What is reduplication in word formation

Reduplication doesn’t stop willy-nilly (i.e., all at once) once when language is acquired, though, and you might use reduplication as a type of wordplay in discourse (as seen in the previous sentence). English speakers might use several types of reduplication, but perhaps the most common is contrastive focus reduplication. This is where a speaker emphatically contrasts a concept with a prototypical version of itself.

In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even 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.»^[1] Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., 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. Reduplication is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level of linguistic productivity varies. Reduplication is found in a wide variety of languages, as exemplified below. Examples of it can be found at least as far back as Sumerian, where it was used in forming some color terms, e.g. babbar «white», kukku «black».^[2]

Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other terms that are occasionally used include cloning, doubling, duplication, repetition, and tautonym when it is used in biological taxonomies, such as Bison bison.

Typological description[edit]

Form[edit]

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. However, in some languages, reduplication 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.^[3] Pingelapese has both forms:^[4]

Basic verb	Reduplication	Triplication
kɔul  ‘to sing’	kɔukɔul  ‘singing’	kɔukɔukɔul  ‘still singing’
mejr  ‘to sleep’	mejmejr  ‘sleeping’	mejmejmejr  ‘still sleeping’

Triplication occurs in other languages, e.g. Ewe, Shipibo, Twi, Mokilese, Min Nan (Hokkien), Stau.^[3]

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 reduplication[edit]

Full reduplication involves a reduplication of the entire word. For example, Kham derives reciprocal forms from reflexive forms by total reduplication:

		[ɡin]	‘ourselves’	→	[ɡinɡin]	‘we (to) us’	(ɡin-ɡin)
		[jaː]	‘themselves’	→	[jaːjaː]	‘they (to) them’	(jaː-jaː)	(Watters 2002)

Another example is from Musqueam Halkomelem «dispositional» aspect formation:

		[kʼʷə́ɬ]	‘to capsize’	→	[kʼʷə́ɬkʼʷəɬ]	‘likely to capsize’	(kʼʷə́ɬ-kʼʷəɬ)
		[qʷél]	‘to speak’	→	[qʷélqʷel]	‘talkative’	(qʷél-qʷel)	(Shaw 2004)

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:

		kagir	‘belt’	→	kagirgir	‘to wear a belt’	(kagir-gir)
		takin	‘sock’	→	takinkin	‘to wear socks’	(takin-kin)	(Moravsik 1978)

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 (plural)’
	(mahuta-mahuta)	(ma-mahuta)

Reduplicant position[edit]

Reduplication may be initial (i.e. prefixal), final (i.e. suffixal), or internal (i.e. infixal), e.g.

Initial reduplication in Agta (CV- prefix):

		[ɸuɾab]	‘afternoon’	→	[ɸuɸuɾab]	‘late afternoon’	(ɸu-ɸuɾab)
		[ŋaŋaj]	‘a long time’	→	[ŋaŋaŋaj]	‘a long time (in years)’	(ŋa-ŋaŋaj)	(Healey 1960)

Final reduplication in Dakota (-CCV suffix):

		[hãska]	‘tall (singular)’	→	[hãskaska]	‘tall (plural)’	(hãska-ska)
		[waʃte]	‘good (singular)’	→	[waʃteʃte]	‘good (plural)’	(waʃte-ʃte)	(Shaw 1980, Marantz 1982, Albright 2002)

Internal reduplication in Samoan (-CV- infix):

		savali	‘he/she walks’ (singular)	→	savavali	‘they walk’ (plural)	(sa-va-vali)
		alofa	‘he/she loves’ (singular)	→	alolofa	‘they love’ (plural)	(a-lo-lofa)	(Moravcsik 1978, Broselow and McCarthy 1984)
		le tamaloa	‘the man’ (singular)[5]	→	tamaloloa	‘men’ (plural)	(tama-lo-loa)

Internal reduplication is much less common than the initial and final types.

Copying direction[edit]

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):

		[eder]	→	[ededer]	‘rain’	(ed—eder)
		[alɡal]	→	[alɡalɡal]	‘straight’	(alg—algal)

Final R → L copying in Sirionó:

		achisia	→	achisiasia	‘I cut’	(achisia—sia)
		ñimbuchao	→	ñimbuchaochao	‘to come apart’	(ñimbuchao—chao)	(McCarthy and Prince 1996)

Copying from the other direction is possible although less common:

Initial R → L copying in Tillamook:

		[ɡaɬ]	‘eye’	→	[ɬɡaɬ]	‘eyes’	(ɬ-ɡaɬ)
		[təq]	‘break’	→	[qtəq]	‘they break’	(q-təq)	(Reichard 1959)

Final L → R copying in Chukchi:

		nute-	‘ground’	→	nutenut	‘ground (abs. sg.)’	(nute-nut)
		jilʔe-	‘gopher’	→	jilʔejil	‘gopher (abs. sg.)’	(jilʔe-jil)	(Marantz 1982)

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:

		[tsiko]	‘he put it on’	→	[tsitsko]	‘he put it on (frequentative)’	(tsi-ts-ko)
		[tukoːjoʔ]	‘snow’	→	[tutkoːjoʔ]	‘snow here and there’	(tu-t-ko:jo’)	(Broselow and McCarthy 1984)

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):

		[sluh]	‘to shoot (perfective)’	→	[shluh]	‘to shoot (continuative)’	(s-h-luh)
		[slɔɡ]	‘to marry (perfective)’	→	[sɡlɔɡ]	‘to marry (continuative)’	(s-ɡ-lɔɡ)	(Broselow and McCarthy 1984, Walther 2000)

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:

		[kʉːʔ]	→	[kʔkʉːʔ]	‘to vomit’	(kʔ—kʉːʔ)
		[dŋɔh]	→	[dhdŋɔh]	‘appearance of nodding constantly’	(dh—dŋɔh)
		[cruhaːw]	→	[cwcruhaːw]	‘monsoon rain’	(cw—cruhaːw)	(Diffloth 1973

Reduplication and other morphological processes[edit]

All of the examples above consist of only reduplication. However, reduplication often occurs with other phonological and morphological process, such as vowel alternation,^[6] deletion, affixation of non-reduplicating material, etc.

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.^{[citation needed]}

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2008)

Phonological processes, environment, and reduplicant-base relations[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2009)

• overapplication
• underapplication
• backcopying – A putative phenomenon of over-application in the reduplicant of a process triggered by the reduplicant in the base^[7]
• base-reduplicant «identity» (OT terminology: BR-faithfulness)
• tonal transfer/non-transfer

Function and meaning[edit]

In the Malayo-Polynesian family, reduplication is used to form plurals (among many other functions):

• Malay rumah «house», rumah-rumah «houses».

In pre-1972 Indonesian and Malaysian orthography, 2 was shorthand for the reduplication that forms plurals: orang «person», orang-orang or orang2 «people».^[8] This orthography has resurfaced widely in text messaging and other forms of electronic communication.

The Nama language uses reduplication to increase the force of a verb: go, «look;», go-go «examine with attention».

Chinese also uses reduplication: 人 rén for «person», 人人 rénrén for «everybody». Japanese does it too: 時 toki «time», tokidoki 時々 «sometimes, from time to time». Both languages can use a special written iteration mark 々 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 (Latin, «I vow, I vowed»)
• λείπω, λέλοιπα (Greek, «I leave, I left»)
• δέρκομαι, δέδορκα (Greek, «I see, I saw»; these Greek examples exhibit ablaut as well as reduplication)
• háitan, haíháit (Gothic, «to name, I named»)

Those forms do not survive in Modern English but existed in its parent Germanic languages. Many verbs in the Indo-European languages exhibit reduplication in the present stem, rather than the perfect stem, often with a different vowel from that used for the perfect: Latin gigno, genui («I beget, I begat») and Greek τίθημι, ἔθηκα, τέθηκα (I place, I placed, I have placed). Other Indo-European verbs used reduplication as a derivational process: compare Latin sto («I stand») and sisto («I remain»). All of those Indo-European inherited reduplicating forms are subject to reduction by other phonological laws.

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» («I wasn’t at school yesterday because I was sick. Sick-sick, that is»); 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

Words can be reduplicated with their case morphemes, as in lomalla lomalla («away, on vacation, on leave»), where the adessive morpheme —-lla appears twice. While reduplication is intelligible to most Finns, its usage is confined mostly to subgroups of young women and children (and possibly fathers of young children when they talk to their children).^{[citation needed]} However, most young women and children do not use reduplication.^{[citation needed]} Reduplication has a somewhat childish connotation and may be perceived as annoying.^{[citation needed]}

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’ (Haeberlin 1918:159). Reduplication has been found to be a major part of Salish languages.^[9]

Reduplicative babbling in child language acquisition[edit]

At 25–50 weeks after birth, typically developing infants go through a stage of reduplicated or canonical babbling (Stark 198, Oller, 1980). Canonical babbling is characterized by repetition of identical or nearly identical consonant-vowel combinations, such as nanana or idididi. It appears as a progression of language development as infants experiment with their vocal apparatus and home in on the sounds used in their native language. Canonical/reduplicated babbling also appears at a time when general rhythmic behavior, such as rhythmic hand movements and rhythmic kicking, appear. Canonical babbling is distinguished from earlier syllabic and vocal play, which has less structure.

