[Lingtyp] Evaluative morphology expressing "authenticity/prototypicality"

[Mira Ariel]

Dear Francesca and others,

I'm curious to know if these prototypicalization morphemes sometimes evolve an intensifying function later.

Bardenstein and I have a paper  in Studies in Language  46:2 (2022), where we trace the evolution of a number of intensifiers. Lo and behold, they evolve from expressions which narrow the application of the term to its central/prototpycal instances. Later on this narrower may evolve an intensifying function. We only discuss independent modifiers, but reduplication, even morphological one, can indicate intensification:

Hebrew:

Yafe        yafe                          
Beautiful   beautiful                       
'Central concept of beautiful (not 'more or less beautiful')'/'Very beautiful'        

Yefe.fe (lexical reduplication)                 
'Very beautiful'                             

Best,
Mira (Ariel)
________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Riccardo Giomi via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2024 9:07 PM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Evaluative morphology expressing "authenticity/prototypicality"

Dear Francesca (and all),

Leti (Austronesian) has an "exactness" marker -- which again, actually appears to be a clitic, but anyway:


  1.  a.    N-tivl=e.                b.   N-tivla.

           3.SG-flap=EXCT              3.SG-flap
           ‘It flaps.’                     ‘It sort of flaps.’
   
  (2) a.    vuar=lalavn=e            b.   vuar=lalavn
          big=mountain=EXCT           big=mountain
          ‘a big mountain’               ‘a sort of a big mountain’

van Engelenhoven, Aone, 2004. Leti, a Language of Southwest Maluku (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 211). KITLV Press, Leiden.

Best wishes,
Riccardo

Riccardo Giomi
Assistant Professor of Functional Linguistics
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Humanities: Department of Linguistics
Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Sent: 09 July 2024 19:44
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Evaluative morphology expressing "authenticity/prototypicality"

Dear Francesca,

Cabecar (Chibchan) has a a formative sí̱ with a twofold distribution:

a) As a derivational suffix on nouns, it means 'authentic', 'prototypical':

  1.  a. chíchi-sí̱

dog-auth

            ‘authentic dog’

b. ju-sí̱

house-auth

            ‘authentic/real/legitimate house (i.e. traditional Cabecar house)’

b) As an enclitic on adjectives, it means 'comparatively':

  1.  a. báá=sí̱

nice=cmpr

            ‘comparatively/truly nice’

b. daláá=sí̱

yellow=cmpr

            ‘genuinely yellow’

It fulfills this latter function in comparative constructions, too.

Best, Christian

--

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.:   +49/361/2113417
E-Post: christianw_lehmann at arcor.de<mailto:christianw_lehmann at arcor.de>
Web:    https://www.christianlehmann.eu<https://www.christianlehmann.eu/>
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