I was searching the Russian National Corpus recently and in the results I noticed that nouns referring to duration in time are sometimes marked with a diminutive suffix, as in the following examples:
Посидела там часик и всё.
Я думаю, вам не помешает на недельку съездить в Инсбрук.
О нем поговорить так годика через два актуальней.
- When are these sorts of diminutive forms used? Are there certain verbs or constructions they are more likely to occur with?
- If so, can a non-diminutive form be used in these situations also? What is the difference in meaning between a diminutive form and a non-diminutive form in these contexts?