Examples[edit]

Indo-European[edit]

Proto-Indo-European[edit]

The Proto-Indo-European language used partial reduplication of a consonant and e in many stative aspect verb forms. The perfect or preterite (past) tense of some Ancient Greek,^[10] Gothic, Latin, Sanskrit, Old Irish, and Old Norse verbs preserve this reduplication:

• Ancient Greek λύω lúō ‘I free’ vs. λέλυκα léluka «I have freed»
• Gothic hald «I hold» vs. haíhald (hĕhald) «I/he held»
• Latin currō «I run» vs. cucurrī «I ran» or «have run»
• Old Irish maidid «it breaks» vs. memaid «it broke»
• Old Norse rœ «I row» vs. rera (røra) «I rowed»
• Sanskrit लिखति likhati ‘he writes’ vs. लिलेख lilekha «he has written» or «he wrote»
• A rare modern English reflex is do vs. did

Proto-Indo-European also used reduplication for the imperfective aspect. Ancient Greek preserves this reduplication in the present tense of some verbs. Usually, but not always, this is reduplication of a consonant and i, and contrasts with e-reduplication in the perfect:^[11]

• δίδωμι dídōmi «I give» (present)
• δέδωκα dédōka «I have given» (perfect)
• *σίσδω sísdō → ἵζω hízō «I set» (present)
• *σέσδομαι sésdomai → ἕζομαι hézomai «I sit down» (present; from sd-, zero-grade of root in *sed-os → ἕδος hédos «seat, abode»)

Reduplication in nouns was rare, the best example being Proto-Indo-European *kʷé-kʷl-os ‘wheel’ (cf. Lithuanian kãklas ‘neck’, Sanskrit cakrá ‘wheel’, Greek κύκλος (kýklos) ‘circle’), which doubled *kʷel-o- (cf. Old Prussian kelan ‘wheel’, Welsh pêl ‘ball’),^[12] itself likely a deverbative of *kʷelh₁- ‘to turn’.

English[edit]

English has several types of reduplication, ranging from informal expressive vocabulary (the first four forms below) to grammatically meaningful forms (the last two below). See also the alliteration section of the irreversible binomial article for cases like flip-flop, dribs and drabs, etc.

• Rhyming reduplication: Boogie-woogie, easy-peasy, hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, hoity-toity, hokey-pokey, hurdy-gurdy, itsy-bitsy, namby-pamby, raggle-taggle, ragtag, razzle-dazzle, super-duper, teenie-weenie, willy-nilly, wingding.
• Exact reduplications: Ack ack, aye-aye, back-to-back, blah-blah, boo-boo, bye-bye, chin-chin, choo-choo, chow-chow, dik-dik, doo-doo, fifty-fifty, gogo, ha ha, half-and-half, honk-honk, housey-housey, juju, klop-klop, mama, muumuu, night-night, no-no, papa, pee-pee, pip-pip, pom-pom, poo-poo, pooh-pooh, putt putt, so-so, ta-ta, tut-tut, tutu, wah-wah, wee-wee, yo-yo. While in many forms of English, exact reduplications can also be used to emphasise the strength of a word («He wants it now now»), in South African English, ‘now-now’ means ‘relatively soon’.
  • lexical reduplication: ‘Each-each boy take one-one chair.’ Indian English
• Ablaut reduplications: In ablaut reduplications, the first vowel is almost always a high vowel (typically ɪ as in hit) and the reduplicated vowel is a low vowel (typically æ as in cat or ɒ as in top). Examples include: bric-a-brac, chit-chat, clip-clop, ding-dong, flimflam, flip-flop, hip-hop, jibber-jabber, kitty-cat, knick-knack, mishmash, ping-pong, pitter-patter, riffraff, sing-song, slipslop, splish-splash, tick-tock, ticky-tacky, tip-top, whiff-whaff, wibble-wobble, wishy-washy, zig-zag. Three-part ablaut sequences are less numerous, but are attested, e.g. tic-tac-toe, bing-bang-boom, bish-bash-bosh, splish-splash-splosh^[13] and «Live, Laugh, Love». Spike Milligan’s poem On the Ning Nang Nong achieves comic effect by varying the ordering of vowels in such triples: There’s a Nong Nang Ning/Where the trees go Ping!.
• Shm-reduplication can be used with most any word; e.g. baby-shmaby, cancer-shmancer and fancy-shmancy. This process is a feature of American English from Yiddish, starting among the American Jews of New York City, then the New York dialect and then the whole country.

Of the above types, only shm-reduplication is productive, meaning that examples of the first three are fixed forms and new forms are not easily accepted.

• Comparative reduplication: In the sentence «John’s apple looked redder and redder,» the reduplication of the comparative indicates that the comparative is becoming more true over time, meaning roughly «John’s apple looked progressively redder as time went on.» In particular, this construction does not mean that John’s apple is redder than some other apple, which would be a possible interpretation in the absence of reduplication, e.g. in «John’s apple looked redder.» With reduplication, the comparison is of the object being compared to itself over time. Comparative reduplication always combines the reduplicated comparative with «and». This construction is common in speech and is used even in formal speech settings, but it is less common in formal written texts. Although English has simple constructs with similar meanings, such as «John’s apple looked ever redder,» these simpler constructs are rarely used in comparison with the reduplicative form. Comparative reduplication is fully productive and clearly changes the meaning of any comparative to a temporal one, despite the absence of any time-related words in the construction. For example, the temporal meaning of «The frug seemed wuggier and wuggier» is clear: despite not knowing what a frug is or what wugginess is, it is easy to grasp that the apparent wugginess of the frug was increasing over time, as indicated by the reduplication of the comparative «wuggier».^{[citation needed]}
• Contrastive focus reduplication: Exact reduplication can be used with contrastive focus (generally where the first noun is stressed) to indicate a literal, as opposed to figurative, example of a noun, or perhaps a sort of Platonic ideal of the noun, as in «Is that carrot cheesecake or carrot CAKE-cake?».^[14] This is similar to the Finnish use mentioned above. Furthermore, it is used to contrast «real» or «pure» things against imitations or less pure forms. For example, at a coffee shop one may be asked, «Do you want soy milk?» and respond, «No, I want milk milk.» This gives the idea that they want «real» milk.^{[citation needed]}

The double copula is in some cases a type of reduplication, which may be regarded as non-standard or incorrect.

More can be learned about English reduplication in Thun (1963), Cooper & Ross (1975), and Nevins & Vaux (2003).

Dutch[edit]

While not common in Dutch, reduplication does exist. Most, but not all (e.g., pipi, blauwblauw (laten), taaitaai (gingerbread)) reduplications in Dutch are loanwords (e.g., koeskoes, bonbon, (ik hoorde het) via via) or imitative (e.g., tamtam, tomtom).^[15] Another example is a former safe sex campaign slogan in Flanders: Eerst bla-bla, dan boem-boem (First talk, then have sex; lit. First blah-blah, then boom-boom). In Dutch the verb «gaan» (to go) can be used as an auxiliary verb, which can lead to a triplication: we gaan (eens) gaan gaan (we are going to get going). The use of gaan as an auxiliary verb with itself is considered incorrect, but is commonly used in Flanders.^[16] Numerous examples of reduplication in Dutch (and other languages) are discussed by Daniëls (2000).

