Formation of Diminutives in English and Bangla: A Cross-linguistic Study

Abstract

Even though English and Bangla are geographically at an oceanic distance, the two languages have a genealogical connection. As members of the Indo-European (IE) language family, both the languages share some common features in the domains of lexis, grammar and morphology. At the same time, they have some dissimilar properties as well. The major purpose of this paper is to conduct a comaparative study on the formation of diminutives in English and Bangla. The processes of diminutive formation, in the parlance of linguistics, are known as diminutivization.

'Diminutive' literally means 'smallness'. Precisely speaking, it means 'small counterparts of the standard'. Diminutives have a variety of shades in terms of meanings. They can refer to intimacy, familiarity, contempt etc.

This paper explores the procedures of the formation of diminutives in English and Bangla. Affixation and compounding are among two frequently used word formation processes employed by the English language. Diminutives in English are mostly formed using the twin processes mentioned above. Bangla, on the other hand, apart from using affixation and compounding employs a number of other morphological and syntactic processes to form diminutives.

This article finds striking similarities between the two IE languages in the construction of diminutives. Interstingly enough, there are some curious language-specific differences in the processes of diminutivization in English and Bangla.