Abstract:
The article presents various opinions on whether diminutives are forms of other “basic” words or are language units with word status. We consider the types of definitions with which to present the lexical meaning of diminutives in the Bulgarian language glossary of numerous volumes. We are of the opinion that these are individual lexemes that are to be presented in dictionaries not (only) with structural definition, but also with semantic definition that reveals the diminutiveness type – quantitative (physical) or qualitative (evaluation) they express. The semantic definition shows that some nouns traditionally defined as diminutives, actually do not express either of these diminutiveness types and these should not be characterized as diminutives.
