Abstract:
The semantic category of ‘diminutiveness’, verbally expressed by diminutive modification structures, is considered in relation to the derivational means of Bulgarian. Inherited from Proto-Slavonic, they make it possible to reveal interesting phenomena shared by the Slavonic languages. The derivational semantics of diminutives, which is revealed through their relation to the underlying words, is based on the denotative motif ‘diminutiveness’, but is not exhausted by it. This makes it possible for diminutives to display variability in the way they function in children’s speech, in the way adults speak to children, in literature, in dialects, etc.
