Subject: 200

summary on reduplication a month before christmas ( in linguist vol-5 - 1354 ) i sent out a query about * reduplication * and how this strategy is grammaticalized in languages to convey some facet of * intensification * . this is a summary based on the 45 replies i received from linguist netters . allow me to thank you all collectively now , since i will not be referring to single respondents in the following discussion . the topic of reduplication interests me because i am writing on my phd on repetition with respect to intensification and iconicity in swedish . the point of departure in the original query were the claims found in lakoff & johnson ( metaphors we live by ; 1980 ) according to which reduplication may indicate : - plural or collective - intensification or increase - continuation or completion - diminution thus , ' more ' of physical linguistic ' form ' corresponds to ' more ' in the ' content ' of the reduplicated expression as opposed to a non-reduplicated form - - as an instance of diagrammatic iconicity ( or as a realization of the * conduit * metaphor in the terms of lakoff & johnson ) . there are reflections of the outlined principles in colloquial english in expressions like ' an old old man ' , ' the music got louder and louder ' , 's he talks talks talks ' , ' the ball bounced and bounced ' , ' there 's forms forms forms forms ' , ' it was sinking down down ' , etc . i originally mentioned , however , that these structures were * marked * in a language like english . the choice of words was perhaps not so lucky . what i meant by " marked " is that even if we may think that such expressions are frequent in casual speech , they are rare in more constrained contexts . a less marked way of intensifying would probably be to use a specific intensifier or quantifier , e . g . ' a very old man ' , ' talks a lot ' . i hope no one will be offended by this simplistic analysis , it is only leading us a bit beside the point . ( for a comprehensive account on " repetition in english " , see persson 1974 , univ . of uppsala , sw . ) i was in my query more after pointers to and examples of languages where reduplication as a means of * intensification * is an integrated , so to speak , a standard characteristic of the grammar . this was also , more or less , what i got . i will summarize the outcome in the following ; i am aware of that in most instances the " facts " are probably subject to qualification , but for the sake of clarity & brevity i will lay the examples ahead in a rather list-like manner . furthermore , the examples certainly represent only a sample of the languages in the world that have incorporated reduplication in their system . note that i have left out - - in order to make it all more illustrative - - possible tone marks and diacritics of the transliteration . 1 . plural or collective * in malay / bahasa ( indonesia ) , full word reduplication turns singular to plural : anak ' child ' anak-anak ' children ' * in nahuatl ( or " aztec " ) , prefixed reduplication with nouns conveys a plural meaning : cih-tli ' hare ' ( where ' cih - ' is the stem ) ci : cih-tli pl . - - moreover , there are no structurally distinct adjectives in nahuatl but certain " adjectival " suffixes that can take on a plural notion via reduplication : - pi : l diminutive suffix - pipi : l plural * hausa is cited to have reduplication in the formation of plurals of a limited set of nouns . * in japanese , reduplication may turn a noun to a collective , but the scope of this strategy is said to be marginal : hito ' person ' hitobito ' people ' kami ' god ' kamigami ' gods ' * in mandarin ( chinese ) , reduplication turns singular to collective ( but this is said to be rare ) : ren ' person ' renren ' people ' - - moreover , both in mandarin and cantonese * classifier * items may be reduplicated to convey " universal quantification " in contrast to more unique reference . this fits readily in the notion of intensification ( or augmentation ) : ge ren ' a person ' ( mandarin ) ge ge ren ' every person ' douh ' place , there ' ( cantonese ) douh-douh ' everywhere ' * dakotan patterns plurals of stative intransitive verbs with reduplication . this is said only to apply to instances with inanimate subjects though . north american languages in general may be of interest when considering reduplication but i am short of examples at present . following languages were mentioned in the replies , though : klamath , nez perce , sahaptin . 2 . intensification or increase * mandarin chinese intensifies adjectives with reduplication : xiao 's mall ' xiaoxiao ' very small ' gaoxing ' happy ' gaogaoxingxing ' very happy ' as you notice , with disyllabic adjectives the reduplication pattern is aabb . - - cantonese also uses reduplication for augmentation or emphasis . * turkish is , apparently , a point in case . reduplication of adjectives indicates intensification or increase in the following way : temiz ' clean ' tertemiz ' very clean ' dolu ' full ' dopdolu ' very full ' bos ' empty ' bosbos ' completely empty ' here we have prefixed reduplication accompanied with a binding consonant . interestingly , there do not seem to be " rules " for which binding consonant should be inserted in a given case . * hausa is cited to use reduplication in the intensification of