Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian

The article describes some aspects of the evaluative morphology of Old Sicilian (14th–16th centuries), with a focus on suffixes that encode a pejorative meaning. Based on a survey of the ARTESIA corpus, we draw the semantic network of three suffixes inherited, as in other Romance languages, from Lat...

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Main Authors: Egle Mocciaro, Roberta Romeo
Format: Article
Language:Catalan
Published: Masaryk University 2024-10-01
Series:Études romanes de Brno
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Online Access:https://journals.phil.muni.cz/erb/article/view/39930
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author Egle Mocciaro
Roberta Romeo
author_facet Egle Mocciaro
Roberta Romeo
author_sort Egle Mocciaro
collection DOAJ
description The article describes some aspects of the evaluative morphology of Old Sicilian (14th–16th centuries), with a focus on suffixes that encode a pejorative meaning. Based on a survey of the ARTESIA corpus, we draw the semantic network of three suffixes inherited, as in other Romance languages, from Latin: -azzu, -a (< Lat. -ācĕus; cf. acquazza 'dirty water'), -astru, -a (< Lat. -āster; cf. figliastru 'stepson') and -uni, -a (< Lat. -(i)ō; cf. tuvagliuni 'rough tablecloth'). We adopted a semantic-pragmatic theoretical background, which allows us to describe the pejorative sense and, more generally, evaluative meanings as a strategy to indicate first of all a certain degree of deviation from a standard defined within a linguistic community. In this sense, evaluation is essentially a tool for organising linguistic categories in prototypical terms, that is, as having a centre and a periphery, in which increasingly marginal examples are placed.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1803-7399
2336-4416
language Catalan
publishDate 2024-10-01
publisher Masaryk University
record_format Article
series Études romanes de Brno
spelling doaj-art-9a0c1ac54b1c4dcbac7bc6e47357a8d12025-01-04T07:23:43ZcatMasaryk UniversityÉtudes romanes de Brno1803-73992336-44162024-10-0145310.5817/ERB2024-3-7Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old SicilianEgle MocciaroRoberta RomeoThe article describes some aspects of the evaluative morphology of Old Sicilian (14th–16th centuries), with a focus on suffixes that encode a pejorative meaning. Based on a survey of the ARTESIA corpus, we draw the semantic network of three suffixes inherited, as in other Romance languages, from Latin: -azzu, -a (< Lat. -ācĕus; cf. acquazza 'dirty water'), -astru, -a (< Lat. -āster; cf. figliastru 'stepson') and -uni, -a (< Lat. -(i)ō; cf. tuvagliuni 'rough tablecloth'). We adopted a semantic-pragmatic theoretical background, which allows us to describe the pejorative sense and, more generally, evaluative meanings as a strategy to indicate first of all a certain degree of deviation from a standard defined within a linguistic community. In this sense, evaluation is essentially a tool for organising linguistic categories in prototypical terms, that is, as having a centre and a periphery, in which increasingly marginal examples are placed.https://journals.phil.muni.cz/erb/article/view/39930evaluative morphologysuffixationpejorationcategory constructionOld Sicilian
spellingShingle Egle Mocciaro
Roberta Romeo
Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
Études romanes de Brno
evaluative morphology
suffixation
pejoration
category construction
Old Sicilian
title Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
title_full Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
title_fullStr Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
title_full_unstemmed Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
title_short Bad suffixes : morphological Pejoration in Old Sicilian
title_sort bad suffixes morphological pejoration in old sicilian
topic evaluative morphology
suffixation
pejoration
category construction
Old Sicilian
url https://journals.phil.muni.cz/erb/article/view/39930
work_keys_str_mv AT eglemocciaro badsuffixesmorphologicalpejorationinoldsicilian
AT robertaromeo badsuffixesmorphologicalpejorationinoldsicilian