Diminutives (diminutive words) are markers of the speaker’s linguistic consciousness. They act as unique markers of gender consciousness, are perceived by men and women completely differently, and, as a rule, prevail in women’s speech. Usually used to express affection, love, politeness. It is interesting that, according to linguists, diminutive words are used by people who disguise their true intentions. Often this happens unconsciously. And such linguistic markers can mean completely opposite things and serve as a manifestation of both a benevolent and condescending-dismissive attitude. Diminutives not only convey a diminutive meaning, but in some cases express the emotional subjective attitude of the speaker (hereinafter, a quote from A. Saburov’s dissertation) “General Semantics diminutives - designation of an object that is small in volume or size. But the meaning of diminutiveness can also be accompanied by various emotional and expressive connotations. A typical model for describing the expression of diminutives is the binary model “affectionate - contemptuous”, which first appeared in M.V. Lomonosov and was repeated later in the works of N.I. Grech, F.I. Buslaev, A.A. Shakhmatov, etc. , using various terms (“derogatory”, “humiliating”, “dismissive”, etc.) V.V. Vinogradov describes the attitude expressed by the speaker using diminutives, not as a binary opposition, but as a more complex picture of “various shades of expression: sympathy, irony, neglect, anger, a motley and contradictory range of emotions and assessments." For complex shades, expressed terms: “affectionate-derogatory”, “derogatory-affectionate”, “ironically-endearing” “affectionate-familiar”. It is not uncommon to hear an adult addressing a child or in a story characteristics like: our dirty one/pig/piggy; Are you a fool? She’s frail with us, so she doesn’t play catch-up. You are my incompetent. Are you a coward, get up faster? Ew, stinker, quickly wipe your hands; Gluttonous woman! She is fat/skinny... As if there is nothing to complain about, loving, diminutive, affectionate, or not? Meanwhile, the child listens and absorbs, forms an opinion about himself based on the words of the adult. And then, why is he like this with us... she is this... and it’s not in vain that they say that if you call a person a pig, he will eventually grunt. Children always strive to correspond to the words and characteristics that significant adults attribute to them; the choice is ours, which sign (positive or negative) to attribute to these words. Respect your (and not only) children at any age! #childrenarethebestteachers#thoughtsloud