Gouskova, MariaBobaljik, Jonathan2023-07-262022-01-14Gouskova, Maria, Jonathan Bobaljik. "The lexical core of a complex functional affix: Russian baby diminutive -onok." Nat Lang Linguist Theory 40, no. 4 (2022): 1075-1115. DOI: 10.1007/s11049-021-09530-10167-806X1573-0859https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37376610Like other syntactic elements, affixes are sometimes said to be heads or modifiers. In Russian, one suffix,-onok, can be either: as a head, it is a size diminutive denot- ing baby animals, and as a modifier, it is an evaluative with a dismissive/affectionate flavor. Various grammatical properties of this suffix differ between the two uses: gen- der, declension class, and interaction with suppletive alternations, both as target and trigger. We explore a reductionist account of these differences: the baby diminutive comprises a lexical morpheme plus a functional nominalizing head, while the eval- uative affix is the lexical morpheme alone. We contend that our account is superior to two conceivable alternatives: first, the view that these are homophonous but un- related affixes, and second, a cartographic alternative, whereby diminutives attach at different levels in a universal structure.en-USLinguistics and LanguageLanguage and LinguisticsJournal Article2023-07-2610.1007/s11049-021-09530-1