Iconicity in diminutives and augmentatives

Abstract This chapter aims to overview the position of iconicity in diminutives and augmentatives. They are understood as core semantic categories of evaluative morphology comprising complex words that result from a morphological process. Three types of iconicity, related to evaluative syntagmas, are discussed: (i) metaphorical iconicity,which underliesa qualitative re-evaluation of the quantitatively grounded diminutives andaugmentatives,andis also typical of elative compounds; (ii) constructional iconicity that accompanies each word-formation process; and (iii) imagic iconicity as a manifestation of size iconicity. All of them play an active role in coining evaluative syntagmas, frequently in their cooperation. This discussion is richly illustrated with examples to demonstrate the cross-linguistic nature of the examined phenomena.