Augmentative Definition - What it is, Meaning and Concept

The term augmentative can be used as adjective to qualify what increases (that is, increases or enlarges).usual term, however, is specifically linked to a type of affix.

A affix is a linguistic element that can be preceded, inserted or be postponed in a lexeme or in a word to produce a modification in its meaning .In the case of augmentatives, they are suffixes : affixes that appear at the end of the lexeme or word.

The augmentatives express an increase of the size , the intensity or the importance of what they modify.the most commonly used augmentants are –azo , –ona , –on , –aza , -ota and –ote .

Although these are the elements that are used, in general, to create augmentatives, there are others, specifically, although they are not so usual, we come across the endings-acho,-acha,-ton,-tona,-rron o-rrona, among others.Example would be the word "manton".

Numerous are the occasions in which the use of an augmentative is used to record that it is referring to something very important, of great quality.If, for example, you can say: “The last work of the director Alejandro Amenabar is a real movie.”In this way, it is clear that the film he has made is very good in every way.

In the same line of the aforementioned example are others such as:-“Malu is preparing a new album that, according to those who have heard it, is going to be a barrier that limits sales”.-“The one in charge of teaching the faculty the subject of History of the Contemporary World is a profesorazo ".-" The meeting that will be played by FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will be a great match.And it will allow to see the game of some of the best soccer players in the world like Messi , Luis Suarez or Cristiano Ronaldo.”

The mode of use of augmentatives varies according to the country .In this way, some concepts that are common in one nation can be strange in another.

An augmentative example is "problemazo" .In this case, the term "problem" is added with the augmentative suffix "Azo" to form the notion of "problemazo" : a big problem.If you can build expressions like "I don't know how we're going to solve this issue: it's a problem ! ”, “ I had a problem with the documentation of the car but, luckily, I could fix it ”.

“ Partidazo ” , "bowl" , "big guy" , "great body" and "dog" are other examples of augmentatives that they are frequently used in several regions : “Last night Brazil and Germany played a great game that ended with the triumph of the European team” , “Today we have a large bowl of lentils today ", " A big man tried to hit Juan ", " The actress surprised her body "," Sone that a dog was chasing me to bite me ”.

No less relevant is that, in addition to augmentative, there are the so-called superlatives.These are what they are going to do to increase the meaning of a term but to the greatest extent possible.An example can be established with the large adjective.it can be grandon while the superlative would be great.