The use of diminutive suffixes in child-centered situations is mainly determined by pragmatics. As pointed out by Dressler and Merlini Barbaresi (1994: 224), dimi- nutive suffixes are “firstly attributed to the nouns which describe the child, the parts of his body, or other objects which belong to that child”.
Lithuanian and Russian mothers usually use a high number of diminutives.
However, it should be noticed that the frequencies of diminutive usage may vary greatly. Under- or over-usage of emotional words depends on the communicative styles/strategies of families (see Dabašinskienė 2012 for Lithuanian; Protassova
& Voeikova 2007 and Kempe et al. 2007 for Russian). In Russia, some mothers and also fathers (especially young and educated ones) assume that children must not be condemned to the artificial, “bad taste” input. On the contrary, elder caregivers, especially grandmothers, are normally fond of using diminu- tives. However, in the only case when we could make calculations for the input from a Russian mother and a grandmother of the same child, the percentage of diminutives in their speech was comparably low in both cases, especially in the speech of the grandmother (grandmother, 34.9% of diminutive types vs. 27.8%
of diminutive tokens; mother, 40.9% of diminutive types vs. 35.5% of diminu- tive tokens). In other cases, their percentage may reach 50% in Russian CDS (Kempe et al. 2007), whereas in Russian CS, this percentage varies from 20%
to 35% (Protassova & Voeikova 2007). Lithuanian data also show differences in input as well as in output: from 35% to 50% in CDS and from 25% to 72%
in CS (Savickienė 2003, Dabašinskienė 2012) at the earliest periods of language acquisition (up to 3 years).
Diminutives in child language situations often occur in orders, requests, pro- hibitions, and questions: The use of diminutives mitigates the strictness of the
speech act. Lithuanian mothers and children often use diminutives in orders or requests, as in (2) and (3):
(2) Lithuanian
Atneš-k mam-yt-ei t-ą žaisl-iuk-ą.
bring-imp(2sg) mother-dim-dat.sg that-acc.sg toy-dim-acc.sg
‘Bring that toy to mother’ (in CDS);
(3) Lithuanian
Mama, staty-k, staty-k, mam-yt-e.
mother:voc build-imp(2sg) build-imp(2sg) mother-dim-voc
‘Mother, build up, build up, mother’ (in CS).
Quite often orders can be expressed indirectly, using the first-person plural verb form instead of imperative, as in tuoj eisime miegučio ‘(we) will go get some sleep:dim soon’.
In our Russian data, diminutives were used quite frequently in orders and requests as well, see (4) for CS and (5) for CDS:
(4) Russian
Postroj dom-ik, net, postroj dom-ik.
build:imp(2sg) house-dim(acc.sg) no build-imp(2sg) house-dim(acc.sg)
‘Build a little house, no, build a little house’.
(5) Russian
Vanja, nu podar-i mne kakuju-nibud’ mašin-k-u, Vanja, now give-imp(2sg) me.dat some car-dim-acc.sg
a to u menja netu.
since at me:gen no.
‘Vanja, give me any of the cars as a present because I have none’.
Since diminutive suffixes may be added to any noun in the sentence, we may attribute such uses to a feeling of special affection for the addressee. Our data suggest that such a style is more typical of girls than of boys.
Hypocoristics are chiefly used to express warm feelings, love, and kindness.
Nevertheless, the basic forms of names in our data are not rare at all. Actually, the names used by the mothers in the base form have acquired a different pragmatic value, compare the use of basic forms of personal names in (6) and (7) to their diminutive forms in (8) and (9).
(6) Lithuanian
Ne-kramty-k čiulptuk-o, Elvij-au.
neg-chew-imp(2sg) dummy-gen.sg Elvijus-voc
‘Don’t chew a dummy, Elvijus’.
(7) Lithuanian
Monik-a, padė-k į viet-ą.
Monika:voc put-imp(2sg) in place-acc.sg
‘Monika, put (this) back to where it belongs’.
In the situations referred to above, the mothers used the basic form of the name in order to discipline their children, whereas in other situations, the mothers use the diminutives mostly to emphasize their love and tender feelings, as in (8) and (9):
(8) Lithuanian
Taip ne-laksty-k, Elvij-uk-ai!
like.this neg-run-imp(2sg) Elvijus-dim-voc
‘Don’t run like this, Elvijus’.
