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Can diminutive meaning be expressed productively by a shift of noun class/gender?

Summary

Can diminutive function (i.e. smaller size) be marked by a shift of noun class? We are looking for morphemes in the sentence which vary depending on the noun used, and whether one of these morphemes can be used to change the meaning of a noun by adding the meaning ‘small’. This needs to be a productive pattern. Diminutive function often also entails other meanings, but it needs to minimally encode smaller size.

Procedure

1. Code 1 if the diminutive can be expressed productively by a shift of gender/noun class.
2. Code 0 if none of the language’s diminutive marking strategies involve a shift in gender or noun class.
3. Code 0 if the author is explicit that the language does not have gender/noun classes.
4. Code 0 if the diminutive can be expressed by a shift of gender/noun class but the pattern is not productive.
5. Code 0 if there are no diminutive markers in the language.
6. Code ? if it is not clear from the data whether diminutives involve a shift in noun class/gender.
7. Code ? if it is not clear how productive a noun class/gender expressed diminutive is, and if the discussion and data is limited.

Examples

Shona (ISO 639-3: sna, Glottolog: shon1251)

Coded 1. In the Bantu language Shona "The prefixes of classes 13 and 12 are used only in secondary function. Nouns with these prefixes all signify small things. Usually, these are regarded in a favourable light as pleasing to the eye, but sometimes the effect of these diminutives may be derogatory when the prefixes are used with a stem which otherwise indicates something large or important." (Fortune 1955: 94)

a. munhu        ka-munhu
   ‘person’     12-person 
                ‘small person’ (Fortune 1955: 94)

b. murume       ka-murume
   ‘man’        12-man 
                ‘small man’ (Fortune 1955: 94)

Pite Saami (ISO 639-3: sje, Glottolog: pite1240)

Coded 0. In Pite Saami, there is a diminutive suffix which attaches to the noun stem indicating smaller size. This diminutive is not expressed by a shift in gender/noun class.

ja  danne  vuojdni-v   unna   jåŋå-tja-v
and there  see-1SG.PST small  lingonberry-DIM-ACC.SG
‘And there I saw a little lingonberry.’ (Wilbur 2014: 196)

Further reading

Dahl, Östen. 2006. Diminutives and augmentatives. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 594–595. Second edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

References

Fortune, George. 1955. An analytical grammar of Shona. London: Longmans, Green & Co.

Wilbur, Joshua Karl. 2014. A grammar of Pite Saami. Berlin: Language Science Press.

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• GB053 Is there a noun class/gender system where animacy is a factor in class assignment?
• GB054 Is there a noun class/gender system where plant status is a factor in class assignment?
• GB187 Is there any productive diminutive marking on the noun (exclude marking by system of nominal classification only)?
• GB188 Is there any productive augmentative marking on the noun (exclude marking by system of nominal classification only)?
• GB192 Is there a noun class/gender system where a noun’s phonological properties are a factor in class assignment?
• GB314 Can augmentative meaning be expressed productively by a shift of gender/noun class?
• GB321 Is there a large class of nouns whose noun class/gender is not phonologically or semantically predictable?

Patron

Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins