Abstract:
In the first Russian grammars and in the Universal grammars, published in Russia in the 18th/19th c., the techniques of derivational modification were a constituent part of the description of word-formation. Some authors even regarded the rich repertoire of affixes with modificational meanings as a privilege of Russian (and the Slavic language family) compared to other languages. Since the very beginning, it has also been recognized that there is a specific connection between modificational meanings and the attitudes of the speakers towards the denotatum and/or the addressee, i. e. - in contemporary terms - an interplay of modification and pragmatics. This interrelation was increasingly highlighted in Slavic grammars for non-native speakers in the 19th c. and has become an indispensable issue in modern Slavic grammatography and lexicography as well as in theoretical research.
