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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Hi Eva<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I’ve been doing some work recently on verbal number/pluractionality, particularly in some previously uninvestigated Papuan languages and in North American languages, and I’ve been struck
by the fact that in some languages the pluractional morphology seems to give a diminutive reading instead of the verbal number meaning. This intersection between verbal number and diminutives is something that has not been investigated, to my knowledge, so
I’m very pleased to hear of your project. I suggest thinking explicitly about verbal number, and I think it would be worth considering that the proposed aspectual functions you mention are actual verbal number, not aspect. It seems to me that some of the examples
you give may be verbal number, not diminutive. The Hebrew example seems to conform to that. The four Slavic examples, Croatian, Czech, Slovene and Russian, might also be – I’d be interested in knowing what the underived verbs mean in those cases, and ditto
with the Huave example. Maybe you and I could have a chat about this at some point. I’d be interested in hearing more about what you’re doing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">best<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Bill<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Lier, Eva van<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, 14 December 2018 11:34 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Dear colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We are looking for examples and literature on verbal diminutives in and across languages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Currently, we have some information on verbal diminutives in various languages. Some examples include: German
<i>hüsteln </i>(‘to cough lightly’), Italian <i>dormicchiare </i>(‘to doze’), Croatian
<i>grickati </i>(‘to nibble’), Czech <i>třepotat </i>(‘to flutter’),<i> </i>Slovene
<i>igričkati</i> (‘to play around’), Russian <i>xaxan’kat </i>(‘to giggle’), Finnish
<i>luk-ais-e </i>(‘skim through (a text)’ < <i>luk- </i>‘read’), San’ani Arabic <i>
tSaynai </i>(‘to pretend not to hear’ < <i>Saanaj </i>‘to not hear’), Hebrew <i>kifcec
</i>(‘to jump around < <i>kafac </i>‘to jump’), Passamaquoddy <i>ə̆pə-ss-ìn </i>(sit-<span style="font-variant:small-caps">dim-animate.intransitive.2</span> < ‘sit down, little one!’), Huave
<i>jujyuij </i>(‘to shake gently’), and Lardil</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">
<i>laala</i> (‘to jab lightly’ < <i>latha</i> ‘to spear’).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">These examples show that the morphological patterns that we subsume under “verbal diminutives” fulfill a number of semantic functions, such as iterative/frequentative/durative, low intensity, distributivity, and attenuation.
These functions may extend (pragmatically) to playfulness, tentativeness, pretense/irrealis/fictiveness, trivialization, aimlessness, affection/intimacy, and contempt/pejorativeness. In some cases (see Passamaquoddy above), verbal diminutive marking implies
that an event participant is a child or an otherwise small entity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Also, verbal diminutives can be expressed by various morphological means, including affixation, reduplication, and non-concatenative morphology. In some cases, the verbal diminutive markers are related to nominal diminutives;
in other cases, they seem to have different origins, such as spatial markers. The productivity of verbal diminutive formation apparently differs between languages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We would be grateful for any references and/or examples of verbal diminutives in the language(s) of your expertise, including their semantics/pragmatics, formation, (diachronic) origin, productivity and usage frequency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We will post a summary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Many thanks in advance!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL">Eva van Lier, Jenny Audring, Sterre Leufkens</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Eva van Lier, PhD<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Department of Linguistics<br>
University of Amsterdam<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier">www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL">P.C.Hoofthuis, kamer 6.45<br>
Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NL"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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