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In:Category Change from a Constructional Perspective
Edited by Kristel Van Goethem, Muriel Norde, Evie Coussé and Gudrun Vanderbauwhede
[Constructional Approaches to Language 20] 2018
► pp. 47–90

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Chapter 3
Derivation without category change

A network-based analysis of diminutive prefixoids in Dutch

Published online: 22 March 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.20.03nor
Abstract
Dutch derivational morphology is rich in intensifying prefixoids, i.e. morphemes that occur as independent lexemes but have an intensifying meaning when bound to adjectives or adverbs. A specific variant of these are diminutive prefixoid constructions such as bloedjeserieus (blood-dim-serious) ‘very serious’ or kletsjenat (splash-dim-wet) ‘very wet’. Unlike the regular derivational diminutive however, the diminutive morpheme lacks the ability to change category when added to a prefixoid, and its primary function is a pragmatic one of either emphasis or downtoning. In this paper, we will discuss the formal and semantic-pragmatic properties of the diminutive prefixoid construction, based on an empirical study into its synchronic distribution, as well as explore how prefixoid constructions may be organised in a constructional network.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical preliminaries
    • 2.1Construction Morphology
    • 2.2Constructional networks
    • 2.3Inheritance links and lateral links
  • 3.The present study
    • 3.1Sources and method
    • 3.2Results
      • 3.2.1Type and token frequencies
      • 3.2.2Sociolinguistic variables
        • 3.2.2.1Gender
        • 3.2.2.2Age
        • 3.2.2.3Region
    • 3.3Formal and semantic properties
      • 3.3.1Morphophonology
      • 3.3.2Part of speech of the diminutivised element
        • 3.3.2.1Prefixoids deriving from nouns
        • 3.3.2.2Prefixoids deriving from adjectives and adverbs
        • 3.3.2.3Prefixoids deriving from verbs
        • 3.3.2.4Prefixoids deriving from prepositions
        • 3.3.2.5Diminutivised prefixes
        • 3.3.2.6Prefixoids deriving from bound roots
      • 3.3.3Meaning
  • 4.A network analysis
    • 4.1Inheritance links and lateral links in the dpc network
    • 4.2A multiple source construction?
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (42)
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