Categorisation in morphology: the diminutive in Italian
المؤلف:
Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green
المصدر:
Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction
الجزء والصفحة:
C2P30
2025-11-25
21
Categorisation in morphology: the diminutive in Italian
In linguistics, the term ‘diminutive’ refers to an affix added to a word to convey the meaning ‘small’, and is also used to refer to a word formed by the addition of this affix. In Italian the diminutive suffix has a number of forms such as -ino,-etto, and -ello:
While a common meaning associated with this form is ‘physically small’, as in (1), this is not the only meaning. In the following example the diminutive signals affection rather than small size:
When applied to abstract nouns, the diminutive acquires a meaning of short temporal duration, reduced strength or reduced scale:
When the diminutive is suffixed to adjective or adverbs, it serves to reduce intensity or extent:
When the diminutive is added to verbs (the verbal diminutive suffixes are-icchiare and -ucchiare) a process of intermittent or poor quality is signalled:
What these examples illustrate is that the diminutive in Italian doesn’t have a single meaning associated with it, but instead constitutes a category of meanings which behave in a variety of distinct ways but nonetheless do appear to be related to one another. The category shares a related form and a related set of meanings: a reduction in size, quantity or quality. Hence, the category exhibits family resemblance.
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