Afrikaans[edit]

Afrikaans makes use of reduplication to emphasize the meaning of the word repeated and to denote a plural or event happening in more than one place. For example, krap means «to scratch one’s self,» while krap-krap-krap means «to scratch one’s self vigorously»,^[17] whereas «dit het plek-plek gereën» means «it rained here and there».^[18] Reduplication in Afrikaans has been described extensively in the literature – see for example Botha (1988), Van Huyssteen (2004) and Van Huyssteen & Wissing (2007). Further examples of this include: «koes» (to dodge) being reduplicated in the sentence «Piet hardloop koes-koes weg» (Piet is running away while constantly dodging / cringing); «sukkel» (to struggle) becoming «sukkel-sukkel» (making slow progress; struggling on); and «kierang» (to cheat) becoming «kierang-kierang» to indicate being cheated on repeatedly.^[19]

Romance languages[edit]

In Italian reduplication was used both to create new words or word associations (tran-tran, via via, leccalecca) and to intensify the meaning (piano piano «very softly»).^{[citation needed]}

Common in Lingua Franca, particularly but not exclusively for onomatopoeic action descriptions:
«Spagnoli venir…boum boum…andar; Inglis venir…boum boum bezef…andar; Francés venir…tru tru tru…chapar.» («The Spaniards came, cannonaded, and left. The English came, cannonaded heavily, and left. The French came, trumpeted on bugles, and captured it.»)^[20]

Common uses for reduplication in French are the creation of hypocoristics for names, whereby Louise becomes Loulou, and Zinedine Zidane becomes Zizou; and in many nursery words, like dada ‘horsie’ (vs. cheval ‘horse’), tati ‘auntie’ (vs. tante ‘aunt’), or tonton ‘unkie’ (vs. oncle ‘uncle’).

In Romanian and Catalan, reduplication is not uncommon and it has been used for both the creation of new words (including many from onomatopoeia) and expressions, for example,

• Romanian: mormăi, ţurţur, dârdâi, expressions talmeş-balmeş, harcea-parcea, terchea-berchea, ţac-pac, calea-valea, hodoronc-tronc.
• Catalan: balandrim-balandram, baliga-balaga, banzim-banzam, barliqui-barloqui, barrija-barreja, bitllo-bitllo, bub-bub, bum-bum, but-but, catric-catrac, cloc-cloc, cloc-piu, corre-corrents, de nyigui-nyogui, farrigo-farrago, flist-flast, fru-fru, gara-gara, gloc-gloc, gori-gori, leri-leri, nap-buf, ning-nang, ning-ning, non-non, nyam-nyam, nyau-nyau, nyec-nyec, nyeu-nyeu, nyic-nyic, nyigo-nyigo, nyigui-nyogui, passa-passa, pengim-penjam, pif-paf, ping-pong, piu-piu, poti-poti, rau-rau, ringo-rango, rum-rum, taf-taf, tam-tam, tau-tau, tic-tac, tol·le-tol·le, tric-trac, trip-trap, tris-tras, viu-viu, xano-xano, xau-xau, xerric-xerrac, xim-xim, xino-xano, xip-xap, xiu-xiu, xup-xup, zig-zag, ziga-zaga, zim-zam, zing-zing, zub-zub, zum-zum.

In colloquial Mexican Spanish it is common to use reduplicated adverbs such as luego luego (then then) meaning «immediately», or casi casi (almost almost) which intensifies the meaning of ‘almost’.

Slavic languages[edit]

The reduplication in the Russian language serves for various kinds of intensifying of the meaning and exists in several forms: a hyphenated or repeated word (either exact or inflected reduplication), and forms similar to shm-reduplication.^[21]

Celtic languages[edit]

Reduplication is a common feature of Irish and includes the examples rírá, ruaille buaille both meaning ‘commotion’ and fite fuaite meaning ‘intertwined’.^[22]

Indo-Aryan[edit]

Typically all Indo-Aryan languages, like Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali use partial or echoic reduplication in some form or the other. It is usually used to sound casual, or in a suggestive manner. It is often used to mean etcetera. For example, in Hindi, chai-shai (chai means tea, while this phrase means tea or any other supplementary drink or tea along with snacks). Quite common in casual conversations are a few more examples like shopping-wopping, khana-wana.
South Asian Indo Aryan languages are also rich in other forms of reduplication: morphological (expressives), lexical (distributives), and phrasal (aspectual).

• morphological:

Reduplication also occurs in the 3rd gaṇa (verb class) of the Sanskrit language: bibheti «he fears», bibharti «he bears», juhoti «he offers», dadāti, «he gives». Even though the general idea is to reduplicate the verb root as a prefix, several sandhi rules change the outcome.

There are a number of constructions in Hindi and Urdu that are constructed by reduplication. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, all have possibility of reduplications.^[24][25][26]

(1) Reduplication of numbers	(2) Reduplication of pronouns
baccõ ko children.DAT ek-ek one-one.REDUP tɔfī toffee do. give.IMP give a toffee to each child, one toffee per child.	tumne you.ERG kyā-kyā what-what.REDUP dekhā? saw.MASC.PRF? what (all things) did you see?
bacce-bacce ko child-child.DAT pacās-pacās fifty-fifty tɔfiyā̃ toffees milī̃. received.PRF.FEM.PL each and every child received 50 toffees each	jo-jo who-who.NOM āẽge will-come unhẽ them.DAT kɛhnā. say.IMP.FUT say to whoever will come (to all and every visitor)
(3) Reduplication of nouns	(4) Reduplication of adjectives
baccā-baccā child-child.NOM jāntā know.PTCP hai. be.3.PRST? (each and) every child knows. Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);	ye garm-garm this cāy hot-hot piyo. tea drink.2.IMP drink this hot tea. (emphasis on hotness) Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 3 word(s) in line 1, 4 word(s) in line 2 (help);
cāy-śāy tea-tea.NOM ho jāye? happen.PRF.SG.SUBJ? shall we have a cup of tea? (emphasis on meeting over tea)	udhar tither/that way harī-harī green-green ghās grass hai. be.3.PRS there is (so much) green grass that way/over there. (emphasis on the quantity)
(5) Reduplication of verbs	(6) Reduplication of adverbs
khāte-khāte eat-eat.PTCP.IMPV mat not bolo. talk.2.IMP do not talk while eating. Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);	kal-kal tomorrow-tomorrow.LOC mẽ happen.3.FUT.PRF hī ho jāyegā. It’ll be done before tomorrow ends. Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 5 word(s) in line 1, 2 word(s) in line 2 (help);
soye-soye sleep-sleep.PTCP.PRF mar gaye. die.PRF.MASC.PL he died while sleeping / he died in his sleep.	cillāyī shouted.PRF.SG.FEM zor-zor se. loud-loud.INST she shouted loudly. (emphasis on the loudness)

Armenian[edit]

In Armenian, reduplication follows the same classification as in Turkish (see below), namely emphatic reduplication, echo reduplication,^[27] and doubling. Many appear as lexical entries in Armenian lexicographical sources.

1. Emphatic reduplication, one of two interpolated consonants (փ, ս), as in կարմիր (red), which becomes կասկարմիր (very red).^[28]
2. Echo Reduplication, as in սեղան-մեղան (table schmable).^[29]
3. Doubling, as in քիչ-քիչ (little [by] little) ^[30]

Turkish[edit]

In Turkish, there are three kinds of reduplication.^[31]

1. Emphatic Reduplication: A word can be reduplicated partially, such that an emphatic stem is created to be attached to the adjective. This is done by taking the first syllable of the adjective, dropping the syllable-final phoneme, and adding one of four interpolated consonants (p, s, m, r). For example, kırmızı (red) becomes kıpkırmızı (very red); mavi (blue) becomes masmavi (very blue); yeşil (green) becomes yemyeşil (very green), and temiz (clean) becomes tertemiz («spotless»). However, the consonant added to the emphatic stem is unpredictable grammatically speaking, however phonological studies, such as Wedel (1999)^[32] do shed new light on the subject.
2. Echo Reduplication: A word can be reduplicated while replacing the initial consonants (not being m, and possibly missing) with m. The effect is that the meaning of the original word is broadened. For example, tabak means «plate(s)», and tabak mabak then means «plates, dishes and such». This can be applied not only to nouns but to all kinds of words, as in yeşil meşil meaning «green, greenish, whatever». Although not used in formal written Turkish, it is a completely standard and fully accepted construction.
3. Doubling: A word can be reduplicated totally, giving a related but different meaning or used for emphasizing. For example, zaman zaman (time time) meaning «occasionally»; uzun uzun (long long) meaning «very long or many things long». This type is used also in formal Turkish, especially in literature. There are a lot of reduplications in this category which do not, if used as one word, have a place in the Turkish language’s vocabulary but is used solely in this way. These words are called mimetic in linguistics. An example is ‘şırıl şırıl’ (used for the sound of a waterfall). They try to give sounds to not only audible but also non-audible phenomena. For example, ‘mışıl mışıl’ is used for sleeping soundly.

