LATIN ARGUMENTATIVES IN BULGARIAN

Abstract

I consider Latin adjectives with the suffix –osus as augmentatives because they include the idea of a bigger quantity or a larger degree of the quality they indicate. When they are borrowed in Bulgarian the suffix is transformed to – озен: фамозен, одиозен etc. Unlike their Latin parallels, these adjectives always have a more or less pejorative connotation. As shown by the existence of such words like кичозен, спинозен, шикозен which are not of Latin origin, the pattern is productive in Bulgarian. Nevertheless, lately it has progressively been displaced by the prefixes super-, ultra-, mega-, hyper- and, in more informal speech, turbo-.