Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 39, Issue 4, 2015

This paper examines some of the problems which arise in connection with the question of whether or not reduplication is a language universal. The point of departure of the study is Moravcsik’s (1978) seminal paper on reduplicative constructions in cross-linguistic perspective. In the main body of the paper, the picture of the geo-linguistic distribution of reduplication that is painted in the World Atlas of Language Structures (Haspelmath et al. 2005) is critically evaluated. The results of the evaluation serve as background for the discussion of the current stalemate of opinions in the ongoing discussion of the supposed universality of reduplication. To resolve the impasse, a prototype-based approach is sketched which may allow us to recommence the collection of empirical data on an unprejudiced basis.

The topic of reduplication in Sinitic languages has attracted much attention in the literature, but studies adopting a comparative and areal perspective are still lacking. This paper aims to analyse the correlations between form and function in reduplicating constructions in a sample of twenty Sinitic languages, representing eight branches of the family, comparing them to a set of fourteen non-Sinitic languages of the East- and Southeast Asian area. We will show that the various semantic nuances conveyed by reduplicated verbs could be argued to derive from the core meaning of verbal reduplication as iteration of an event, either over a bounded or an unbounded timespan. On the structural level, a pervasive feature of reduplication lies in its compliance to strict requirements on the morphological makeup of the base. This holds especially in the case of the reduplication of disyllabic and bimorphemic verbs with increasing semantics, a consistent pattern across our sample.

Total Reduplication (henceforth TR) of the type exemplified by Modern Greek aspros aspros ‘white white’ “very white” and vima vima ‘step step’ “step by step” has an expressive dimension, mainly in that it is an optional strategy and it almost always has pragmatic connotations and effects (e.g. making a narration more vivid) (see, e.g., Zwicky & Pullum 1987; Beard & Volpe 2005). This paper poses the question whether TR can be viewed as a category of constructions that exclusively serve as expressive markers in Modern Greek (MG). I discuss the arguments and counterarguments to the idea that TR in MG can be described as a process of “expressive morphosyntax”, in parallel to Zwicky & Pullum’s (1987) notion of “expressive morphology” (which mainly refers to processes such as play languages, ideophones, and schm-reduplication). I also refer to a wide range of criteria of expressivity (involving functional as well as formal characteristics of expressives) in the relevant literature. The discussion points to an incomplete overlap between typical categories of expressives and TR. It also clarifies the senses in which TR is “expressive” and touches on issues of the status of TR in the grammar.

In this paper I discuss two types of total reduplication that prove to be productive in Contemporary German: real-X Reduplication (RXR) and Durative Reduplication (DR). The function of the former, RXR, is to restrict the meaning of a word to its prototypical content (cf. Buchbuch ‘book-book; real book, not an e-book’). Based on corpus data I address the question whether we are dealing with reduplication or with compounding here. As a result it will become apparent that the process of RXR, while showing some parallels to compounding, lacks crucial characteristics of compounding and is therefore to be seen as a case of reduplication. The latter type of total reduplication, DR, involves the doubling of a bare, inflectionless verb stem, thus encoding durativity of the denoted event or activity (cf. grummel-grummel ‘grumble-grumble, to be continuously grumbling’). Finally I sketch a path of diachronic development of the emergence of DR from ideophones.

Repetition is one of the most basic operations on talk, often discussed for its iconic meanings. Ideophones are marked words that depict sensory imagery, often identified by their reduplicated forms. Yet not all reduplication is iconic, and not all ideophones are reduplicated. This paper discusses the semantics and pragmatics of repeated talk with special reference to ideophones. To understand these phenomena, it is useful to distinguish two modes of representation in language — description and depiction — along with cues like prosodic foregrounding that help steer listener’s interpretations from one to the other. Reduplication can partake in both modes, which is why it is common in ideophones and other areas of grammar. Using evidence from a range of languages, this paper shows how the study of ideophones sheds light on the interpretation of repeated talk, and argues that both description and depiction are fundamental to understanding how language works.

This article explores the iconicity of Total Reduplication (TR) and considers how iconicity is manifested in the reduplication of object, event, and attribute-denoting forms in Caribbean Creole (CC) languages. We argue that TR naturally lends itself to a “more of the same content” interpretation, but that iconicity is nevertheless compromised by restrictions on the eligibility of simplex forms as input for TR, arbitrary gaps in the interpretations available for reduplicated forms, and in the frequently attested secondary, affective connotations of the process. Additionally, we point out that the view that the presence of TR and other reduplicative processes in CC languages results from substrate transfer is difficult to maintain in light of the failure to find good parallels for these processes in relevant substrate languages. Thus, the presumed simplicity of iconicity disintegrates upon closer scrutiny.

This paper focuses on the semantics of reduplicated forms. Apart from expressing plurality, intensity, distributivity, and other well-known iconic meanings, reduplication often derives forms that do not have quantitative differences from the original words. I propose that the relation between the original and reduplicated forms can be described not only through the notion of doubling, but also through inexact similarity. I further introduce a list of meanings that are based on the idea of similarity and are found in reduplicated forms in many languages. In particular, it concerns such functions of reduplication as a change of lexical class, expressing similarity and pejorativity. Attenuative and emphatic meanings of reduplication, as well as marking some oppositions in verbal systems, can be explained through the combination of the similarity and quantitative meanings. The main conclusion of the study is that the correlation between the form and the meaning of reduplicated forms is much stronger than is usually considered, and the notion of iconicity relating to reduplication should be significantly extended.