Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rivalry and Lack of Blocking Among Italian and German Diminutives in Adult and Child Language

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation

Part of the book series: Studies in Morphology ((SUMO,volume 5))

Abstract

This contribution deals with competition (rivalry) between diminutive suffixations in (Austrian) German and Italian adult language and child speech and the motivation of differences in terms of productivity and degree of morphosemantic transparency/opacity of the respective diminutives. For this purpose productivity, availability and profitability are differentiated, a scale of morphosemantic transparency/opacity is established which ranges from full transparency (degree 1), over slight pragmatic restrictions (degree 2), to total opacity (unless in metalinguistic reflections: degree 9) and fake decompositionality (degree 10). The degrees of transparency/opacity differ for different suffixations, in German also between compound and simplex diminutives. Longitudinal studies of early child language show that child language is more transparent than adult language in types and tokens. In both there is competition between fully transparent suffixations (degree 1) without any pattern blocking or lexical blocking, because such diminutives are mainly formed and used for pragmatic reasons and never for the purpose of lexical enrichment. Since productivity, availability and profitability of diminutive formation is much higher in Italian than in German, there is much more competition between diminutive suffixations in Italian than in German adult language. This difference between the two languages is much less the case in early child language. Possible psycholinguistic consequences are mentioned in the outlook.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    This could also be said of word-final -er, thus allowing an alternative to haplology.

References

  • Alberti, Claudia, Nilda Ruimy, Giovanna Turrini, and Giampiero Zanchi. 1991. La donzelletta vien dalla donzella. Dizionario delle forme alterate della lingua italiana. Bologna: Zanichelli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Apothéloz, Denis, and Gilles Boyé, eds. 2004a. La compositionnalité en morphologie. Verbum 26, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004b. Remarques sur la compositionnalité en morphologie. Verbum 26: 375–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronoff, Mark. 1976. Word Formation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barz, Irmhild. 1983. Wortbedeutung und Wortbildungsbedeutung. Zeitschrift für Germanistik 4: 65–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, Laurie. 2001. Morphological Productivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag. 2013. The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bourque, Yves. 2014. Toward a Typology of Semantic Transparency: The Case of French Compounds. PhD thesis, University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bybee, Joan. 2010. Language, Usage and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, E.V. 1993. The Lexicon in Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, Greville. 2007. Canonical Typology, Suppletion, and Possible Words. Language 83: 8–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin, Danielle. 1987. Morphologie dérivationnelle et structuration du lexique. 2 vols. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cresti, Emanuela. 2000. Corpus di italiano parlato. Firenze: Accademia della Crusca.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crocco Galèas, Grazia, and Wolfgang U. Dressler. 1992. Trasparenza morfotattica e morfosemantica dei composti nominali più produttivi dell’italiano di oggi. In Atti del 25. Congresso Società di Linguistica Italiana, ed. Bruno Moretti, Dario Petrini, and Sandro Bianconi, 9–24. Roma: Bulzoni.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dal, Georgette, ed. 2003. La productivité morphologique en questions et en expérimentations. Langue Française 140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowty, David. 2007. Compositionality As an Empirical Problem. In Direct Compositionality, ed. Chris Barker and Pauline Jacobson, 23–101. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1985. On the Predictiveness of Natural Morphology. Linguistics 21: 321–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1989. Prototypical Differences Between Inflection and Derivation. Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 42: 3–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. On a Semiotic Theory of Preferences in Language. In Essays in Semiotic Analysis., The Peirce Semiotic Papers, ed. Michael Shapiro and Michael C. Haley, vol. 4, 389–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. Word-Formation in Natural Morphology. In Handbook of Word-Formation, ed. Pavel Štekauer and Rochelle Lieber, 267–284. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. Natural Morphology. Special Issue Folia Linguistica 40: 1–2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Productivity in Word Formation. In The Mental Lexicon: Core Perspectives, ed. Gonia Jarema and Gary Libben, 159–183. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U., and Katharina Korecky-Kröll. 2015. Evaluative Morphology and Language Acquisition. In Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, ed. Nicola Grandi and Lívia Körtvélyessy, 134–141. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U., and Mária Ladányi. 2000. Productivity in Word Formation (WF): A Morphological Approach. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 47: 103–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U., and Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi. 1994. Morphopragmatics: Diminutives and Intensifiers in Italian, German and Other Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2001. Morphopragmatics of Diminutives and Augmentatives: On the Priority of Pragmatics Over Semantics. In Perspectives on Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse, ed. Istvan Kenesei and Robert M. Harnish, 43–58. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U., Gary Libben, and Katharina Korecky-Kröll. 2014. Conflicting vs. Converging vs. Interdependent Motivations in Morphology. In Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage, ed. Brian MacWhinney, Andrej Malchukov, and Edith Moravcsik, 181–196. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U., Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi, Sonja Schwaiger, and Jutta Ransmayr. 2016. Skalierung der morphosemantischen Transparenz/Opazität deutscher und italienischer Diminutive. In Die Zukunft der Grammatik – Die Grammatik der Zukunft: Festschrift für Werner Abraham, ed. Elisabeth Leiss. Stuttgart: Stauffenburg Verlag In print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fortin, Antonio. 2011. The Morphology and Semantics of Expressive Affixes. PhD thesis, University of Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fradin, Bernard. 2009. Morphologie constructionnelle et sémantique. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 17: 89–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fradin, Bernard, Nabil Hathout, and Fanny Meunier. 2003. La suffixation en -et et la question de la productivité. Langue Française 140: 56–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frege, Gottlob. 1891. Function und Begriff. Jena: Pohle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardani, Francesco. 2013. Dynamics of Morphological Productivity: The Evolution of Noun Classes from Latin to Italian. Leiden: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Glauninger, Manfred M. 2005. Form und Funktion der -(er)l-Deminutive. Am Beispiel des Grazer Deutsch. Frankfurt: Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandi, Nicola. 2002. Morfologie in contatto. Le costruzioni valutative nelle lingue del Mediterraneo. Milano: Franco Angeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandi, Nicola, and Livia Körtvélyessy, eds. 2015. Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Repubblica: Corpus: http://dev.sslmit.unibo.it/corpora/corpora.php.