(9) Lithuanian
Atei-k čia, Monik-ut-e.
come-imp(2sg) here Monika-dim-voc
‘Come here, Monika’.
Thus, the basic form of the name used in such situations acquires an entirely different, i.e., negative, pragmatic meaning (Savickienė & Dressler 2007). In Russian, the usage of basic forms is also unusual – hypocoristics are used in all everyday situations. This trend has morphophonological reasons: Masculine full names end with a consonant, thus violating the tendency for using open syllables. Disyllabic hypocoristics are usually shorter than simplex, compare Lisa from Elizaveta, Varja from Varvara, or Nastja from Anastasia and are close to the ideal shape of the Slavic word form con- taining a stem and an inflectional ending.9 Thus, in the whole high-density corpus of the boy Vanja, the full name of the child was never used. In Filipp’s corpus, different hypocoristics and diminutives of the boy’s name were used twice as frequently as his full name, compare (10) and (11) with hypocoristics and (12) with the simplex:
(10) Russian
Filip-uš-en’k-a, a chto ty interesnogo Filipp-dim-dim-nom.sg and what you(sg).nom interesting-gen.sg
segodnja vide-l?
today see-pst(sg.m)
‘Filipp, my little, have you seen something interesting today?’
9 The term inflectional ending is used here to distinguish the morphological markers from the final phonological part of the word that does not necessarily correspond to any inflectional suffix.
(11) Russian
Filip-uš-a, na odejal-e chto èt-o tak-oe?
Filipp-dim-nom.sg on blanket-loc.sg what this-nom.sg.n such-nom.sg.n
‘Filipp, my little, what is it here, on the blanket?’
(12) Russian
Filipp, ne nado.
Filipp not need
‘Filipp, don’t do it!’
As in Lithuanian, the base form of the name is rather used to discipline the child, whereas the usual form of addressing is hypocoristic or diminutive.
In Lithuanian, children also use hypocoristics quite frequently while addressing their mothers. Some utterances are actually demands directed to the mother to perform something expressed by an imperative verb form. In addition to the demand, a new nuance of discontent emerges indicated by the simplex form of the address. In the first utterance, the diminutive Mamyte, statom! ‘Mother-dim, let’s build’ appears as the first item, but the simplex Mama! follows immediately. Moreover, the simplex is used with a specific intonation conveying impatience, irritation, and discontent; obviously, all these emotions express negative connotations. Such difference in pragma- tic meaning is evident only when used with the children’s names and mama
‘mother’.
In Russian, gender-specific preferences are also observed. The boys do not form many diminutives from the word mama ‘mother’, whereas all the girls under observation use diminutive forms in 50% of cases. Varja has many different forms like mamaka, mamat’ka, mamuset’ka for addressing her mother, and similar diminutives and hypocoristics were used by Lisa. Lithuanian and Russian data show that hypocoristics usually appear as unmarked items, whereas simplex forms are marked in terms of the pragmatic meanings they express, such as seri- ousness, reprimand, or anger.
Another aspect of the pragmatic use of diminutives is related to situations that are unpleasant for the child. Mothers use diminutive forms and hypocoristics when they want to alleviate an unpleasant situation, as in (13) and (14).
(13) Lithuanian
Ei-si-m kirp-ti nag-uč-ius.
go-fut-1pl cut-inf nail-dim-acc.pl
‘(We) will go to cut nails’.
(14) Lithuanian
Reikia ger-ti vaist-uk-us
necessary drink-inf medicine-dim-acc.pl
‘It is necessary to take medicine’.
Compare similar use of diminutives in Russian (15 and 16):
(15) Russian
Sejčas tablet-očk-u prim-i!
now pill-dim-acc.sg take-imp(2sg)
‘Now take the little pill’.
(16) Russian
Volos-ik-i pričeš-em i bud-et Filj-a hair-dim-acc.pl comb-fut.1pl and be-fut.3sg Filja-nom.sg
krasiv-yj.
beautiful-nom.sg.m
‘Now we shall comb the little hair and Filja will be beautiful’.
Making children familiar with unpleasant but necessary procedures is mani- fested in a similar way in both languages.