Evaluative morphology is by now a well-established domain of investigation. However, not all semantic functions performed by evaluative morphemes have been equally investigated: whereas functions such as diminution, augmentation and intensification have been studied quite extensively, others, like approximation, have received much less attention. Indeed, specific studies on approximative morphology are still sparse and recent (Masini & Micheli 2020, Van Goethem & Norde 2020) and mostly focused on specific forms, like -ish in English (Oltra-Massuet 2017; Eitelmann, Haugland & Haumann 2020).
At the same time, approximation has been at the center of interest of other subfields of linguistics, such as pragmatics and discourse studies. The latter, however, have not been paying much attention to morphological means to convey approximation (compared to other strategies such as discourse markers and particles), with the exception of diminutive markers used as attenuation strategies or being derived from approximative values.
ApproxiMo intends to bridge this gap by concentrating on the expression of approximation (intended as a complex functional domain including vagueness, non-prototypicality, attenuation, fakeness/imitation, etc.) by means of dedicated morphological means.
19 October 2021, h. 3-5 pm
Francesca Masini (University of Bologna), Muriel Norde (Humboldt University Berlin) & Kristel Van Goethem (F.R.S.-FNRS & Université catholique de Louvain)
ApproxiMo – Approximation in morphology. Introduction to the discontinuous workshop
15 December 2021, h. 3-5 pm
Yvonne Treis (CNRS-LLACAN)
The approximative derivation in Kambaata (Cushitic)
Silvia Micheli (University of Milano – Bicocca)
The emergence of approximative values in Italian para- and semi-: a diachronic study
18 January 2022, h. 3-5 pm
Jacopo Di Donato & Francesca Masini (University of Bologna)
Non-prototypicality by (discontinuous) reduplication: the N-non-N construction in Italian
Bert Cappelle (Université de Lille), Stefan Hartmann (Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf) & Robert Daugs (Christian Albrechts Universität zu Kiel)
The English privative prefixes near-, pseudo-, quasi- and sub: approximation and ‘disproximation’
8 February 2022, h. 2-4 pm
Daniel Ebner (Humboldt University Berlin)
Approximation in Finnish verbal morphology
Matthias Hüning (Freie Universität Berlin) & Barbara Schlücker (Universität Leipzig)
Approximation in West Germanic adjective derivation
15 March 2022, h. 2-4 pm
Gorgia Fotiadou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Francine Gerhart, Marie Lammert & Hélène Vassiliadou (University of Strasbourg)
Pseudo(-) in French and Greek: fakeness/imitation, non-prototypicality and attenuation
Matthias Eitelmann (University of Mainz) & Dagmar Haumann (University of Bergen)
Vague-ish language: approximative -ish vis-à-vis its approximating competitors
29 March 2022, h. 2-4 pm
Luisa Corona (Università degli Studi dell'Aquila) & Gina Russo(Università degli Studi di Salerno)
Italian deverbal verbs in -cchiare: a Manner of approximating
Nino Amiridze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University)
Verbs in approximation in Georgian
19 April 2022, h. 2-4 pm
Miriam Voghera (University of Salerno)
Vagueness Expressions from Time Nouns: the role of evaluative suffixes
Dejan Stosic (Université Toulouse) & Dany Amiot (Université de Lille)
Why morphological augmentation does not lead to approximation?
3 May 2022, h. 2-4 pm
Luisa Brucale (University of Palermo) & Egle Mocciaro (Masaryk University, Brno)
Approximation through suffixation: -ɖɖu/-a in Sicilian
Francesca Masini (University of Bologna), Muriel Norde (Humboldt University Berlin) & Kristel Van Goethem (F.R.S.-FNRS & Université catholique de Louvain)
Closing session