Diminutive formation in Brazilian Portuguese: a survey

In a survey, 1,053 Brazilians provided the diminutive form of 60 test words. For example, given participants provided diminutives such as or Most responses involved the suffixes - and However, in many cases - and were given as well Statistical analysis revealed that the final phone and stress patter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics 2023-09, Vol.16 (2), p.503-529
Main Authors: Newell, Cristina, Ellingson Eddington, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Brazilian Portuguese
diminutive
Diminutives and augmentatives
morphology
Polls & surveys
Portuguese
questionnaire
Rural urban differences
Statistical analysis
Suffixes
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:In a survey, 1,053 Brazilians provided the diminutive form of 60 test words. For example, given participants provided diminutives such as or Most responses involved the suffixes - and However, in many cases - and were given as well Statistical analysis revealed that the final phone and stress pattern of the base word were the most important predictors of diminutive form. A number of age-apparent changes were observed suggesting that certain diminutive forms may be on their way out in words with a particular phonological shape or in certain states. The state of residence, often in interaction with another predictor, proved to be an influencing factor as well. However, similar diminutivization patterns did not hold between geographically contiguous states, but between states with similarly sized populations suggesting an urban versus rural divide in Brazil.
ISSN:1939-0238
2199-3386
DOI:10.1515/shll-2023-2018