УЛОГА ПРЕФИКСОИДА ПОЛУ- У ЛЕКСИЧКОМ СТЕПЕНОВАЊУ
THE ROLE OF THE PREFIXOID POLU- IN LEXICAL GRADATION (Based on the lexicon treated in Volume 22 of the SASA Dictionary)

Summary/Abstract: In the recently published Volume 22 of the SASA Dictionary, as many as 76 pages are devoted to lexemes containing the formative полу-, numbering more than 1,100 entries. Although the dictionary provides an extensive treatment of the meanings of this prefixoid, according to I. Klajn, the formative полу- generally has two meanings: a primary one, half (of something), and a secondary one, partial, incomplete, insuffi - cient, unfi nished. The secondary meaning refers to an incomplete degree of the quality expressed by the motivating word. When it denotes an incomplete manifestation of a property, the component полу- may introduce a pejorative meaning into the derivative (e.g., полуинтелектуалац ‘semi-intellectual’), but it can also serve as a formative means for expressing fi ne nuances of lexical gradation (e.g., лаж – полулаж – полуистина – истина ‘lie – half-lie – half-truth – truth’). This paper analyzes the ability of the prefixoid полу- to denote the degree of a property, particularly in cases where it marks non-lexicalized intermediate values between two antonyms. When a prefix such as без- (‘without’) or не- (‘un-, non-’) is added to the motivating word to produce a lexeme expressing the absolute absence of the property denoted by the base, the occurrence of полу- combined with such lexemes (e.g., полубесмислен, ‘semi-absurd’, полунезависност ‘semi-independence’) is unexpected yet semantically significant. The study demonstrates that the role of the prefixoid полу- lies in the gradation of possession or absence of a quality, or in emphasizing incompleteness. The emphasis on incompleteness is particularly evident when полу- is added to a lexeme already containing a prefix indicating partiality (e.g., полупритворити ‘to half-close’) or to a diminutive, whose suffix already suggests a weaker degree of the expressed feature (e.g., полубелкаст ‘semi-whitish’). The described lexemes with полу- attest to the exceptional potential of this formative element in expressing and levelling degrees of incompleteness of a property.

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