Diminutive

Adiminutiveis a word obtained by modifying aroot wordto convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense ofintimacyorendearment,and sometimes to derogatorily belittle something or someone.Adiminutive form(abbreviatedDIM) is a word-formation device used to express such meanings. Adouble diminutiveis a diminutive form with two diminutive suffixes rather than one.

Purpose

Diminutives are often employed asnicknamesandpet nameswhen speaking to small children and when expressing extreme tenderness andintimacyto an adult. The opposite of the diminutive form is theaugmentative.

In some contexts, diminutives are also employed in apejorativesense to denote that someone or something is weak or childish. For example, one of the lastWestern Romanemperors wasRomulus Augustus,but his name was diminutivized to "Romulus Augustulus" to express his powerlessness.

Formation

In many languages, diminutives areword formsthat are formed from the root word byaffixation.In most languages, diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as "Tiny Tim",or" Little Dorrit ".

In most languages that form diminutives by affixation, this is aproductivepart of the language.For example, in Spanishgordocan be a nickname for someone who is overweight, and by adding an-itosuffix, it becomesgorditowhich is more affectionate. Examples for a double diminutive having two diminutive suffixes are in Polishdzwon→dzwonek→dzwoneczekor Italiancasa→casetta→casettina).

In English, the alteration of meaning is often conveyed throughclipping,making the words shorter and morecolloquial.Diminutives formed by addingaffixesin other languages are often longer and (as colloquial) not necessarily understood.

While many languages apply a grammatical diminutive tonouns,a few – including Slovak,Dutch,Spanish,Romanian,Latin,Polish,Bulgarian,Czech,RussianandEstonian– also use it foradjectives(in Polish:słodki→słodziutki→słodziuteńki) and even otherparts of speech(Ukrainianспати→спатки→спатоньки— to sleep or Slovakspať→spinkať→spinuškať— to sleep,bežať→bežkať— to run).

Diminutives inisolating languagesmaygrammaticalizestrategies other than suffixes or prefixes. InMandarin Chinese,for example, other than the nominal prefix tiểu -xiǎo-and nominal suffixes - nhi /- nhi-rand - tử-zi,reduplicationis aproductivestrategy, e.g.,Cữu→Cữu cữuandXem→Nhìn xem.In formalMandarinusage, the use of diminutives is relatively infrequent, as they tend to be considered to be rather colloquial than formal. SomeWu Chinesedialects use a tonal affix for nominal diminutives; that is, diminutives are formed by changing the tone of the word.

Examples

• Charliefrom Charles
• Chuckfrom Charles
• darlingfrom dear
• ducklingorduckiefrom duck
• cygnetfromOld Frenchcigne;Frenchcygne(both: swan)
• kittenfromMiddle Englishkitoun,Old Frenchchitoun,diminutive ofchat,cat
• ringletfrom ring
• doggiefrom dog
• fishiefrom fish

See also

• Affect (linguistics)
• Augmentative
• Comparison (grammar)
• Diminutives in Australian English
• Hypocorism(diminutives of given names)
• List of diminutives by language
• -ie ending