[Lexicog] Pejorative suffixes (more-ish)

[John Roberts]

Marc Fryd said:

> Is the following an adequate summary of the ongoing discussion?
> a) <-ish> carries a degree of imprecision, or approximation, which
> <-like/ly>,
> for instance, do not convey, expressing rather relative similarity of form
> (like-ness).
> b)"mannish" and "manlike" may equally express negative or positive values,
> in
> accordance with the cultural adequacy of bestowing the quality they convey
> upon
> the recipient in question. However, it is probably the case that
> "imprecision"
> (<-ish>)is more likely to be used in negative contexts and "resemblance"
> (<-like,-ly>) in neutral contexts.

Marc,

In all the discussion on "-ish" I didn't check what Quirk et al (1985) say
in their appendix and it is relevant to your question. For meaning, they
give two main senses: 1. (a) freely used with concrete nouns, 'somewhat
like' as in childish, monkeyish, foolish, roguish; (b) with adjective bases,
the meaning is 'somewhat', as in coldish, brownish; (c) with people's ages,
'approximately', as in sixtyish; cf. also 'She'll arrive about tenish'. 2.
with names of races, peoples, and languages, -ish forms nongradable
adjectives and (with respect to languages) nouns: Swedish, Cornish, Turkish.

Note that they give the 'approximate' sense first.

They also say in a footnote: "Where -like and -ish occur with the same base,
the latter is relatively pejorative and more remote from literal comparison.
In "manly", "manlike", "mannish", the first refers to physical or heroic
qualities (in a male), the second is a simile, usually applied to nonhumans,
the third refers to unwelcome masculine attributes (usually in a woman)." So
with reference to your summary, "-like" gives a neutral comparison, "-ly"
gives a comparison with positive connotations, and "-ish" gives a comparison
with negative connotations - at least when all apply to the same base.

However, I would still say it is the 'approximate' sense of "-ish" that is
primary and not the 'pejorative' sense. While many terms have been coined in
English with "-ish" 'pejorative' this usage does not appear to be
particularly productive in current English usage. At least I didn't see any
new "-ish" words in the The Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1998). This
gives 2000 new words that have appeared widely in English in the 1980s and
1990s. But, on the other hand, English speakers regularly and frequently
coin new adjectival "-ish" words with the 1 (b) 'somewhat' and (c)
'approximately' senses of Quirk et al above. So much so, that an English
speaker can readily say something like "I have finished my
dissertation -ish" and the hearer readily understands this to mean "I have
almost finished my dissertation." But this usage of "-ish" is not recorded
in The Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1998).

John Roberts




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