Dravidian[edit]

Reduplication is also used in Dravidian languages like Telugu for the same purpose.^[33]

• phrasal:

Bantu[edit]

Reduplication is a common phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to form a frequentive verb or for emphasis.^[35][36]

• Swahili piga ‘to strike’; pigapiga ‘to strike repeatedly’
• Ganda okukuba (oku-kuba) ‘to strike’; okukubaakuba (oku-kuba-kuba) ‘to strike repeatedly, to batter’
• Chewa tambalalá ‘to stretch one’s legs’; tambalalá-tambalalá to stretch one’s legs repeatedly’

Popular names that have reduplication include

• Bafana Bafana
• Chipolopolo
• Eric Djemba-Djemba
• Lomana LuaLua
• Ngorongoro

Semitic[edit]

Semitic languages frequently reduplicate consonants, though often not the vowels that appear next to the consonants in some verb form.^[37] This can take the shape of reduplicating the antepenultimate consonant (usually the second of three),^{[clarification needed]} the last of two consonants, or the last two consonants.^[38]

Hebrew[edit]

In Hebrew, reduplication is used in nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs for various reasons:

• For emphasis: in לאט לאט‎ le’at le’at, where the adverb לאט‎ «slowly» is duplicated to mean «very slowly». In the slangism גבר גבר‎ gever gever, the noun גבר‎ «man» is duplicated to mean a «very manly man».
• To mean «one by one»:
  • יום יום‎ yom yom is based on יום‎ «day», and means «every day, day by day».
  • פרה פרה‎ para para is based on פרה‎ «cow», and literally means «cow by cow», referring to «one thing at a time». This is possibly a folk etymology, and a derivation from Spanish «para» meaning «stop» is possible.
• To create a diminutive: by reduplicating the last two consonants (bi-consonantal reduplication):
  • כלב‎ kelev «dog»
    • כלבלב‎ klavlav «puppy»
  • חתול‎ khatul «cat»
    • חתלתול‎ khataltul «kitten»
  • לבן‎ lavan «white»
    • לבנבן‎ levanban «whitish»
  • קטן‎ katan «small»
    • קטנטן‎ ktantan «tiny»
• To create secondary derivative verbs: by reduplicating the root or part of it:
  • dal (דל‎) «poor» > dilel (דלל‎) «to dilute», and also dildel (דלדל‎) «to impoverish, weaken».
  • nad (נד‎) «to move, nod»‘ > nadad (נדד‎) «to wander» but also nidned (נדנד‎) «to swing» and — due to phono-semantic matching of the Yiddish lexical item נודיען nídyen / núdzhen «to bore, bother» — also «to bother, pest, nag, annoy».^[39]: 206
  • tzakhak (צחק‎) «to laugh» > tzikhkek (צחקק‎) «to chuckle».
• For onomatopoeia:
  • שקשק shikshék «to make noise, rustle».^[39]: 207
  • רשרש rishrésh «to make noise, rustle».^[39]: 208

Amharic[edit]

In Amharic, verb roots can be reduplicated three different ways. These can result in verbs, nouns, or adjectives (which are often derived from verbs).

From the root sbr ‘break’, antepenultimate reduplication produces täsäbabbärä ‘it was shattered’^[40] and biconsonantal reduplication produces täsbäräbbärä ‘it was shattered repeatedly’ and səbərbari ‘a shard, a shattered piece’.^[41]

From the root kHb ‘pile stones into a wall’, since the second radical is not fully specified, what some call «hollow», the antepenultimate reduplication process reduplicates the k inserting the vowel a along with the consonant as a place holder for the hollow consonant, which is by some criteria antepenultimate, and produces akakabä ‘pile stones repeatedly’.^[42][43]

Japanese[edit]

A small number of native Japanese nouns have collective forms produced by reduplication (possibly with rendaku), such as 人々 hitobito «people» (h → b is rendaku) – these are written with the iteration mark «々» to indicate duplication. This formation is not productive and is limited to a small set of nouns. Similarly to Standard Chinese, the meaning is not that of a true plural, but collectives that refer to a large, given set of the same object; for example, the formal English equivalent of 人々 would be «people» (collective), rather than «persons» (plural individuals).

Japanese also contains a large number of mimetic words formed by reduplication of a syllable. These words include not only onomatopoeia, but also words intended to invoke non-auditory senses or psychological states, such as きらきら kirakira (sparkling or shining). By one count, approximately 43% of Japanese mimetic words are formed by full reduplication,^[44][45] and many others are formed by partial reduplication, as in がささ〜 ga-sa-sa- (rustling)^[46] – compare English «a-ha-ha-ha».

Austronesian[edit]

Austronesian languages are known for their extensive use of reduplication in both nouns and verbs.^[47]

Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian)[edit]

In the Malay language, reduplication is a semi-productive process. It is used for expression of various grammatical functions (such as verbal aspect) and it is part in a number of complex morphological models. Simple reduplication of nouns and pronouns can express at least three meanings:

1. Diversity or non-exhaustive plurality:
   1. Burung-burung itu juga diekspor ke luar negeri = «All those birds are also exported out of the country».
2. Conceptual similarity:
   1. langit-langit = «ceiling; palate; etc.» (langit = «sky»)
   2. jari-jari = «spoke; bar; radius; etc.» (jari = «finger» etc.)
3. Pragmatic accentuation:
   1. Saya bukan anak-anak lagi! «I am not a child anymore!» (anak = «child»)

Reduplication of an adjective can express different things:

• Adverbialisation: Jangan bicara keras-keras! = «Don’t speak loudly!» (keras = hard)
• Plurality of the corresponding noun: Rumah di sini besar-besar = «The houses here are big» (besar = «big»).

Reduplication of a verb can express various things:

• Simple reduplication:
  • Pragmatic accentuation: Kenapa orang tidak datang-datang? = «Why aren’t people coming?»
• Reduplication with me- prefixation, depending on the position of the prefix me-:
  • Repetition or continuation of the action: Orang itu memukul-mukul anaknya: «That man continuously beat his child»;
  • Reciprocity: Kedua orang itu pukul-memukul = «Those two men would beat each other».

Notice that in the first case, the nasalisation of the initial consonant (whereby /p/ becomes /m/) is repeated, while in the second case, it only applies in the repeated word.

Māori[edit]

The Māori language (New Zealand) uses reduplication in a number of ways.^[48]

Reduplication can convey a simple plural meaning, for instance wahine «woman», waahine «women», tangata «person», taangata «people». Biggs calls this «infixed reduplication». It occurs in a small subset of «people» words in most Polynesian languages.

Reduplication can convey emphasis or repetition, for example mate «die», matemate «die in numbers»; and de-emphasis, for example wera «hot» and werawera «warm».

Reduplication can also extend the meaning of a word; for instance paki «pat» becomes papaki «slap or clap once» and pakipaki «applaud»; kimo «blink» becomes kikimo «close eyes firmly»

Mortlockese[edit]

The Mortlockese language is a Micronesian language spoken primarily on the Mortlock Islands. In the Mortlockese language, reduplication is used to show a habitual or imperfective aspect. For example, /jææjæ/ means «to use something» while the word /jæjjææjæ/ means «to use something habitually or repeatedly».^[49] Reduplication is also used in the Mortlockese Language to show extremity or extreme measures. One example of this can be seen in /ŋiimw alɛɛtɛj/ which means «hate him, her, or it». To mean «really hate him, her, or it,» the phrase changes to /ŋii~mw al~mw alɛɛtɛj/.^[49]

Pingelapese[edit]

Pingelapese is a Micronesian language spoken on the Pingelap atoll and on two of the eastern Caroline Islands, called the high island of Pohnpei. Pingelapese utilizes both duplication and triplication of a verb or part of a verb to express that something is happening for certain duration of time. No reduplication means that something happens. A reduplicated verb means that something IS happening, and a triplication means that something is STILL happening. For example, saeng means ‘to cry’ in Pingelapese. When reduplicated and triplicated, the duration of this verb is changed:

• saeng – cries
• saeng-saeng – is crying
• saeng-saeng-saeng – is still crying

Few languages employ triplication in their language. In Micronesia, Pingelapese is one of only two languages that uses triplication, the other being Mokilese. Reduplication and triplication are not to be confused with tense however. In order to make a phrase past, present, or future tense, a temporal phrase must be used.^[50]

Rapa[edit]

Rapa is the French Polynesian language of the island of Rapa Iti.^[51] In terms of reduplication, the indigenous language known as Old Rapa uses reduplication consistent to other Polynesian languages. Reduplication of Old Rapa occurs in four ways: full, rightward, leftward, and medial. Full and rightward are generally more frequently used as opposed to the leftward and medial. Leftward and medial only occur as CV reduplication and partial leftward and medial usually denote emphasis.^[51]

Example of Reduplication Forms:^[51]

