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The diminutives they are suffixes that are added to words to indicate and denote a small condition. Thus a new word arises (adding the suffix) associated with the one that originated it, but with a new nuance, for example: little boy, little man, skinny.
The diminutive may be expressing the property of "small" in terms of objective physical size, although it is also frequently used to denote attachment or affection, or to soften or nuance any expression, almost as a courtesy formula.
There are diminutives of the general language and there are also some that circulate in more localized areas: this occurs because the diminutives do not make up a group that is too structured by the language, but rather they arise and are transmitted orally, in situations of familiarity.
The diminutives are generally used within very informal records: they rarely appear in a scientific publication or in a legal argument or in a communicative situation that pretends to be serious and formal.
If it is very necessary to express the smallness of something in a formal code, the common thing is to resort to the noun followed by an adjective such as 'small' or 'boy', which in turn can be emphasized by putting the adverb 'very' before it.
It can serve you:
- Augmentative, diminutive and derogatory adjectives
- Sentences with diminutive nouns
Examples of diminutives
Here a series of diminutives is listed, followed by a word in which they are applied:
- Ito. For example: truckito, boatito, kidito.
- Ita. For example: skinnyita, monthita, musicita.
- I quote. For example: trainI quote, boatI quote, askedI quote.
- Appointment. For example: fitsappointment, poorappointment, breadappointment.
- Eta. For example: pebeta, pizzeta, plazoleta.
- Et. For example: mozalbete, pebete, oldete.
- Use it. For example: chicuelo, locuelo, breaduelo.
- Uela. For example: womanuela, alleyuela, plazuela.
- Ín. For example: pelín, piolín, littleín.
- Ina. For example: chiquilina, littleina, little girlina.
- Illo. For example: kidillo, nudillo, benchillo.
- Illa. For example: trampilla, windowilla, cartilla.
- Ecillo. For example: maneasy, breadeasy.
- Ecilla. For example: blindecillamanecilla.
- Ico. For example: mocico, dogicobonico.
- Ica. For example: bookletica, patica,
- Ejo. For example: tipejo.
- Eja. For example: calleja, channeleja.
- Ucho. For example: flacucho, townucho.
- Ucha. For example: carucha, casucha.
More examples in: Diminutives with "cito" and "cita"
Characteristics of diminutives
- When diminutives are used in words that are not expected to have the attribute of smallness, a kind of contradiction arises whose direct effect is minimization., that is, they are perceived as being downplaying the term. For example, say little problem or little pain it is perceived as not so serious issues.
- Some suffixes can function as diminutives giving a certain derogatory nuance. For example: animalejo.
- In some countries of Central America and northern South America, the wordIn a bit, A diminutive of the time adverb ‘now’, it takes on the meaning of ‘immediately’ rather than ‘at this moment’.
- There are some words that appeared as diminutives of other terms, but over time they were lexicalized and acquired their own meanings. For example:handkerchief (diminutive of "cloth") or wipe (diminutive of "towel") or knob (diminutive of "pear").
- The antonym of diminutive is augmentative. In this case, the suffix gives a greater size or magnitude to a certain noun or adjective (for example: huge). Obviously, an augmentative word cannot be diminutive, at the same time that a diminutive word cannot be augmented.
- There are certain abstract-type adjectives, such as ‘beauty’ or ‘gravity’, that do not allow the possibility of being modified by suffixes to become diminutives.
