Question on derivative nouns and adjectives

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aaatos
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Question on derivative nouns and adjectives

Post by aaatos »

An observation I made a while ago:
If X-ος is a neuter s-stem, then ὁμοιο-X-ής is an adjective meaning "of like X" or "having X to a similar extent".
Of course, this is not strictly speaking true, but it does hold for a fair number of X. Leafing through the LSJ, I found ὁμοιο-βαρής "of like weight", ὁμοιο-γενής "of like kind", ὁμοιο-ειδής "having like appearance", ὁμοιο-μερής "having similar parts", ὁμοιο-παθής "having like feelings (or qualities)", ὁμοιο-πλατής "having like breadth", ὁμοιο-σκελής "with similar legs", ὁμοιο-ταχής "of like speed".

In other words, this points towards a mechanism that was productive at some stage. My question: Has this been documented somewhere? In particular, I would like to know what the expert opinion is on whether (and if so at which stage) this mechanism might have been productive. I have looked in some of my grammars, but none of them mentioned this specific pattern. I would like to find more about it, and would like to know where I can find similar phenomena documented.

Another case in point (admittedly more trivial): for denominative verbs in -άζω and -ίζω we often find derivative nouns in -ασμός and -ισμός. The semantic relation seems to be that the nouns express the action or (sometimes) the result of the verb. Again, it would be nice to have a reference to corroborate this.

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ObsequiousNewt
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Re: Question on derivative nouns and adjectives

Post by ObsequiousNewt »

Sihler §300.

The meaning "of like X" was by no means restricted to that form of compound—compare also ὁμοίοθριξ "of like hair" or ὁμοιοσχήμων "of like form". This is, rather, actually the same type of compound—a suffixless third-declension bahuvrīhi adjective; however, like -μᾰ/-μων, -ος alternates to -ης (presumably from *es-s via Szemerényi's law.) Smyth also mentions the suffix (§888b) but doesn't ascribe it to -ος/-ης variation.
εἰς ἄκρον περ ὄρος βραδέως τε μόγις τ' ἀναβαίνων
γῆν ἀποπίπτουσαν ἔκ μεο θηέομαι

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ObsequiousNewt
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Re: Question on derivative nouns and adjectives

Post by ObsequiousNewt »

aaatos wrote:Another case in point (admittedly more trivial): for denominative verbs in -άζω and -ίζω we often find derivative nouns in -ασμός and -ισμός. The semantic relation seems to be that the nouns express the action or (sometimes) the result of the verb. Again, it would be nice to have a reference to corroborate this.
Smyth §840.5. This is quite simply just the stem -ῐδ-/-ᾰδ- with the suffix -μός, which is found in other verbs as well (albeit more rarely): διωγμός < διώκω, πταρμός < πτάρνυμαι.
εἰς ἄκρον περ ὄρος βραδέως τε μόγις τ' ἀναβαίνων
γῆν ἀποπίπτουσαν ἔκ μεο θηέομαι

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