	Base Form	Reduplicated Form
Full Reduplication	kini ‘pinch’ kati ‘bite’	kinikini ‘pinch skin’ katikati ‘nibble’
Rightward Reduplication	māringi ‘pour’ taka’uri ‘go backward’ pātī ‘bounce’ ngaru ‘wave’	māringiringi ‘pour continuously’ taka’uri‘uri ‘roll back and forth’ pātītī ‘splash (of raindrops)’ ngaruru ‘sea sick’
Leftward Reduplication	komo ‘sleep’ kume ‘drag’	kokomo ‘deep sleep’ kukume ‘large, flat leaf seaweed’
Medial Reduplication	maitaki ‘good; well’	maitataki ‘excellent; very well’

For the Rapa Language the implementation of reduplication has specific implications. The most evident of these are known as iterative, intensification, specification, diminutive, metaphorical, nominalizing, and adjectival.^[51]

Iterative:

• naku ‘come, go’ → nakunaku ‘pass by frequently’
• ipuni ‘hide’ → ipunipuni ‘hide and seek’

Intensification:

• mare ‘cough’ → maremare ‘cough forcefully’
• roa ‘much’ → roroa ‘very much’
• maki ‘sick’makimaki ‘really sick’

Specification:

• kini ‘to pinch’ → kinikini ‘pinch skin’

Diminutive:

• paki ‘slap, strike’pakipaki ‘clap’
• kati ‘bite’ → katikati ‘nibble’

Metaphorical (typically comparing an animal action with a human action):^[51]

• kapa ‘mime with hands’ → kapakapa ‘flap wings (a bird)’
• mākuru ‘detach oneself’ → mākurukuru ‘shed or molt’
• taŋi ‘Yell’ → taŋitaŋi ‘chirp (a bird)’

Nominalizing:

• para ‘Finished’parapara ‘leftovers’
• Panga’a ‘divide’ → panaga’anga’a ‘a break, a divide’

Adjectival:

• repo ‘dirt, earth’ → reporepo ‘dirty’
• pake ‘sun’ → pakepake ‘shining, bright’

Tagalog[edit]

Philippine languages are characterized as having the most productive use of reduplication, especially in Tagalog (the basis of the Filipino language). Reduplication in Tagalog is complex. It can be roughly divided into six types:^[52][53][54]

1. Monosyllabic; e.g. olol («mad»)
2. Reduplication of the final syllable; e.g. himaymay («separate meat from bones»), from himay (same meaning)
3. Reduplication of the final syllable of a disyllabic word, where the added syllable is created from the first consonant of the first syllable and the last consonant of the second syllable; e.g. kaliskis («[fish] scale»), from kalis («to scrape»)
4. Reduplication of the initial syllable of the root; e.g. susulat («will write»), from sulat («to write»)
5. Full reduplication; e.g. araw-araw («every day»), from araw («day» or «sun»)
6. Combined partial and full reduplication; e.g. babalibaligtad («turning around continually», «tumbling»), from baligtad («reverse»)

They can further be divided into «non-significant» (where its significance is not apparent) and «significant» reduplication. 1, 2, and 3 are always non-significant; while 5 and 6 are always significant. 4 can be non-significant when used for nouns (e.g. lalaki, «man»).^[52][53][54]

Full or partial reduplication among nouns and pronouns can indicate emphasis, intensity, plurality, or causation; as well as a diminutive, superlative, iterative, restrictive, or distributive force.^[52][53][54]

Adjectives and adverbs employ morphological reduplication for many different reasons such as number agreement when the adjective modifies a plural noun, intensification of the adjective or adverb, and sometimes because the prefix forces the adjective to have a reduplicated stem».^[55]

Number agreement for adjectives is entirely optional in Tagalog (e.g., a plural noun does not have to have a plural article marking it):^[55]

• «Ang magandang puno» «the beautiful tree».
• «Ang magagandang puno» «the beautiful trees«.

The entire adjective is repeated for intensification of adjectives or adverbs:

• Magandang maganda ang kabayo «the horse is very pretty»

In verbs, reduplication of the root, prefix or infix is employed to convey different grammatical aspects. In «Mag- verbs» reduplication of the root after the prefix «mag-» or «nag-» changes the verb from the infinitive form, or perfective aspect, respectively, to the contemplated or imperfective aspect.^[55] Thus:

• magluto inf/actor trigger-cook «to cook» or «cook!» (imperative)
• nagluto actor trigger-cook «cooked»
• nagluluto actor trigger-reduplication-cook «cook» (as in «I cook all the time) or «is/was cooking»
• magluluto inf/actor trigger-rdplc-cook (contemplated) «will cook»

For ergative verbs (frequently referred to as «object focus» verbs) reduplication of part the infix and the stem occur:

• lutuin cook-inf/object trigger-cook «to cook»
• niluto object trigger infix-cook (perf-cook) «cooked»
• niluluto object trigger infix-reduplication-cook «cook»/»is/was cooking»
• lulutuin rdp-cook-object trigger «will cook».^[55]

The complete superlative prefix pagka- demands reduplication of the first syllable of the adjective’s stem:

• «Ang pagkagagandang puno» «The most beautiful tree (and there are none more beautiful anywhere)»

Wuvulu-Aua[edit]

Reduplication is not a productive noun derivation process in Wuvulu-Aua as it is in other Austronesian languages. Some nouns exhibit reduplication, though they are considered to be fossilized.^[56]

Verb roots can undergo whole or partial reduplication to mark aspect. Actions that are continuous are indicated by a reduplicated initial syllable. A whole reduplication can also be used to indicate imperfective aspect.^[57]

• «roni» «to hurry»
• «roroni» «hurrying»
• «rawani» «good»
• «rarawani» «good» (continuous)
• «ware» «talk»
• «wareware» «talked» (durative)

The onomatopoeia in Wuvulu language also uses reduplication to describe the sound. These onomatopoeic words can be used as alienable nouns.

• «baʔa» or «baʔabaʔa» is a word for the sound of knocking.^[58]

Austroasiatic[edit]

Vietnamese[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022)

Sino-Tibetan[edit]

Burmese[edit]

As in many Tibeto-Burman languages, in Burmese, reduplication is used in verbs and adjectives to form adverbs.^[59] Many Burmese words, especially adjectives such as လှပ (‘beautiful’ [l̥a̰pa̰]), which consist of two syllables (when reduplicated, each syllable is reduplicated separately), when reduplicated (လှပ → လှလှပပ ‘beautifully’ [l̥a̰l̥a̰ pa̰pa̰]) become adverbs.^[59] This is also true of many Burmese verbs, which become adverbs when reduplicated.^[59]

Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality. For instance, ပြည်, means «country,» but when reduplicated to အပြည်ပြည်, it means «many countries» (as in အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ, «international»). Another example is အမျိုး, which means «kinds,» but the reduplicated form အမျိုးမျိုး means «multiple kinds.»

A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate «one or the other»:

• ယောက် (measure word for people) → တစ်ယောက်ယောက် (someone)
• ခု (measure word for things) → တစ်ခုခု (something)

Chinese[edit]

Reduplication is sometimes employed in verbs and adjectives to enhance the effect of them.

• 帮帮忙 bāng bāng máng («Please help!») is a reduplicated form of 帮忙 bāngmáng («to help»)
• 胖胖的 pàng pàng de («quite fat») from 胖 pàng («fat»)

Similar to other Sino-Tibetan languages, adjectives form adverbs by reduplication.

• 漂漂亮亮 piào piào liàng liàng («prettily») is a reduplicated form of 漂亮 piàoliàng («pretty»)

Other than verbs and adjectives, some nouns can be reduplicated to express plurality or a collection in Chinese.

• 人人 rén rén («everyone») is derived from 人 rén («person»).

See also[edit]

• Ideophone
• Augment (Bantu languages)
• Augment (Indo-European)
• Amredita
• Language acquisition
• Siamese twins (linguistics)
• Syntactic doubling
• Motherese
• For an example of a language with many types of reduplication see: St’at’imcets language#Reduplication.
• Contrastive focus reduplication
• Shm-reduplication
• Repetition (rhetorical device)
• Redundancy (linguistics)
• List of reduplicated place names
• List of people with reduplicated names

Notes[edit]

Citations

• Wedel, Andrew (1999). «Turkish Emphatic Reduplication». Working Papers in Phonology at Santa Cruz.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Reduplication (Lexicon of Linguistics)
• What is reduplication? (SIL)
• Echo-Word Reduplication Lexicon
• Exhaustive list of reduplications in English
• List of contrastive focus reduplications in English
• List of English reduplications in Wiktionary
• graz database on reduplication (gdr) Institute of Linguistics, University of Graz
• La réduplication à m dans l’arabe parlé à Mardin

Reduplication is a process that takes place when the root or stem is reduplicated and added to the existing one. The added morpheme might or might not be further modified and on the basis of this division one can distinguish partial and complete variants or reduplication. The latter of the two does not change the structure of the reiterated word.

