clipping plus s (was grandparents)

Lynne Murphy lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK
Mon Oct 23 15:06:53 UTC 2000


>And Lynne (or someone), where does the -s diminutive come from
>(historically)?
>
>Nancy

No idea, but my guess is that it's the plural 's', which is
interpreted as a diminutive because it implies having lots of little
parts.  Ok, maybe that's a bad guess.  Maybe they just like the sound
of it.

Lynne
--
M. Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 3AN    UK
phone:  +44(0)1273-678844
fax:    +44(0)1273-671320



More information about the Ads-l mailing list