adjectives . * celtic languages have full word reduplication to indicate intensification . the method is reminiscent of the case of english , but it may be more " integrated " in the grammar of the celtic ( are there any opinions about this ? ) . could the celtic model have influenced germanic languages so that we still today have rather similar reduplication in the colloquial registers ( just my own modest idea . . . ) ? here are some examples provided by netters : - - welsh : ty bach bach ' a very small house ' oglau cryf cryf ' a very strong smell ' - - gaelic : fada fada ' very long ' trua trua ' very pity ' - - breton : braz-braz ' very tall ' this is said to be common especially in negative sentences . * in colloquial russian reduplication / repetition of adj 's / adv 's has likewise an intensifying function . the use is probably stylistically similar to repetition in colloquial english , but it is said to be limited to * predicate * adjectives : belyj-belyj ' very white ' tixo-tixo ' very quietly ' * it was also pointed that finnish has prefixed reduplication in some intensified adjectival forms . this is true , indeed , but - - what it seems - - wholly lexicalized and non-productive . in any case , here are some examples i and my colleague enjoyed coming up with : taysi ' full ' ( umlaut a ) tapo-taysi ' completely full ' ( uml . a 's & o ) tyhja ' empty ' ( uml . a ) typo-tyhja ' compl . empty ' ( uml . a 's & o ) puhdas ' clean ' puti-puhdas ' compl . clean ' uusi ' new ' upo-uusi ' brand new ' pinta 's urface ' piri-pinta ' right on the surface ' suomalainen ' finnish ' supi-suomalainen ' purely finnish ' yksin ' alone ' ypo-yksin ' compl . alone ' ( uml . o ) tiessaan ' lost ' ( uml . a 's ) tipo-tiessaan ' compl . lost ' ( uml . a 's & o ) the prefixed items ' tapo ' , ' typo ' , ' tipo ' , 's upi ' , ' puti ' , ' piri ' , ' upo ' , ' ypo ' do not seem to mean anything , at least for the speakers today . it seems that the first vowel or the pair first consonant & vowel of the stem are reduplicated with a binding syllable that most often has a ' p ' and a vowel , e . g . : ta-po - taysi , ty-po - tyhja , u-po - uusi , y-po - yksin could this have been productive in some earlier stage of the language ? * finally , in classical ( only ? ) greek a small number of * verbs * may have reduplication to communicate some sort of intensifying , expressive or affective notions : pam-phain - ei ' it shines brightly ' ( ( * phan-phan - j-ei ) 3 . continuation or completion reduplication is , evidently , often used in the formation of present , progressive or perfective . i take here the view that present or progressive forms combine with * continuation * , whereas perfective forms communicate * completion * . it was nice to discover that " classical " linguistic tradition can offer fitting data here . it feels appropriate to begin with these examples . - - - * in sanskrit , the perfect stem is formed by reduplication : budh - ' know ' bubodh - perf . jan - ' born ' jajan - perf . aorist ( ' true perfect ' ) roots may also be formed by a kind of reduplication : jan - ajijana - ( aor . ) in addition , present stems may be formed by reduplication : bhii - 'd rink ' bibhii - pres . * classical greek uses partial reduplication , i . e . prefixation of the initial consonant of a verb plus the vowel ' e ' , in stems for perfect tenses : le-lu - k-a ' i have freed ' pe-poie : - k-a ' i have made ' ge-grap - tai ' it has been written ' if the root begins with a vowel , the vowel is augmented . furthermore , some common verbs take reduplication in their * present * tense ; the initial consonant is reduplicated with the vowel ' i ' : di-do : - mi ' i give / am giving ' gi-gno - mai ' i am becoming ' ti-the : - mi ' i am placing ' ( ( * thi-the : - mi ) * in latin , perfect forms may involve reduplication : curro ' run ' cucurri perf . - - - let us then go over to more living languages . * in hausa , reduplication applied to verbs in two different ways expresses completion or continuity respectively . modified suffixed reduplication gives an idea of * completed * action : cika ' fill ' cikakke compl . jefa ' throw ' jefaffe compl . prefixed reduplication communicates " something like continuity " , as expressed by the respondent : buga ' beat ' bubbuga ' keep on beating ' kira ' call ' kikkira ' call various people ' * in tagalog ( philippines ) , reduplication distinguishes * imperfective * actions from perfective : bili root of ' buy ' bibili irrealis imperfective upo root of 's it ' uupo irr . imp . kuha root of ' get ' kukuha irr . imp . some scholars call irrealis perfective * completed * aspect and irrealis imperfective * contemplated * aspect . this makes sense , since irrealis imperfective ' bibili ' seems to translate to ' will buy ' . * in wailevu / fijian ( austronesia ) , reduplication is used in so called " object defocusing " that involves repetition of the action and a progressive marker : au xau-ta na agone ' i carry the child ' au xau-xau jixo ' i ' m carrying now ' au dola-va na xaatuba ' i open the window ' au dola-dola jixo ' i ' m opening now ' moreover , in this language adjectives may be derived from verbs through reduplication . even if noted to be " not productive " , the process is fascinating : sava-ta ' wash - tr ' sava-sava - a ' clean ' the