  • Israel, Michael. 2011. The Grammar of Polarity: Pragmatics, Sensitivity, and the Logic of Scales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kiefer, Ferenc. 2004. Morphopragmatic Phenomena in Hungarian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 51: 325–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimaszewska, Zofia. 1983. Diminutive und augmentative Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten des Niederländischen, Deutschen und Polnischen. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korecky-Kröll, K., and W.U. Dressler. 2007. Diminutives and Hypocoristics in Austrian German (AG). In The Acquisition of Diminutives: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, ed. Ineta Savickienė and Wolfgang U. Dressler, 207–230. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Korecky-Kröll, Katharina, Kumru Uzunkaya-Sharma, Christine Czinglar, and Wolfgang U. Dressler. 2016. Der Input im Elternhaus und Kindergarten als wichtiger Faktor für den Spracherwerb von austrotürkischen Kindern. In Migration und Integration – wissenschaftliche Perspektiven aus Österreich, Jahrbuch 3, ed. Jennifer Carvill Schellenbacher, Julia Dahlvik, Heinz Fassmann, and Christoph Reinprecht, 67–87. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Academic.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Libben, Gary. 1998. Semantic Transparency in the Processing of Compounds: Consequences for Representation, Processing and Impairment. Brain and Language 61: 30–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Compounds, Semantic Transparency and Morphological Transcendence. In New Impulses in Word Formation, ed. Susan Olsen, 212–232. Hamburg: Buske.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindsay, Mark, and Mark Aronoff. 2015. Natural Selection in Self-organizing Morphological Systems. In Morphology in Toulouse, ed. Nabil Hathout, Fabio Montermini, and Jesse Tseng, 133–153. München: Lincom Europa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malicka-Kleparska, Anna. 1985. Parallel Derivation and Lexicalist Morphology: The Case of Polish Diminutivization. In Phono-Morphology. Studies in the Interaction of Phonology and Morphology, ed. Edmund Gussmann, 95–112. Lublin: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayerthaler, Willi. 1981. Morphologische Natürlichkeit. Wiesbaden: Athenaion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merlini Barbaresi, Lavinia. 2004. Alterazione. In La formazione delle parole in italiano, ed. Maria Grossmann and Franz Rainer, 264–292. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Evaluative Morphology and Pragmatics. In Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology, ed. Nicola Grandi and Lívia Körtvélyessy, 32–42. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motsch, Wolfgang. 1981. Der kreative Aspekt in der Wortbildung. In Wortbildung, eds. Leonhard Lipka and Hartmut Günther, 94–118. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Deutsche Wortbildung in Grundzügen. Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noccetti, Sabrina, Anna De Marco, Livia Tonelli, and Wolfgang U. Dressler. 2007. The Role of Diminutives in the Acquisition of Italian Morphology. In The Acquisition of Diminutives: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, ed. Ineta Savickienė and Wolfgang U. Dressler, 125–153. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ott, Dennis. 2011. Diminutive-Formation in German: Spelling Out the Classifier Analysis. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 14: 1–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paisà: Piattaforma per l’Apprendimento dell’italiano. 2010. http://www.corpusitaliano/it/it/index.html.

