The evaluative suffixoid -head and its Spanish and Italian equivalents

This study examines the evaluative morphology of the English suffixoid -head and its equivalents in Spanish and Italian. Adopting a construction morphology approach, the research focuses on the pejorative and human-related connotations in English [x-head]N constructions, such as crackhead or fathead. A quantitative/qualitative analysis using the itTenTen20 and esTenTen18 (in Sketch Engine), combined with a contrastive analysis in OPUS parallel corpora (OPUS2), reveals that, while English often uses suffixoids for negative evaluation, Spanish and Italian employ different morphological strategies, such as augmentatives, loose compounds, or syntactic constructs. The study further explores the morphosemantic features of equivalent constructions [cabeza de [x]N]N and [cabeza [x]A]N (in Sp.) and [testa di [x]N]N and [testa [x]A]N (in It.), comparing their meanings and productivity. The findings contribute to understanding how construction networks in languages from different families can converge in expressing similar evaluative frames – such as representing individuals with negative traits through body part references – while also highlighting structural preferences, such as the widespread use of N of N syntagmatic patterns in Romance languages. Importantly, the study acknowledges that these constructions are not inherently tied to negative evaluation or to the presence of the lexeme head, but rather reflect broader tendencies in phrase formation and semantic extension across languages.