Abstract
The article offers a concise overview of diminution in Norwegian. Diminutives belong to the domain of evaluation and are produced by means of various derivational processes that are studied under the label ‘evaluative morphology’ (Körtvélyessy, 2015). Some languages exhibit elaborated systems of evaluative markers (e.g. Polish, Italian or Dutch), whereas other (Norwegian, Swedish or Danish) have weak evaluative morphology. The article explores the possibilities for prefixal and suffixal diminutive derivation in Norwegian and discusses the semantics of evaluative morphology with reference to the works by Jurafsky (1996) and Dressler/Merlini Barberesi (1994). Periphrasis, a diminutivizing device in Norwegian that requires further study, is briefly mentioned.References
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