The morphoprosodic status of the suffixes -inho/-zinho, -mente and -íssimo in Brazilian Portuguese

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the morphological and prosodic formation of affixed structures of Brazilian Portuguese, in special those formed by -inho/-zinho, -mente and -íssimo, since these affixes seem to present a certain independency in relation to some processes of the language, as pretonic mid-vowels neutralization. We assume that, in general, the Portuguese affixes are joined, in the morphological level, to the root, and, in the prosodic level, to other unstressed syllables. The sufixes -inho/-zinho, -mente and -íssimo, however, provide evidence for a later attachment in grammar, it means, to the stem and to the prosodic word.