The Morphosyntactic and Semantic Basis of Diminution and Augmentation in Shinyiha

Nicholous Asheli

Abstract


Among the strategies used to express diminution and augmentation in Bantu
languages is the use of particular prefixes in the Bantu Languages’ Noun Class
System. Being one of the Bantu languages, Shinyiha has its ways of forming
diminutives and augmentatives. Some of the ways coincide with those found in
other Bantu languages. Yet other ways are unique to Shinyiha. To explore how
diminution and augmentation processes are effected and their semantic basis
in Shinyiha is the concern of this paper. The paper offers a description and
discussion of diminution and augmentation in terms of what noun classes are
used as well as what the diminutives and augmentatives mean in Shinyiha. In
summary, the paper is concerned with the morphosyntactic and semantic basis
of the two processes i.e. how the processes are morphosyntactically and
semantically realized. Guérois, et al (2017) ‘Parameters of Bantu
morphosyntactic variation’ are used to inform this paper, accounting for the
morphosyntactic aspects of the paper. To explain the semantic basis of
diminution and augmentation, Construal Operations proposed by Croft &
Cruse (2004) are used. The findings indicate that in Shinyiha diminution is
expressed by noun classes 7/8 and 12/13. On the other hand, augmentation is
expressed by noun classes 3/4 and 5/6. In each case different meanings are
expressed in addition to diminution and augmentation. It is concluded that
diminution and augmentation have semantic basis as they form part of human
communication strategies


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