Evaluative morphology and semantic change. The process of subjectification of the suffix «?et/?eta» in Old Catalan

Abstract

The suffix -et/eta has three values in contemporary Catalan: (a) a less subjective one, by which it modifies the extension or intensity of the meaning denoted by the lexeme; (b) a subjective one, by which it positively or negatively evaluates the lexeme it modifies; and (c) some pragmatic values, with an intersubjective nature, linked to the expression of politeness or attenuation. This situation in synchrony is the result of a diachronic process of semantic change. To explain this situation, we have semantically analysed the suffix -et/-eta in Old Catalan with corpus data and explained the observed trends of change. According to the results, and following the trend of (inter)subjectification defined by E. C. Traugott, the suffix goes from values linked to dimension and extension during the 13th and 14th centuries, to developing more subjective nuclei especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, linked to subjective or emotional evaluation. And even from the end of the 15th century onwards, inter-subjective uses of the suffix are documented. We have explained the process as a result of the conventionalisation of conversational implicatures, the result of metonymies of cause & efect type.