Examples found in the Indonesian language^[1]:

• kitab — ‘book’,
• kitab kitab — ‘various books’,
• anak — ‘child’,
• anak anak — ‘various children’.

While these clearly show that the additional morpheme not only denotes ‘various X’ but also suggests plural, conversely English girly-girly and goody-goody represent derivatives whose meaning implies using irony or sarcasm.

Partial reduplication, in turn, takes advantage of morphemes that have been modified to a degree. This is where pseudomorphemes are introduced — such that have been modified in a way they remain as sound clusters that no longer carry meaning and serve as a tool of expressing stylisation or emotional involvement of the speaker: shillyshally, zig-zag. The presence of pseudomorphemes is an indicative of the word being an outcome of reduplication rather than compound-creation where meaningful morphemes are used.

References[edit | edit source]

1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module ‘Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist’ not found.

Reduplication

Reduplication is the formation of a new word by doubling a word, either with change of initial consonants (teenie-weenie, walkie-talkie), with change of vowel (chit-chat, zig-zag) or without change (night-night, so-so and win-win).

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Keywords: compound word, reduplication, reduplicative compound, sound symbolism, ablaut combination, rhyme combination, blending, reduplicative compound proper.

Today scientists differentiate a lot of ways of vocabulary enrichment. One of them is reduplication — a word-building process of doubling the sound form of a word with full or partial sound and (or) meaning repetition [1]. For example, chit-chat — a small talk of nonsence.

There is no agreement concerning the status and essence of reduplication in linguistics. Thus there are some controvertial ideas made by linguists. Some of them consider reduplication to be a productive way of word- building (E.Sephir) while others think of it as a non-productive (I. V. Arnold). Now linguists are coser to E. Sephir’s point of view as reduplicative words are used oftenly both by adults and children, in different speech styles [2]. On the one hand scientist consider reduplication to be an independent way of wordbuilding (G. B. Antrushina, I. V. Arnold, E.Sephir); on the other hand some scientists state that reduplication is a part of word-building as a whole (O. D. Meshkov, E. V. Fedyaeva).

As the result of reduplication, a reduplicative compound word appears. It resembles a compond word as it is also a word consisting at least of 2 stems, it has the same pattern (for example a compound word “part-time” and a reduplicative compound “tip-top”). But by other requirments they may fail to satisfy the defenition of a compound word. As some of them contain only one free form (easy-peasy), while the second part may be a variant of the first or even both parts are pseudo-morphemes, meaningless and funny sound clusters which never occur elsewhere (example from L. Carrol — Humpty-Dumpty, who’s name our interpreters also translated as such kind of reduplicative compounds — Шалтай-Болтай).

Traditionally reduplicative compounds are further subdevided into redeuplicative compounds proper, ablaut combinations and rhyme combinations. Reduplicative compounds proper is not restricted to the repetition of onomatopoeic stems with intesifying effect as it sometimes suggested. Onomatopoeic repetition exists but not very often (hush-hush in the meaning of “secret”). Also, pseudo-morphemes occure in this sphere (blah-blah in the meaning of “nonsence”) but their’s conctituents can’t occure elsewhere. Generally speaking, reduplicative compounds proper are words of full and exact reduplication of the stem — goody-goody, gee-gee, tut-tut.

Ablaut combinations are twin forms consisting of one basic morpheme (usually the second), sometimes a pseudo-morpheme which is repeated in the other constituent with a different vowel. The “eco” may come both in the 1st part and in the second. The typical changes are [ı]— [æ]: chit-chat ‘gossip’ (from chat ‘easy familiar talk’), dilly-dally ‘loiter’, knick-knack ‘small articles of ornament’, riff-raff ‘the mob’, shilly-shally ‘hesitate’, zigzag (borrowed from French), and [ı] — [o]: ding-dong (said of the sound of a bell), ping-pong ‘table-tennis’, singsong ‘monotonous voice’, tiptop ‘first-rate’. The free forms corresponding to the basic morphemes are as a rule expressive words denoting sound or movement. To sum up, ablaut combinations are words of twin forms with a vowel sound interchange inside them shilly-shally, cit-chat, dilly-dally.

Both groups (reduplicative compounds proper and ablaut combinations) are based on sound symbolism expressing polarity. With words denoting movement these words symbolise to and fro rhythm: criss-cross; the to and fro movement also suggests hesitation: shilly-shally (probably based on the question “Shall I?»); alternating noises: pitter-patter. The semantically predominant group are the words meaning idle talk: bibble-babble, chit-chat, clitter-clatter, etc.

Rhyme combinations are twin forms consisting of two elements (most often two pseudo-morphemes) which are joined to rhyme: boogie-woogie, flibberty-gibberty ‘frivolous’, harum-scarum ‘disorganised’, helter-skelter ‘in disordered haste’, hoity-toity ‘snobbish’, humdrum‘bore’, hurry-scurry ‘great hurry’, hurdy-gurdy ‘a small organ’, lovey-dovey ‘darling’, mumbo-jumbo ‘deliberate mystification, fetish’. Many of these terms date back as far as the 16th century — take, for example, razzle-dazzle, hanky-panky, humdrum and the heebie-jeebies. Finally, they are words of usually consonant interchange.

The choice of the basic sound cluster in some way or other is often not arbitrary but motivated, for instance, lovey-dovey is motivated in both parts, as well as willy-nilly. Hurry-scurry and a few other combinations are motivated in the first part, while the second is probably a blend if we take into consideration that in helter-skelter the second element is from obsolete skelt ‘hasten’.

About 40 % of these rhyme combinations (a much higher percentage than with the ablaut combinations) are not motivated: namby-pamby,razzle-dazzle. A few are borrowed: pow-wow ‘a noisy assembly’ (an Algonquin word), mumbo-jumbo (from West African), but the type is purely English, and mostly modern.

Reduplication is usually resricted by the sphere of usage. The motivation of reduplicative compounds is mostly based on sound-symbolism, which means that their phonetic form carries out their function. There exists 3 functions:

1) Colloquial speech elements: razzle-dazzle, easy-peasy (actually almost all of them are colloquial)

2) Slang words: okey-dokey (sure, alright), yammy-mommy (a very attractive woman who is a mother)

3) Nursery words: Humpty-Dumpty, quack-quack, helter-skelter

The pattern is emotionally charged and chiefly colloquial, jocular, often sentimental in a babyish sort of way. The expressive character is mainly due to the effect of rhythm, rhyme and sound suggestiveness. It is intensified by endearing suffixes -y, -sie and the jocular -ty, -dy. Semantically predominant in this group are words denoting disorder, trickery, teasing names for persons, and lastly some playful nursery words. Baby-talk words are highly connotative because of their background. Some of the words from the sphere of colloquial speech came into neutral: ping-pong (name of a popular game); or gained new meaning — tip-top (was used as sound imitation, but now is used in the meaning of “perfect”, “well-done”, “ok”).

From the functional point of view reduplicative compounds may be devided into reduplicative adjectives (wishy-washy, itsy-bitsy, higgledy-piggledy) and reduplicative nouns (argle-bargle, tick-tock, pell-mell). Besides, some of the reduplicative compounds, which became stable in the language are also borrowings: ping-pong (Chinese), zigzag (French). Also, there are some translation loans: “nolens-volens” from Latin turned into “willy-nilly”. Reduplication may also occur as a mean of blending: The jocular and ironical name Lib-Labs (Liberal Labour — a particular group) illustrates clipping, composition and ellipsis and imitation of reduplication all in one word.

The sphere of usage of reduplication is quite wide as it touches upon many topics: words denoting animals (hot-dog — a snail) and plants (ylang-ylang); imitation of sounds made by animals (tweet-tweet, bow-wow); dances and types of music (go-go, hip-hop); different things (knick-knack — a trinket) and onomatopoeic words, denoting usage of these things (tick-tock); names of games (pall-mall, ping-pong); and even words of crime and government sphere (cop-shop — a police office, wacky-tabaccy — marijuana) [3].

To sum up, I would like to state that reduplication is a productive way of wordbuilding in the modern English language. It has several classifications and performs itself as a part of some processes in language, such as borrowing and blending, changing of the stylistic coloring of words.

References:

1. Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка:учеб. пособие / И. В. Арнольд. — 2-е изд., перераб. — М.:ФЛИНТА: Наука, 2012. — 376 с.
2. Арсентьева Е. Ф. Редупликация в современном английском и русском языках / Е. Ф. Арсентьева, Р. Б. Валиуллина // Филология и культура. Philology and Culture. — Казань: Изд-во Казан.ун-та, 2013 № 1(31)- с.12–16, 2013
3. Ибрагимова Э. И. Редупликация в английском языке [Текст] // Филология и лингвистика в современном обществе: материалы III Междунар. науч. конф. (г. Москва, ноябрь 2014 г.). — М.: Буки-Веди, 2014. — С. 65–67. — URL https://moluch.ru/conf/phil/archive/136/6396/ (дата обращения: 13.04.2019).

