Perspectives de linguistique de corpus sur les formations superlatives latines (-ISSIMUS) dans l'histoire du français - Research data

In this article, we analyze the development of the Latin suffix -issimus and its French equivalent -issime from a corpus linguistic perspective. For this purpose, we define three different periods in the history of the French language in the Frantext corpus and examine the frequency of -issime. By investigating Old and Middle French, Pre-classical and Classical French, as well as Modern French, we can show that there is a continuous increase in forms ending on -issime. However, the results also show that the increased use of these forms is mainly limited to some adjectives (such as sérénissime etc.). In addition, the findings underline the fact that the superlative forms on -issime (mainly as neologisms) are increasingly appearing in fictional writings nowadays, where they are used in a playful or ironic way.