The productivity of Dutch diminutives

Abstract

This study investigates the Dutch diminutive paradigm, with its five suffixal allomorphs (-je, -tje, -kje, -pje, -etje), in relation to the Tolerance Principle of dr. Charles Yang. The Tolerance Principle lets us determine if a system can be productive or not. By studying the frequency of the allomorphs and the environments in which they occur, we can determine if a productive rule system can be found for the Dutch diminutives. In order to collect the necessary data I conducted a corpus study and an experimental study (a WUG-test) on Dutch diminutives. Applying the Tolerance Principle to the resulting data, determined that a productive system can be found for the Dutch diminutive paradigm.