SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DIMINUTIVES AND AUGMENTATIVES IN MODERN SPANISH

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of meaning of diminutives and augmentatives in modern Spanish. The complex morphological and semantic characteristics of diminutives and augmentatives in the Spanish language contributes to a study of the relationship between the derivative (respectively, diminutive or augmentative) and the basic word. The tendency of diminutive and augmentative formations to semantic derivation, that is acquisition of new values without changing the form of the sign, and their frequent use in both informal and formal speech, including scientific and technical contexts, lead to the study of the mechanisms of formation of new conceptual meanings of these derivatives. The semantic derivation of diminutives and augmentatives is considered in the present paper in close connection with the morphological derivation, since the nature of the meaning of the derived word is directly dependent on the semantic features of the original word. Therefore the article aims to describe the category of meaning of diminutives and augmentatives, to analyse the types of semantic change and to propose a classification of semantic derivation. Such a classification of models of semantic derivation takes into account the level of semantic modifications, depending on whether the change of meaning takes place only within the derivative or the meaning of the derivative is determined by the semantic features of the primary lexical item.