[Lexicog] pejoratives

[William J Poser]

I wonder if English -ish often forms pejoratives, even
if it is not intrinsically pejorative, as a result of
contrast with similar non-pejoratives? Fritz's examples
of "manish" and "womanish" suggest this. To me at least,
"manish" contrasts with "manly" and "womanish" with "womanly".
"manly" and "womanly" are positive, while "manish" and "womanish"
are pejorative. Similar is "childish" (pejorative) vs. "childlike"
(positive or neutral).

Japanese has what I think is a true pejorative counterpart of
-ish which is also somewhat unusual in that it begins with an intrinsically
geminated stop: -ppo-. It is conjugated as an "adjective", so the
non-past neutral affirmative citation form is -ppoi. Examples:

aburappoi	oily	     	<  abura	oil, fat
adappoi		coquettish	<  ada		charming
egarappoi	acrid		<  egara-	acrid
honeppoi	bony		<  hone		bone
kazeppoi	sniffly		<  kaze		(head)cold
kizappoi	affected	<  kiza		affectation
kodomoppoi	childish	<  kodomo	child
kuroppoi	blackish	<  kuro-	black
mizuppoi	watery		<  mizu		water
netuppoi	zealous		<  netu		zeal
okorippoi	touchy		<  okor-	get,be angry
rikutuppoi	argumentative	<  rikutu	reason,logic
simeppoi	be damp		<  simer-	become damp
wasureppoi	forgetful	<  wasure-	forget
yasuppoi	cheap,tawdry	<  yasu-	cheap
zokuppoi	vulgar		<  zoku		lay,vulgar

Bill

--
Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/ billposer at alum.mit.edu

--MuzoBz8KOnagVXUSAdBZFucG6FCcgVDsovNmRVo--



--
Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/ billposer at alum.mit.edu


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