Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Approbative
Words or grammatical forms that denote positive affects From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
In linguistics, approbatives are words or grammatical forms that denote a positive affect; that is, they express the appreciation or approval of the speaker.[1][2] !Claro! (Spanish) and "Gotcha!" (English) are examples.
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2025) |
Sometimes a term may begin as a pejorative word and eventually be adopted in an approbative sense. In historical linguistics, this phenomenon is known as amelioration. Examples from English include "punk", "nerd", "badass", "sick", and "killer".[3]
Remove ads
See also
Look up approbative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Laudative, or praising affect
- Pejorative, or negative affect
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads