On the diminutive morpheme -gama in Ikema, a Ryukyuan language

要旨

Abstract Ikema is defined as ‘definitely endangered’ by UNESCO (2009) . The study examines an evaluative morpheme -gama used by old Ikema speakers aged 64 to 86 when speaking between Ikema speakers and when speaking Standard Japanese with outsiders. Descriptive grammar of Ikema ( Hayashi 2010 ; Hayashi 2013 inter alia ) has treated -gama as diminutive morpheme, representing smallness such as tui-gama ‘small bird’ or showing the affections to the base noun. The observations on naturally occurring data, however, revealed that the Ikema speakers barely used - gama by means of describing smallness: the most frequent use of -gama was found to be non-supplementary ( Shetter 1959 ) and carries various socio-pragmatic functions. The related meanings/functions of -gama are presented in radial category ( Lakoff 1987 ).

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