Deminutywność, symilatywność i tautologia słowotwórcza w języku doby średniopolskiej (na materiale ze słownika M.A. Troca)
Diminutivity, similativity and word-formation tautology in Middle Polish (illustrated with data from M.A. Troc’s Dictionary)

Summary/Abstract: The text deals with the limitations of the categorization process of the classes of diminutive and similative derivatives in Middle Polish. The aim of the study was to identify the potential reasons for the blocking of the categorization processes of the historical classes of diminutives and similatives. The methodology and terminology used in the paper follows the achievements of the so-called “Katowice school of historical word-formation”. The 1764 trilingual dictionary by M.A. Troc (Volume 3, with Polish as the input language) was the main source of lexical material. Based on the analysis of the presented material, one can conclude that the linguistic awareness of the lexicographer, manifested through the organization of dictionary entries and the choice of foreign equivalents and their definitions, may shed a new light on the categorical system of historical derivatives. In lack of sufficient Polish-language contexts, the translational character of lexicographic sources lets us gain information about the semantic and stylistic value of Polish lexical units on the basis of their foreign equivalents or their foreign-language definitions provided by dictionaries. The category of diminutive names in the second half of the 18th century did not yet crystallize its dominants, and the class of similative names had a similar formal and semantic status. Both classes constituted products of sets that contained derivative units, assuming a diminishing or similative function. The factor that inhibited the process of the crystallization of the dominants in the mentioned classes was the extremely high level of word-formation tautology, which did not allow language users to identify the real functions of multifunctional formants with the basic consonants -k- and -c-.

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