THE SYNTACTIC EXPRESSION OF DIMINUTIVES IN ENGLISH, SPANISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

Abstract

This study examines the syntactic realization of diminutives in English, 
Spanish, and Uzbek. It demonstrates that English relies on adjective–noun 
constructions (“little + N”), Spanish utilizes productive diminutive suffixes (
ito/a, -illo/a), and Uzbek employs agglutinative suffixation (-cha, -jon, -gina) 
alongside syntactic modifiers. The findings highlight that diminutives 
function as both grammatical and pragmatic devices, reflecting the 
typological properties of each language.