Eckhard Bick - VISL

Suffix combination rules is also used for outward compatibility checks,
especially before verbal inflexion endings (A,a,i,D,B,b,C,c). 'R' marks 'root only'
forms, mostly in unaccentuated root variants of accent-bearing words (or suffixes, of
course).
Below a commented list of suffixation examples is given. The suffixes in (4)
are typical word class changing suffixes, changing a verbal root into a noun (4a),
adjectives into nouns (4b) or place names into adjectives, while diminutives (DIM),
augmentatives (AU) and superlative suffixes (SUP) are word class "transparent" (5).
In (4d) the word class change is also inflexional, since deadjectival adverb derivation
is treated in the inflexion lexicon. (5a) and (5b) are among the most productive
suffixes in Portuguese. Loan words, of course, usually resist meaningful derivation
by Portuguese morphological rules, but sometimes shared etymology of affixation
elements allows derivative analyses even here. (5c) is such an example of a lucky hit
where loan word structure and native derivative intuition coincide.
(4a) pesquisador
"pesquisar" N M S
(4b) rotundidade
"rotunda" N F S
(4c) pernambucano
"Pernambuco" ADJ M S
(4d) temperamentalmente
"temperamento" ADV
(5a) fetozinho
"feto" N M S
(5b) rapidíssima
"rápido" ADJ F S
(5c) disquete
"disco" N M S
Of course, the international Latin-Greek "terminological" suffixes are productive in
Portuguese, too, both in the scientific or pseudoscientific register (6a, 6b), and in
everyday language, like in the political terms in (6c) and (6d).
Some suffixes, like '-ês' in (6e), seem, when used productively, to be
characteristic of a certain genre, or usage, like for instance - in this case -
"journalese" word games.
(6a) discografia
"disco" N F S
(6b) jazzófilos
"jazz" ADJ M P
(6c) presidencialista
"presidencial" N M/F S
(6d) federalização
"federal" N F S
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