Reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edward Sapir's: "Generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance." It is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality or intensification, and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used when a speaker adopts a tone more expressive or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not exclusively, iconic in meaning. It is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level of linguistic productivity varies. Examples can be found in language as old as Sumerian, where it was used in forming some color terms, e.g. babbar "white", kukku "black".
Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other occasional terms include cloning, doubling, duplication, repetition, and tautonymy.
Typological description
Form
Reduplication is often described phonologically in one of two ways: either as reduplicated segments or as reduplicated prosodic units. In addition to phonological description, reduplication often needs to be described morphologically as a reduplication of linguistic constituents. As a result, reduplication is interesting theoretically as it involves the interface between phonology and morphology.The base is the word that is to be copied. The reduplicated element is called the reduplicant, often abbreviated as RED or sometimes just R.
In reduplication, the reduplicant is most often repeated only once. In some languages, it can occur more than once, resulting in a tripled form, and not a duple as in most reduplication. Triplication is the term for this phenomenon of copying two times. Pingelapese has both forms. In this article, English translations of words are shown in apostrophes:
| Basic verb | Reduplication | Triplication |
| ' 'to sing' | ' 'singing' | ' 'still singing' |
| ' 'to sleep' | ' 'sleeping' | ' 'still sleeping' |
Triplication occurs in other languages, e.g. Ewe, Shipibo, Twi, Mokilese, Min Nan, Stau.
Sometimes gemination is considered to be a form of reduplication. The term dupleme has been used to refer to different types of reduplication that have the same meaning.
Full and partial
Full reduplication involves a reduplication of the entire word. For example, Kham derives reciprocal forms from reflexive forms by total reduplication:Another example is from Musqueam Halkomelem "dispositional" aspect formation:
Partial reduplication involves a reduplication of only part of the word. For example, Marshallese forms words meaning 'to wear X' by reduplicating the last consonant-vowel-consonant sequence of a base, i.e. base+''CVC:
Many languages often use both full and partial reduplication, as in the Motu example below:
| Base verb | Full reduplication | Partial reduplication |
| mahuta 'to sleep' | mahutamahuta 'to sleep constantly' | mamahuta'' 'to sleep ' |
Reduplicant position
Reduplication may be initial, final, or internal, e.g.Initial reduplication in Agta ':
Final reduplication in Dakota ':
Internal reduplication in Samoan :
Internal reduplication is much less common than the initial and final types.
Copying direction
A reduplicant can copy from either the left edge of a word or from the right edge. There is a tendency for prefixing reduplicants to copy left-to-right and for suffixing reduplicants to copy right-to-left:Initial L → R copying in Oykangand Kunjen :
Final R → L copying in Sirionó:
Copying from the other direction is possible although less common:
Initial R → L copying in Tillamook:
Final L → R copying in Chukchi:
Internal reduplication can also involve copying the beginning or end of the base. In Quileute, the first consonant of the base is copied and inserted after the first vowel of the base.
Internal L → R copying in Quileute:
In Temiar, the last consonant of the root is copied and inserted before the medial consonant of the root.
Internal R → L copying in Temiar :
A rare type of reduplication is found in Semai. "Expressive minor reduplication" is formed with an initial reduplicant that copies the first and last segment of the base:
With other morphological processes
All the examples above consist of only reduplication, which also often occurs with other phonological and morphological processes, such as vowel alternation, deletion and affixation of non-reduplicating material.For instance, in Tz'utujil a new '-ish' adjective form is derived from other words by suffixing the reduplicated first consonant of the base followed by the segment. This can be written succinctly as . Below are some examples:
- 'red' → 'reddish'
- 'yellow' → 'yellowish'
- 'water' → 'watery'
- 'ditch' → 'ditches'
- 'lump of meat' → 'lumps of meat'
- 'boy' → 'boys'
In Tohono O'odham initial reduplication also involves gemination of the first consonant in the distributive plural and in repetitive verbs:
- 'ox' → 'ox '
- 'rock' → 'rock '
- 'dig out of ground ' → 'dig out of ground '
- 'hit ' → 'hit '
Phonological processes, environment, and reduplicant-base relations
- overapplication
- underapplication
- backcopying – A putative phenomenon of over-application in the reduplicant of a process triggered by the reduplicant in the base
- base-reduplicant "identity"
- tonal transfer/non-transfer
Function and meaning
- Malay rumah "house", rumah-rumah "houses".
The Nama language uses reduplication to increase the force of a verb: go, "look;", go-go "examine with attention".
Chinese and Japanese do not make morphological use of reduplication, but some words are formed this way, often with a collective sense: 人 rén "person", 人人 rénrén "everybody"; 時 toki "time", tokidoki 時々 "sometimes, from time to time". The iteration mark 々 can be used to indicate reduplication, although in Chinese the iteration mark is no longer used in standard writing and is often found only in calligraphy.
Indo-European languages formerly used reduplication to form a number of verb forms, especially in the preterite or perfect. In the older Indo-European languages, many such verbs survive:
- spondeo, spopondi
- λείπω, λέλοιπα
- δέρκομαι, δέδορκα
- háitan, haíháit
Reduplication can be used to refer to the most prototypical instance of a word's meaning. In such a case, it is called contrastive focus reduplication. Finnish colloquial speech uses the process; nouns can be reduplicated to indicate genuinity, completeness, originality and being uncomplicated, as opposed to being fake, incomplete, complicated or fussy. It can be thought as compound word formation. For example, Söin jäätelöä ja karkkia, sekä tietysti ruokaruokaa. "I ate ice cream and candy, and of course food-food". Here, "food-food" is contrasted to "junk-food". One may say, "En ollut eilen koulussa, koska olin kipeä. Siis kipeäkipeä" ; that means that one was actually suffering from an illness instead of making up excuses, as usual.
- ruoka "food", ruokaruoka "proper food", as opposed to snacks
- peli "game", pelipeli "complete game", as opposed to a mod
- puhelin "phone", puhelinpuhelin "phone for talking", as opposed to a pocket computer
- kauas "far away", kauaskauas "unquestionably far away"
- koti "home", kotikoti "home of your parents", as opposed to one's current place of residence
In Swiss German, the verbs gah or goh "go", cho "come", la or lo "let" and aafa or aafo "begin" reduplicate when they are combined with other verbs.
In some Salishan languages, reduplication can mark both diminution and plurality, with one process being applied to each end of the word, as in the following example from Shuswap. Note that the transcription is not comparable to the IPA, but the reduplication of both initial and final portions of the root is clear: ṣōk!Emē'’n 'knife' reduplicated as ṣuk!ṣuk!Emen'’me’n 'plural small knives'. Reduplication has been found to be a major part of Salish languages.