Kvalitativní a nekvalitativní význam substantiv s příponou -ost
Qualitative and non-qualitative meaning of nouns with the suffix -ost

Summary/Abstract: The present study deals with Czech deadjectival derivates with the suffix -ost. In Czech linguistics, the suffix is described as a monofunctional suffix that derives names of qualities (e.g. sladkost ‘sweetness’; qualitative meaning). However, as the corpus data demonstrate that the suffix is commonly used for deriving names of bearers of quality (sladkost ‘sweet thing’; non-qualitative meaning) in contemporary Czech as well, we propose to consider both the names of qualities and the names of their bearers as direct deadjectival derivates with the suffix -ost. The proposal is supported by an analysis of large data from the SYN2010 corpus. The material documents that, first of all, there is a relation between the frequency of a noun with the suffix -ost and its usage in the non- -qualitative meaning and, secondly, that the existence of plural forms can be interpreted as a signal that the particular noun (except for the most frequent nouns) has a non- -qualitative meaning.

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