adjective could be understood to represent * completed * action , the result , in a way very similar to how the perfect participle works in , say , germanic : she has washed the cloth . - - ) a washed cloth * in nahuatl ( " aztec " ) , reduplication may affect the meaning of a verb in several ways . - - an action carried out in a " systematic " ( progressive ? ) way : tequi base for ' to slice ' or ' to hack ' te : tequi 's lice / carve something ' cho : ca ' weep ' cho : cho : ca ' weep continuously ' - - of the same base verbs , an action carried out in a " random " ( involving repetition ? ) way : tehtequi ' hack something up ' chohcho : ca ' to sob ' - - furthermore , reduplication may be recursive ( e . g . of ' weep continuously ' & 's ob ' respectively ) : cho : cho : cho : ca chohchohcho : ca - - verbs with certain morphologic characteristic may take on reduplication to indicate * repeated action * : tzili : ni ' make a metallic sound ' tzttzilica ' jingle ' tzitzilitza ' make something jingle ' * in afrikaans , reduplication applied to some verbs seems give a progressive idea : hy loop eet-eet ' he eats continuously while walking ' 4 . diminution there are not many examples of * diminution * in the total of replies . in a sense , the process of " making something smaller " could possibly go under the more general strategy of * intensification or increase * ( although it is literally about " decrease " ) . nevertheless , there were a couple of possibly fitting cases : * cantonese may use reduplication to convey * diminution * or * moderation * . * it was pointed that english ( ! ) has some " diminutive " reduplication in formations like ' itsy-bitsy ' , ' eensie - weensie ' , ' teeny-tiny ' . these carry the content ' very small ' , but they belong merely to the child-speak register . in any case , the examples are diagnostic of the diminutive case . 5 . other there are uses of reduplication that go beyond the suggested four categories above . with some restraint , some of these could perhaps be seen as slight offsprings of the more general principle of marking * plurality * . i do not go into detailed examples but mention some most common semantic categories : - - distributive reduplication : presupposes two or more referents that are taken separately ( type : ' one by one ' ) - - reflexive notions go naturally hand in hand with distributive ( type : ' one another ' ) - - the so called * delimitative aspect * , i . e . 'd oing something for a while ' , in mandarin and cantonese does not at first seem to fit in * continuity * or * completion * . however , the semantics of the delimitative aspect is said to encompass " implied repetition " : tai-tai ' take a look at ' ( cant . ) chang-chang ' have a taste ' ( man . ) shi-shi ' have a go ' ( man . ) what would seem logical to me is that a casual , temporally short action like ' take a look ' reaches its termination quicker than standard ' looking ' . i do n't know if this kind of an implicit sense of " rapid completion " could be the motivation of this reduplication ? - - - then there are numerous instances of reduplication that communicate * contrastive emphasis * . these do not necessarily combine with the above functional categories at all . the motivation of such reduplication is merely to * make a point * clearer . the ( american ) english " double " is a seemingly nice example of this : shall we rent a car car , or would you rather have a jeep ? of course , emphasis is a sort of * intensification * and , thus , it touches the theme of our discussion . * * * * now i think it 's time to close this rather lengthy summary . thanks for reading it . if you would like to add something to the discussion - - like comment on my suggestions - - , feel free to e-mail ( or snailmail ) the " stuff " directly to me . ( for literature , see below ) all the best for 1995 , - jan . jan lindstrom dept . of scandinavian languages pb 4 00014 helsinki university finland - - - literature in the end , i will give some bibliographic hints that were pointed to me ( sorry , the order is random ) : martin , samuel e . 1988 . a reference grammar of japanese . tuttle . tai , james . 1993 . iconicity : motivations in chinese grammar . in principles and prediction : the analysis of natural language , ed . by mushira eid & gregory iverson . benjamins . 153-174 . whitney , william dwight . 1896 . a sanskrit grammar . ( e . g . ) harvard university press . carnochan , j . c . 1957 . gemination in hausa . in studies in linguistic analysis , special vol . of the philological society . blackwell . schachter & otanes . 1972 . grammar of tagalog . university of california . moravcsik , edith a . 1978 . reduplicative constructions . in universals of human language , vol . 3 . word structure . ed . by j . h . greenberg et al . stanford university press . 297-334 . davis , stuart . 1988 . on the nature of internal reduplication . in hammond & noonan ( eds . ) , theoretical morphology : approaches in modern linguistics . academic press . 305-323 . li & thompson . mandarin chinese : a functional reference grammar . ( eg . pp . 28-36 ) newman , paul . 1989 . reduplicated nouns in hausa . journal of african languages and linguistics vol 8 nr 2 ( oct . ) . 115-132 . matthews & yip . 1994 . cantonese : a comprehensive grammar . routledge .