  • Peters, Ann M. 1985. Language Segmentation: Operating Principles for the Perception and Analysis of Language. In The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, ed. Dan I. Slobin, vol. 2, 1029–1067. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, Christopher. 2007. The Expressive Dimension. Theoretical Linguistics 33: 165–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainer, Franz. 1990. Appunti sui diminutive italiani in -etto e -ino. In Parallela 4: morfologia, ed. Monica Berretta, Piera Molinelli, and Ada Valentini, 207–218. Tübingen: Narr.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. Morphological Metaphysics: Virtual, Potential, and Actual Words. Word Structure 5: 165–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. Blocking. Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.33.

  • Rainer, Franz, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Francesco Gardani, and Hans Christian Luschützky. 2014. Morphology and Meaning: An Overview. In Morphology and Meaning, ed. Franz Rainer, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Francesco Gardani, and Hans Christian Luschützky, 4–46. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ransmayr, Jutta, Sonja Schwaiger, Matej Durco, Hannes Pirker, and Wolfgang U. Dressler. 2016. Graduierung der Transparenz von Diminutiven auf -chen: Eine korpuslinguistische Untersuchung. Deutsche Sprache 44: 261–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ransmayr, Jutta, Karlheinz Mörth, and Matej Durco. 2017. AMC (Austrian Media Corpus) – Korpusbasierte Forschungen zum österreichischen Deutsch. In Digitale Methoden der Korpusarbeit in Österreich. Beiträge von der 40. Österreichischen Linguiastiktagung, ed. Claudia Resch and Wolfgang U. Dressler. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savickiene, Ineta, and Wolfgang U. Dressler, eds. 2007. The acquisition of diminutives: A cross-linguistic perspective. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwaiger, Sonja, Jutta Ransmayr, Adrien Barbaresi, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, and Wolfgang U. Dressler. forthcoming. Diminutivvariation in österreichischen elektronischen Korpora. Tagung “Deutsch in Österreich. Variation – Perzeption – Kontakt”.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slobin, Dan I. 1985. Crosslinguistic Evidence for the Language-Making Capacity. In The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, ed. Dan I. Slobin, vol. 2, 1157–1249. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Štekauer, Pavol. 2005. Meaning Predictability in Word Formation. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sternefeld, Wolfgang, ed. 2007. Data in Generative Grammar. Theoretical Linguistics 33: 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajsner, Przemysław. forthcoming. On the Alleged Bankruptcy of Armchair Linguistics: Reassessing the Data Base for Generative Syntax. Plenary talk, 46th Poznań Linguistic Meeting.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talamo, Luigi, Chiara Celata, and Pier Marco Bertinetto. 2016. DerivaTario: An Annotated Lexicon of Italian Derivatives. Word Structure 9: 72–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wellmann, Hans. 1975. Deutsche Wortbildung. Typen und Tendenzen in der Gegenwartssprache: Das Substantiv. Düsseldorf: Schwann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werning, Markus, Wolfram Hinzen, and Edouard Machery, eds. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Compositionality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wurzel, W.U. 1984. Flexionsmorphologie und Natürlichkeit. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Hans Christian Luschützky and anonymous readers for their many valuable critical comments to earlier versions of our paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang U. Dressler, Sonja Schwaiger, Jutta Ransmayr, Sabine Sommer-Lolei & Katharina Korecky-Kröll

  2. Department of English, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi

Authors
  1. Wolfgang U. Dressler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sonja Schwaiger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jutta Ransmayr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sabine Sommer-Lolei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Katharina Korecky-Kröll
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wolfgang U. Dressler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Romance Languages, WU Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Franz Rainer

  2. Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Francesco Gardani

  3. Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang U. Dressler

  4. Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Hans Christian Luschützky

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dressler, W.U., Merlini Barbaresi, L., Schwaiger, S., Ransmayr, J., Sommer-Lolei, S., Korecky-Kröll, K. (2019). Rivalry and Lack of Blocking Among Italian and German Diminutives in Adult and Child Language. In: Rainer, F., Gardani, F., Dressler, W., Luschützky, H. (eds) Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation . Studies in Morphology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02550-2_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02550-2_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02549-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02550-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation