spanish: the Larousse doesn't list it even though it has several
pages of affixes listed.**



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