Semantics of diminutive suffixes in the perception of native speakers of the Russian language: influence of contextual and social factors

The paper describes the results of experimental studies conducted using the hardware methods of the E-Prime program on three interrelated problems: can native speakers determine emotional and evaluative components of the semantics of a diminutive suffix outside the context of its actualization; сan the external context influence their perception; can the interpretation of diminutive suffixes in the researched positions by the subjects be gender-determined. Psycholinguistically relevant results are correlated with the data obtained in the analysis of the diminutive word-formation in the structural and functional-communicative paradigms. The authors collected data on the type of response of subjects, based on the evaluation of emotional evaluative meanings of diminutive suffixes using the E-Prime program. Two experimental series were conducted. In the first experiment, the target design units were pseudowords with diminutive suffixes outside the external context. In the second experiment, the same stimuli were placed in contexts that differed in positive and negative evaluation. The authors used an equal number of men and women as respondents to measure the influence of gender factors on differences in the perception of diminutive suffixes. This study has shown some new results. First, statistically significant differences in the perception of groups of suffixes that correlate with the grouping of the deminutives in the academic grammars of the Russian language were identified. Secondly, socio-culturally conditioned gender differences in the processing of stimuli semantics were identified. A statistically significant result was obtained only when analyzing the processing of words with suffixes of negative semantics by male and female respondents. Female respondents who are more likely to perceive the emotional and expressive component of semantics, within the categorization framework, often choose extreme values of the positive and negative spectrum. Female respondents evaluate suffixes with positive semantics more positively and suffixes with negative semantics more negatively in comparison with the categorization of the same units by male respondents. The location of words with diminutive suffixes in a positive and negative context removes sociocultural differences. The categorization of suffixes is predictably changing: a suffix of one type, placed in a positive and negative context, is evaluated more positively or more negatively in accordance with the evaluation of the sentence. At the same time, the overall pattern of differences in the processing of suffix groups is preserved: suffixes with negative semantics are still negatively assessed, while suffixes with positive semantics are evaluated positively. In addition, the results of the conducted experiments demonstrated that the findings of structural, communicative and psycho-linguistic analysis are mutually verifiable.

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