INSTANTIAL COMULATIVE USE: THE POTENTIAL OF THE DIMINUTIVE IN ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGY
Keywords:
diminutive, diminutive in English phraseology, diminutive forms, diminutive in Lewis Carroll’s poem.Abstract
Reiteration of a PU or its parts organised consecutively is not the only
technique of cohesion and enhancement. A cumulative concatenation of instantial
items in linear sequence may also achieve a cumulative effect by successive
reiterations of the same single pattern of instantial use over a larger stretch of
discourse. The Stylistic effect keeps increasing steadily in quantity, degree, or rate
of development, augmenting by successive additions. Incremental use of one
stylistic element gains a cumulative momentum of its own.
References
Cf.: the Latvian language can boast a wealth of diminutive suffixes in the lexical
system of Language (Endzelīns 1951; Rūķe-Draviņa 1959Rozenbergs 1983;
For use of diminutives in lexical endearments in English, see Mills (1995: 116–
.
As a synthetic language, Old English had a whole list of diminutive suffixes.
Chambers Etymological Dictionary of the English Language(1882: 576–
registers 13 diminutive suffixes; Nesfield (1924: 136) gives14.
Cf.: the role of diminutives as a derivational tool in the lexical system.
The example is taken from Bryan (2001: 36).
Dicky bird/dickybird/dicky – a small bird (used esp. by or to children) (Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English 1978: 302).
From Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
