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In a survey, 1,053 Brazilians provided the diminutive form of 60 test words. For example, given desconto participants provided diminutives such as descontinho or descontito. Most responses involved the suffixes -zinho and -inho. However, in many cases -zito and -ito were given as well. Statistical analysis revealed that the final phone and stress pattern of the base word were the most important predictors of diminutive form. A number of age-apparent changes were observed suggesting that certain diminutive forms may be on their way out in words with a particular phonological shape or in certain states. The state of residence, often in interaction with another predictor, proved to be an influencing factor as well. However, similar diminutivization patterns did not hold between geographically contiguous states, but between states with similarly sized populations suggesting an urban versus rural divide in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to revisit the essential dimensions of the suffix -inho in Portuguese, either in the European or in the Brazilian Portuguese, and analyzes some of the descriptions that have been made of them, in order to clarify (i) the systemic value of -inho in the word-formation network of the Portuguese language, and (ii) the values of use that it admits, due to several variables, such as: the nature of the base to which it connects, the intonation and the elocutive's intensity with which it is used, the illocutionary intentionality of the speaker, the evaluative value to be transmitted, the formal, informal, ironic and situational context and message in which it occurs. It is important to differentiate the systemic values of the suffix from the values that the derivative in which it occurs conveys, due to the characteristics of the text and the linguistic situation in which it is used. In a text produced in ironic or sarcastic register, the whole message is permeated by these values, but it cannot be affirmed that the systemic value of the suffix is that of irony or sarcasm, classes that do not configure any derivational paradigm of Portuguese. Thus, besides to provide a categorization of the semantic-pragmatic values associated with the use of this suffix and to reanalyze some myths that persist in some of its descriptions, the elaboration of this text has also a pedagogical intention: to provide PL2 learners with an overview of the values and uses of the diminutive suffix -inho in Portuguese, that allows them to effectively use the suffix in their interaction with native speakers of Portugal or of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite the high communicative usefulness of diminutives and their interesting geolectal variation, they are paid only cursory attention in curricular and didactic materials of Spanish as a foreign or second language. In this article we analyse the treatment given to these suffixes in some three hundred materials on Spanish for foreigners, using as a reference the publications available to teachers and lusophone students in Brazil. We show how the morphological, semantic and pragmatic peculiarities of these Spanish suffixes are explained, and look at the activities proposed. We also consider and comment on their merits and inaccuracies and make what we hope are some interesting suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alfa: Revista de Lingüística is the property of Alfa: Revista de Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

So far, the available data on the Arikapú and Djeoromitxí languages of the Brazilian Amazon, which together form the Jabuti language family, have been too sparse to enable one to evaluate existing proposals for a genealogical classification. Recent descriptive fieldwork, however, has yielded information that strongly corroborates an early hypothesis of Nimuendajú (2000 [1935]) that the languages are related to those of the Jê family. In this article, we compare the reconstructed ancestors of both families, Proto-Jabutí (van der Voort 2007) and Proto-Jê (Ribeiro [forthcoming]), ultimately demonstrating that Nimuendajú was right. We also discuss some of the consequences of this discovery for current ideas about prehistoric population movements in lowland South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alfa: Revista de Lingüística is the property of Alfa: Revista de Linguistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Matses, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru and Brazil, has a set of 28 monosyllabic forms, representing mostly body parts, which are phonologically attached to the front of verbs, adjectives, and nouns. All Panoan languages seem to have a similar set of morphemes, and there is some controversy about whether these are prefixes or incorporated nouns. Here, this phenomenon is exemplified in detail for Matses, and I argue that while this process might have evolved from noun incorporation, synchronically it should be considered prefixation. This distinction is important for the synchronic interpretation of Matses prefixation as product of grammaticalization and for a comparative-historical perspective of these Panoan forms. Among the characteristics of Matses prefixation that are not consistent with noun incorporation is an applicative-like function, where the prefix allows into the clause an extra constituent that is in a Figure-Ground relation with absolutive arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]