Основные термины (генерируются автоматически): III, URL.

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Reduplication is a word-formation process in which the base word is repeated exactly or with a partial change of a vowel or a consonant. These words are also called ‘echo words’. Reduplicative Words never go alone but hand in hand and appear always in pairs. In Reduplicative Words in English, the pair word or repeated word claims no meaning of its own but emphasizes the meaning of the base word. We majorly find four categories of Reduplicative Words in the English Language.

1. Exact Reduplication:

In this process,  the word repeated is exactly the same as the first or base word. Baby words are also described as exact reduplications.

Ex., baa-baa, bang-bang, beriberi, blah blah etc.,

2. Rhyming Reduplication: ( with a change of consonant)

In this process of Reduplication, the second word rhymes with the base word by altering its consonant.

Ex., walky-talky, wheeler-dealer, mumbo-jumbo, Humpty Dumpty etc.,

3. Ablaut Reduplication: (with a change of vowel)

In this process of reduplication, the second words are formed by changing of a vowel in the base words.

Ex., bibble-babble, skimble-skamble, pitter-patter, jibber-jabber etc.,

4. Shm-Reduplication:

In this process of reduplication, we form a reduplicative by adding a ‘shm’ or ‘schm’to the base word just before a vowel sound in the first syllable. It is used to convey irony, sarcasm, skepticism, wit and poking fun. This process came into use in the U.S. with Yiddish speakers in the late 19th century.

Ex.,       syllable-shmyllable, baby-shmaby, fancy-schmancy etc.,

Exact Reduplications:	Rhyming Reduplications: (with a change of consonant)	Ablaut Reduplications: (with a change of vowel )	Shm-Reduplications:
ack-ack	abracadabra	bibble-babble	apple – shmapple
aye-aye	airy-fairy	bric-a-brac	baby – shmaby
baa-baa	argy-bargy	chiff chaff	bagel – shmagel
bang-bang	arsy varsy	ching chong	breakfast – shmreakfast or breakfast – shmeakfast
beriberi	artsy-fartsy	chit-chat	fancy – schmancy
blah blah	arty-farty	clip-clop	money-shmoney
bling-bling	barmy army	clippety-cloppety	sale – schmale
bonbon	beanie-weenies	crincum-crancum	syllable – shmyllable
boo-hoo	bees-knees	crinkle-crankle	union – shmyoonion or union – shmoonion
bow-wow	blogger-flogger	criss-cross
bye-bye	boo hoo	diddle-daddle
cancan	boogie-woogie	dilly-dally
cha cha	bow-wow	dimber damber
chi-chi	boy-toy	ding-dong
chop chop	brain drain	dingle-dangle
froufrou	bunny wunny	fiddle-faddle
gaga	chick-flick	fingle-fangle
gee-gee	chunky monkey	flim-flam
girly girly	clap-trap	flip-flap
goody goody	creepy-peepy	flip-flop
ha-ha	culture-vulture	flipperty-flopperty
hush-hush	dingaling	gewgaw
knock-knock	doggy woggy	gibble-gabble
moo-moo	double-trouble	higgle-haggle
muumuu	driver reviver	hip-hop
neigh-neigh	easy peasy	jibber-jabber
night-night	eensy-weensy	jig jog
no-no	even-steven	jimjams
papa	fam-bam	knick-knack
pawpaw	fender-bender	mingle-mangle
pee pee	fishy wishy	mishmash
poo poo	flotsam-jetsam	mixty-maxty
rah-rah	freaky-deaky	niddle-noddle
rye-rye	fuddle-duddle	niddy-noddy
so so	fuddy-duddy	ping pong
ta-ta	fuzzy-wuzzy	pish posh
tom-tom	gang bang	pit-a-pat
tuk tuk	gender bender	pitter-patter
tum-tum	ginger minger	pittle-pattle
tutu	handy-dandy	plinky-plonky
wee-wee	hanky-panky	popo
yada-yada	happy-clappy	prittle-prattle
yoyo	harum-scarum	ribble-rabble
yum-yum	heebie-jeebies	riff-raff
	hee-haw	riprap
	helter-skelter	scribble-scrabble
	herky-jerky	see-saw
	hi-fi	shilly-shally
	higgledy-piggledy	ship-shape
	hink pink	sing-song
	hippie-dippie	skimble-skamble
	hippy-dippy	slipslop
	hity-tity	snipper-snapper
	hob-nob	snip-snap
	hobson-jobson	swish-swash
	hocus-pocus	tick-tock
	hodge-podge	ticky-tacky
	hoity-toity	tic-tac
	hokey-pokey	tip-top
	holey-moley	tittle-tattle
	hooly dooly	twittle-twattle
	hootchie-kootchie	twit-twat
	hotchpotch	whiff-whaff
	hotspot	whim-wham
	hotsy-totsy	wibble-wobble
	hub bub	wibbly-wobbly
	Hubble-bubble	wifty-wafty
	hugger-mugger	wigwag
	hullabaloo	wish-wash
	humdrum	wishy-washy
	Humpty Dumpty	wringle-wrangle
	hurdy-gurdy	zig-zag
	hurly-burly
	hurry-scurry
	Igglepiggle
	incy wincy
	ing-bing
	itsy-bitsy
	itty-bitty
	Jeepers-creepers
	jellybelly
	kiddy widdy
	kitty witty
	laptop
	lardy-dardy
	loosey-goosey
	lovey-dovey
	mumbo-jumbo
	namby-pamby
	niminy-piminy
	nitty-gritty
	nit-wit
	okey-dokey
	ooey-gooey
	pall-mall
	palsy-walsy
	party hardy
	party hearty
	pell-mell
	phoney-baloney
	piggy wiggy
	pooper scooper
	pow-wow
	purple nurple
	ragbag
	raggle-taggle
	ragtag
	razzle-dazzle
	razzmatazz
	ring-a-ling
	rocket docket
	roly-poly
	rugger bugger
	rumpy-pumpy
	silly billy
	snailmail
	super-duper
	teensy-weensy
	teeny-weeny
	tootsy-wootsy
	topsy-turvy
	tozy-mozy
	trolley dolly
	voodoo
	walkie-talkie
	walky-talky
	wheeler-dealer
	wi-fi
	willy-nilly
	wingding
	yummy mummy

Also read:

How to read long words in English

Idioms in English

One word substitutions in English

Wedding Anniversaries

Mania Words in English

List of Common Phobias in English

Binomials in English

Blend words in English

Figures of Speech in English

Palindromes in the English Language

Pangrams in the English Language

Spoonerisms in the English Language

Vowel Words in English

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) is repeated exactly or with a slight change.

Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., 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. Reduplication is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level of linguistic productivity varies.

Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other terms that are occasionally used include cloning, doubling, duplication, and repetition.

Typological description

Form

Reduplication is often described phonologically in one of two different 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. However, in some languages, reduplication 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 three times. Pingelapese has both reduplication and triplication.

Basic Verb	Reduplication	Triplication
kɔul  ‘to sing’	kɔukɔul  ‘singing’	kɔukɔukɔul  ‘still singing’
mejr  ‘to sleep’	mejmejr  ‘sleeping’	mejmejmejr  ‘still sleeping’

(Rehg 1981)

Triplication occurs in other languages, e.g. Ewe, Shipibo, Twi, Mokilese, Min Nan.

