[Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives

Fri Dec 14 18:59:15 UTC 2018

Verbal diminutives can be parasitic on nominal diminutives through the agency of participles and other deverbal nominals but can spread to true inflected verbs. This is a major avenue in spoken Arabic. Check out Catherine Taine-Cheikh on Mauritanian Hassaniya, for example (I'll leave the biblio searching to you!).
________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Eline Visser <eelienu at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2018 1:44 PM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives

Hi,

In Kalamang (kgv) verbal diminutives are formed with a prefix ko-. I have the following examples in my corpus:

ko-welenggap = DIM-be.green = be a little bit green, be of a colour close to green (but not quite)
ko-cicaun = DIM-be.small = be a little bit small, be quite small
ko-temun = DIM-be.big = be a little bit big, be quite big
ko-kaling = DIM-be.at.angle = be a little bit an angle

I am not (yet) aware of pragmatical extensions. This is not very frequent and not very productive, and only seems possible with static verbs that express meanings that are part of an adjectives class in other languages. As for the origin, I don't know. The prefix is homonymous with an applicative-like marker, but a diachronic connection there doesn't make much sense semantically I guess.

Eline

Op vr 14 dec. 2018 om 18:04 schreef <lingtyp-request at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp-request at listserv.linguistlist.org>>:
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Today's Topics:

   1. query: verbal diminutives (Lier, Eva van)
   2. Re: query: verbal diminutives (Dmitry Nikolaev)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2018 12:34:18 +0000
From: "Lier, Eva van" <E.H.vanLier at uva.nl<mailto:E.H.vanLier at uva.nl>>
To: "lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>"
        <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Subject: [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives
Message-ID: <63b22270770f44c0a38de514e968ca62 at uva.nl<mailto:63b22270770f44c0a38de514e968ca62 at uva.nl>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Dear colleagues,

We are looking for examples and literature on verbal diminutives in and across languages.

Currently, we have some information on verbal diminutives in various languages. Some examples include: German hüsteln (‘to cough lightly’), Italian dormicchiare (‘to doze’), Croatian grickati (‘to nibble’), Czech třepotat (‘to flutter’), Slovene igričkati (‘to play around’), Russian xaxan’kat (‘to giggle’), Finnish luk-ais-e (‘skim through (a text)’ < luk- ‘read’), San’ani Arabic tSaynai (‘to pretend not to hear’ < Saanaj ‘to not hear’), Hebrew kifcec (‘to jump around < kafac ‘to jump’), Passamaquoddy ə̆pə-ss-ìn (sit-dim-animate.intransitive.2 < ‘sit down, little one!’), Huave jujyuij (‘to shake gently’), and Lardil laala (‘to jab lightly’ < latha ‘to spear’).

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.

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.

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.

We will post a summary.

Many thanks in advance!

Eva van Lier, Jenny Audring, Sterre Leufkens

Eva van Lier, PhD
Department of Linguistics
University of Amsterdam

www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uva.nl%2Fprofiel%2Fe.h.vanlier&data=02%7C01%7C%7C46cb2cd9efd3464b862108d661f43f03%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636804099012348523&sdata=cQiEuLmFqVXVZjJPnW5UHCJNAJBsirhLqHTsmqZuLBM%3D&reserved=0><http://www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uva.nl%2Fprofiel%2Fe.h.vanlier&data=02%7C01%7C%7C46cb2cd9efd3464b862108d661f43f03%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636804099012348523&sdata=cQiEuLmFqVXVZjJPnW5UHCJNAJBsirhLqHTsmqZuLBM%3D&reserved=0>>

P.C.Hoofthuis, kamer 6.45
Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam

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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:59:08 +0200
From: Dmitry Nikolaev <dsnikolaev at gmail.com<mailto:dsnikolaev at gmail.com>>
To: "lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>"
        <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives
Message-ID:
        <CAHMCzMAgaDoZ=azEQBybQqcxKeSTZaY3s2F_S3wdAvabdjrMOg at mail.gmail.com<mailto:azEQBybQqcxKeSTZaY3s2F_S3wdAvabdjrMOg at mail.gmail.com>>
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A minor correction.

> Some examples include: German *hüsteln *(‘to cough lightly’), Italian
*dormicchiare *(‘to doze’), Croatian *grickati *(‘to nibble’), Czech *tr*
*̌epotat *(‘to flutter’), Slovene *igri**čkati* (‘to play around’), Russian
*xaxan’kat *(‘to giggle’)...

This is not standard Russian. I do not know this word, and the only example
I found in the corpus is from a novel depicting the speech of some highly
divergent northern dialect. The usual Russian verb for this meaning is
*xixikat**’.*

On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 at 14:34, Lier, Eva van <E.H.vanLier at uva.nl<mailto:E.H.vanLier at uva.nl>> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> We are looking for examples and literature on verbal diminutives in and
> across languages.
>
>
>
> Currently, we have some information on verbal diminutives in various
> languages. Some examples include: German *hüsteln *(‘to cough lightly’),
> Italian *dormicchiare *(‘to doze’), Croatian *grickati *(‘to nibble’),
> Czech *tr**̌epotat *(‘to flutter’), Slovene *igri**čkati* (‘to play
> around’), Russian *xaxan’kat *(‘to giggle’), Finnish *luk-ais-e *(‘skim
> through (a text)’ < *luk- *‘read’), San’ani Arabic * tSaynai *(‘to
> pretend not to hear’ < *Saanaj *‘to not hear’), Hebrew *kifcec *(‘to jump
> around < *kafac *‘to jump’), Passamaquoddy *ə̆p**ə-ss-**ìn *(sit-
> dim-animate.intransitive.2 < ‘sit down, little one!’), Huave *jujyuij *(‘to
> shake gently’), and Lardil *laala* (‘to jab lightly’ < *latha* ‘to
> spear’).
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> We will post a summary.
>
>
>
> Many thanks in advance!
>
>
>
> Eva van Lier, Jenny Audring, Sterre Leufkens
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Eva van Lier, PhD
>
> Department of Linguistics
> University of Amsterdam
>
>
>
> www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uva.nl%2Fprofiel%2Fe.h.vanlier&data=02%7C01%7C%7C46cb2cd9efd3464b862108d661f43f03%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636804099012348523&sdata=cQiEuLmFqVXVZjJPnW5UHCJNAJBsirhLqHTsmqZuLBM%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> P.C.Hoofthuis, kamer 6.45
> Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
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>
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