A morpho-semantic study of the diminutive suffix –æk in Persian

Abstract

Diminution is a cognitive-mental process through which a core meaning of “smallness†and other connotative meanings are added to a linguistic form. The diminutive suffix –æk in Persian plays an active role in word-formation and is worthy of consideration. This study aims to provide a morpho-semantic and pragmatic analysis of –æk. The theoretical frameworks used are Jurafsky (1996) and Lakoff’s Radial category (1987). The data consists of 212 words ending in –æk which have been collected in two ways: 1) through a comprehensive search of Dehkhoda Dictionary (1998), and 2) based on the authors’ native intuition and interviews with some native speakers. The following are the findings of the study: 1) The concepts “child†and “small†are prototypical in words ending in –æk, and can be considered the core meanings. Other meanings, such as “similarityâ€, “a small type ofâ€, “relating toâ€, “place nameâ€, “type of diseaseâ€, “affectionâ€, “body jerksâ€, “disdainâ€, “plant nameâ€, “mockeryâ€, “bird/insect nameâ€, “agentâ€, and “sympathy†are extensions of the core meanings through the use of metaphor, inference, or generalization. 2) The suffix –æk is derivational and its input and output are mostly nominal; however, in some occasions, adjectives and verb stems can be inputs to word-formation processes involving –æk. 3) Jurafsky’s framework accounts for Persian data to a great extent. Nevertheless, some of the suggested concepts in his network are not applicable to Persian, and there are concepts in Persian that have not been included in his proposed semantic network, and thus his framework needs to be slightly modified.