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Can augmentative meaning be expressed productively by a shift of noun class/gender?
Summary
Can augmentative function be marked by a shift of noun class? This needs to be a productive pattern. Augmentative marking generally intensifies the noun (in size as well as various other properties). Here the augmentative construction must minimally be used to encode augmented size.
Procedure
- Code 1 if there are morphemes in the sentence which vary depend depending on the noun used, and these morphemes are a closed class of under about 30 (our definition of a gender system),
- And one of these morphemes can be used to change the meaning of a noun by adding the meaning ‘big’.
- Code 0 if the author is explicit that the language does not have gender/noun classes.
- Code 0 if the augmentative can be expressed by a shift of gender/noun class but the pattern is not productive.
- Code 0 if there are no augmentative markers in the language.
- Code ? if it is not clear from the data whether augmentatives can be expressed with a shift in gender/noun class.
Examples
Lunda (ISO 639-3: lun, Glottolog: lund1266)
Coded 1. "Classes 6, 7, and 11 noun prefixes ma-. chi- and lu- respectively may also be used derivationally with nouns from other classes to denote augmentative or derogation and command concords instead of the inherent noun class prefix... The prefix lu- replaces the original class prefix of noun to express enormity or large quantity." (Kawasha 2003: 92–93)
ñombi lu-ñombi
‘cow’ CL.11-cow
‘a big ox’ (Kawasha 2003: 93)
Hixkaryana (ISO 639-3: hix, Glottolog: hixk1239)
Coded 0. There is a phonologically bound augmentative marker on the noun marking larger size. This marker is unrelated to any noun class system (Derbyshire 1979: 83–84).
toto-ymo
person-AUG
‘the big man’ (Derbyshire 1979: 84)
Further reading
Dahl, Östen. 2006. Diminutives and augmentatives. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 594–595. Second edition. Oxford: Elsevier.
References
Derbyshire, Desmond C. 1979. *Hixkaryana syntax. London: University of London. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Kawasha, Boniface Kaumba. 2003. Lunda grammar: A morphosyntactic and semantic analysis. Eugene: University of Oregon. (Doctoral dissertation.)
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- GB187 Is there any productive diminutive marking on the noun (exclude marking by system of nominal classification only)?
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- GB192 Is there a noun class/gender system where a noun’s phonological properties are a factor in class assignment?
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Patron
Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins