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Diminutive Interjections in Polish: The Case of (O)Jejku and (O)Jejciu!

Publication date: 24.03.2016

Studies in Polish Linguistics, Volume 10 (2015), Vol. 10, Issue 4, pp. 197 - 221

https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.15.009.1790

Authors

Dorota Lockyer
University of British Columbia
, Canada
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Titles

Diminutive Interjections in Polish: The Case of (O)Jejku and (O)Jejciu!

Abstract

The paper provides a corpus analysis of diminutive interjections based on the National Corpus of Polish (NKJP) and the microblogging site Twitter to compare the collocations and emotional meanings of Polish interjections that contain the diminutive -k- affix, namely (o)jejku ( (o)jej). Diminutive interjections are an understudied area of Polish. Wierzbicka (1992) has labelled forms with -k- affixes as ‘children’s talk’; however, the collected data reveal that these forms may be used in more contexts than has been generally thought. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of frequent collocations and carried out here demonstrates a variety of meanings and pragmatic functions that they have in Polish. The results suggest that although the diminutive and non-diminutive interjections can appear in similar contexts, the diminutive forms display an additional emotional coloring not found in underived interjections, and also sometimes ‘softening’ of a negative emotion or situation. In addition, the results of the present study contribute to a better understanding of the use of less common forms of diminutives in contemporary Polish.

References

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Information

Information: Studies in Polish Linguistics, Volume 10 (2015), Vol. 10, Issue 4, pp. 197 - 221

Article type: Original article

Titles:

English:

Diminutive Interjections in Polish: The Case of (O)Jejku and (O)Jejciu!

Authors

University of British Columbia
Canada

Published at: 24.03.2016

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Dorota Lockyer (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English