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". The most recent major contribution and reference on reduplication is by Dariush Borbor's Dictionary of Reduplication which gives a comprehensive, classified listing of reduplicates in Arabic, Armenian, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish, the major languages of the Middle East and Iran. Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other occasional terms include cloning, doubling, duplication, repetition, and tautonymy (when it is used in biological taxonomies, such as Bison bison).
Typological description
Form Reduplication is often described phonologically in one of two ways: either (1) as reduplicated segments (sequences of consonants/vowels) or (2) as reduplicated prosodic units (syllables or moras). In addition to phonological description, reduplication often needs to be described morphologically as a reduplication of linguistic constituents (i.e. words, stems, roots). As a result, reduplication is interesting theoretically as it involves the interface between phonology and morphology. The base is the word (or part of 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:
Triplication occurs in other languages, e.g. Ewe, Shipibo, Twi, Mokilese, Min Nan (Hokkien), Stau. Sometimes gemination (i.e. the doubling of consonants or vowels) is considered to be a form of reduplication. The term dupleme has been used (after morpheme) 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 (CVC) sequence of a base, i.e. base+CVC:
Many languages often use both full and partial reduplication, as in the Motu example below:
Reduplicant position Reduplication may be initial (i.e. prefixal), final (i.e. suffixal), or internal (i.e. infixal), e.g. Initial reduplication in Agta (CV- prefix):
Final reduplication in Dakota (-CCV suffix):
Internal reduplication in Samoan (-CV- infix):
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 (left-to-right copying) or from the right edge (right-to-left copying). 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 (a Pama–Nyungan language of Australia):
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 (an Austroasiatic language of Malaysia):
A rare type of reduplication is found in Semai (an Austroasiatic language of Malaysia). "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 [oχ]. This can be written succinctly as -Coχ. Below are some examples:
[kaq] 'red' → [kaqkoχ] 'reddish' (kaq-k-oχ) [qʼan] 'yellow' → [qʼanqʼoχ] 'yellowish' (qʼan-qʼ-oχ) [jaʔ] 'water' → [jaʔjoχ] 'watery' (jaʔ-j-oχ) (Dayley 1985) Somali has a similar suffix that is used in forming the plural of some nouns: -aC (where C is the last consonant of the base):
[toɡ] 'ditch' → [toɡaɡ] 'ditches' (toɡ-a-ɡ) [ʕad] 'lump of meat' → [ʕadad] 'lumps of meat' (ʕad-a-d) [wɪːl] 'boy' → [wɪːlal] 'boys' (wɪːl-a-l) (Abraham 1964) This combination of reduplication and affixation is commonly referred to as fixed-segment reduplication. In Tohono O'odham initial reduplication also involves gemination of the first consonant in the distributive plural and in repetitive verbs:
[nowiu] 'ox' → [nonnowiu] 'ox (distributive)' (no-n-nowiu) [hódai] 'rock' → [hohhodai] 'rock (distributive)' (ho-h-hodai) [kow] 'dig out of ground (unitative)' → [kokkow] 'dig out of ground (repetitive)' (ko-k-kow) [ɡɨw] 'hit (unitative)' → [ɡɨɡɡɨw] 'hit (repetitive)' (ɡɨ-ɡ-ɡɨw) (Haugen forthcoming) Sometimes gemination can be analyzed as a type of reduplication.
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