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Morphosemantic features of Croatian suffixes -ik and -nik

If we consider suffixes -ik and -nik within the model of morphosemantic patterns (MP) (as developed by Raffaelli and Kerovec, 2008 and Raffaelli, 2012, 2013) it becomes evident that they exhibit some interesting morphosemantic patterns. First, within the MP model it is important to define morphological patterns that come into interplay in the formation of a new word. Thus, we can state that the two suffixes are productive in the formation of nouns from verbs, adjectives and nouns. The MP model, corresponding to some basic tenets of Cognitive Linguistics (especially Cognitive Grammar, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Theory of Metonymy), underlines that word formation cannot be explained in isolation from cognitive mechanisms such as metonymy and metaphor in the first place. From the point of view of MP, motivated words have to be regarded with respect to morphological processes as well as cognitive mechanisms that induced their formation. Unlike other similar approaches to word formation within CL, the MP model takes the semantics of the unmotivated word into consideration in a more detailed manner because it largely influences the morphosemantic status of the motivated word. Although praznik “holiday” and zlatnik “gold coin” share identical morphonological (and even prosodic) features, they do not share the same morphosemantic features because of the relations between unmotivated and motivated words. Zlatnik “gold coin” (from zlatan “golden”) is made of gold, whereas praznik “holiday” (from prazan “empty”) is not something that is empty, or made of emptiness.

morphosemantics; morphology; semantics; suffixes -ik and -nik; Croatian

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