[Lexicog] Pejorative suffixes

[Peter Kirk]

On 26/03/2005 10:04, Fritz Goerling wrote:

>Some pejorative suffixes carry over between
>European languages (Germanic and/or Latin)
>but are not as productive in the languages
>under question. I have a few questions about
>the following:
>
>-isch in German:
>
>männisch = mannish = hommasse (French)
>weibisch = effeminate = efféminé (French)
>kindisch = childish = enfantin (French)
>herrisch = domineering = dominateur (French)
>
>

But not Engl-isch and Brit-isch? ;-)

>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".

>-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.

>...
>
>How productive is pejorative -ling in English?
>
>

I don't think this is pejorative in English either, it is simply a
diminutive.
...

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

--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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