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 reduplication

Full reduplication involves a reduplication of the entire word. For example, Kham derives reciprocal forms from reflexive forms by total reduplication:

		[ɡin]	‘ourselves’	→	[ɡinɡin]	‘we (to) us’	(ɡin-ɡin)
		[jaː]	‘themselves’	→	[jaːjaː]	‘they (to) them’	(jaː-jaː)	(Watters 2002)

Another example is from Musqueam Halkomelem «dispositional» aspect formation:

		[kʼʷə́ɬ]	‘to capsize’	→	[kʼʷə́ɬkʼʷəɬ]	‘likely to capsize’	(kʼʷə́ɬ-kʼʷəɬ)
		[qʷél]	‘to speak’	→	[qʷélqʷel]	‘talkative’	(qʷél-qʷel)	(Shaw 2004)

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:

		kagir	‘belt’	→	kagirgir	‘to wear a belt’	(kagir-gir)
		takin	‘sock’	→	takinkin	‘to wear socks’	(takin-kin)	(Moravsik 1978)

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 (plural)’
	(mahuta-mahuta)	(ma-mahuta)

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):

		[ɸuɾab]	‘afternoon’	→	[ɸuɸuɾab]	‘late afternoon’	(ɸu-ɸuɾab)
		[ŋaŋaj]	‘a long time’	→	[ŋaŋaŋaj]	‘a long time (in years)’	(ŋa-ŋaŋaj)	(Healey 1960)

Final reduplication in Dakota (-CCV suffix):

		[hãska]	‘tall (singular)’	→	[hãskaska]	‘tall (plural)’	(hãska-ska)
		[waʃte]	‘good (singular)’	→	[waʃteʃte]	‘good (plural)’	(waʃte-ʃte)	(Shaw 1980, Marantz 1982, Albright 2002)

Internal reduplication in Samoan (-CV- infix):

		savali	‘he/she walks’ (singular)	→	savavali	‘they walk’ (plural)	(sa-va-vali)
		alofa	‘he/she loves’ (singular)	→	alolofa	‘they love’ (plural)	(a-lo-lofa)	(Moravcsik 1978, Broselow and McCarthy 1984)
		le tamaloa	‘the man’ (singular)[1]	→	tamaloloa	‘men’ (plural)	(tama-lo-loa)

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):

		[eder]	→	[ededer]	‘rain’	(ed—eder)
		[alɡal]	→	[alɡalɡal]	‘straight’	(alg—algal)

Final R → L copying in Sirionó:

		achisia	→	achisiasia	‘I cut’	(achisia—sia)
		ñimbuchao	→	ñimbuchaochao	‘to come apart’	(ñimbuchao—chao)	(McCarthy and Prince 1996)

Copying from the other direction is possible although less common:

Initial R → L copying in Tillamook:

		[ɡaɬ]	‘eye’	→	[ɬɡaɬ]	‘eyes’	(ɬ-ɡaɬ)
		[təq]	‘break’	→	[qtəq]	‘they break’	(q-təq)	(Reichard 1959)

Final L → R copying in Chukchi:

		nute-	‘ground’	→	nutenut	‘ground (abs. sg.)’	(nute-nut)
		jilʔe-	‘gopher’	→	jilʔejil	‘gopher (abs. sg.)’	(jilʔe-jil)	(Marantz 1982)

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:

		[tsiko]	‘he put it on’	→	[tsitsko]	‘he put it on (frequentative)’	(tsi-ts-ko)
		[tukoːjoʔ]	‘snow’	→	[tutkoːjoʔ]	‘snow here and there’	(tu-t-ko:jo’)	(Broselow and McCarthy 1984)

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 Austro-Asiatic language of Malaysia):

		[sluh]	‘to shoot (perfective)’	→	[shluh]	‘to shoot (continuative)’	(s-h-luh)
		[slɔɡ]	‘to marry (perfective)’	→	[sɡlɔɡ]	‘to marry (continuative)’	(s-ɡ-lɔɡ)	(Broselow and McCarthy 1984, Walther 2000)

A rare type of reduplication is found in Semai (an Austro-Asiatic language of Malaysia). «Expressive minor reduplication» is formed with an initial reduplicant that copies the first and last segment of the base:

		[kʉːʔ]	→	[kʔkʉːʔ]	‘to vomit’	(kʔ—kʉːʔ)
		[dŋɔh]	→	[dhdŋɔh]	‘appearance of nodding constantly’	(dh—dŋɔh)
		[cruhaːw]	→	[cwcruhaːw]	‘monsoon rain’	(cw—cruhaːw)	(Diffloth 1973

Reduplication and other morphological processes

All of the examples above consist of only reduplication. However, reduplication often occurs with other phonological and morphological process, such as deletion, affixation of non-reduplicating material, etc.

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.

Phonological processes, environment, and reduplicant-base relations

• overapplication
• underapplication
• backcopying
• base-reduplicant «identity» (OT terminology: BR-faithfulness)
• tonal transfer/non-transfer

Function and meaning

In the Malayo-Polynesian family, reduplication is used to form plurals (among many other functions):

• Malay rumah «house», rumah-rumah «houses».

In pre-1972 Indonesian and Malay orthography, 2 was shorthand for the reduplication that forms plurals: orang «person», orang-orang or orang2 «people».^[2] This orthography has resurfaced widely in text messaging and other forms of electronic communication.

The Nama language uses reduplication to increase the force of a verb: go, «look;», go-go «examine with attention».

Chinese also uses reduplication: 人 rén for «person», 人人 rénrén for «everybody». Japanese does it too: 時 toki «time», tokidoki 時々 «sometimes, from time to time». Both languages can use a special written iteration mark 々 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 (Latin, «I vow, I vowed»)
• λείπω, λέλοιπα (Greek, «I leave, I left»)
• δέρκομαι, δέδορκα (Greek, «I see, I saw»; these Greek examples exhibit ablaut as well as reduplication)
• háitan, haíháit (Gothic, «to name, I named»)

None of these sorts of forms survive in modern English, although they existed in its parent Germanic languages. A number of verbs in the Indo-European languages exhibit reduplication in the present stem rather than the perfect stem, often with a different vowel from that used for the perfect: Latin gigno, genui («I beget, I begat») and Greek τίθημι, ἔθηκα, τέθηκα (I place, I placed, I have placed). Other Indo-European verbs used reduplication as a derivational process; compare Latin sto («I stand») and sisto («I remain»). All of these Indo-European inherited reduplicating forms are subject to reduction by other phonological laws.

Contemporary spoken Finnish uses reduplicated nouns 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 viisi jäätelöä, pullapitkon ja karkkia, sekä tietysti ruokaruokaa. «I ate five choc-ices, a long loaf of coffee bread and candy, and of course food-food». Here, the «food-food» is contrasted to the «junk-food» — the principal role of food is nutrition, and «junkfood» isn’t nutritious, so «food-food» is nutritious food, exclusively. One may say «En ollut eilen koulussa, koska olin kipeä. Siis kipeäkipeä» («I wasn’t at school yesterday because I was sick. Sick-sick, that is»), meaning one was actually suffering from an illness and is not 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

These sorts of reduplicative forms, such as «food-food,» are not merely literal translations of the Finnish but in fact have some frequency in contemporary English for emphasising, as in Finnish, an «authentic» form of a certain thing. «Food-food» is one of the most common, along with such a possibilities for «car-car» to describe a vehicle which is actually a car (small automobile) and not something else such as a truck, or «house-house,» for a stand-alone house structure as opposed to an apartment, for instance.

Reduplication comes after inflection in Finnish. Young adults may ask one another Menetkö kotiin vai kotiinkotiin? «Are you going home or home-home?» The reduplicated home refers to the old home that used to be their home before they moved out to their new home.

In Swiss German, the verbs gah or goh «go», cho «come», la or lo «let» and aafa or aafo «begin» reduplicate when combined with other verbs.

example:	Si	chunt	üse	Chrischtboum	cho	schmücke.
literal translation:	she	comes	our	Christmas tree	come	adorn
translation	She comes to adorn our Christmas tree.

example:	Si	lat	ne	nid	la	schlafe.
literal translation:	she	lets	him	not	let	sleep
translation:	She doesn’t let him sleep.

In some Salishan languages, reduplication is used to mark both diminution and plurality, one process applying to each end of the word, as in the following example from Shuswap. Note that the data was transcribed in a way that 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 (Haeberlin 1918:159).

Reduplicative babbling in child language acquisition

During the period 25–50 weeks after birth, all typically developing infants go through a stage of reduplicated or canonical babbling (Stark 198, Oller, 1980). Canonical babbling is characterized by repetition of identical or nearly identical consonant vowel combinations, such as ‘nanana’ or ‘didididi’. It appears as a progression of language development as infants experiment with their vocal apparatus and hone in on the sounds used in their native language. Canonical/reduplicated babbling also appears at a time when general rhythmic behavior, such as rhythmic hand movements and rhythmic kicking, appear. Canonical babbling is distinguished from earlier syllabic and vocal play, which has less structure.

Examples

Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European

The Proto-Indo-European language used partial reduplication of a consonant and e in many stative aspect verb forms. The perfect or preterite (past) tense of some Ancient Greek, Latin, and Gothic verbs preserves this reduplication:

• λύω lúō ‘I free’ vs. λέλυκα léluka «I have freed»
• hald «I hold» vs. haíhald (hĕhald) «I/he held»
• currō «I run» vs. cucurrī «I ran» or «have run»

Proto-Indo-European also used reduplication for imperfective aspect. Ancient Greek preserves this reduplication in the present tense of some verbs. Usually, but not always, this is reduplication of a consonant and i, and contrasts with e-reduplication in the perfect:

• δίδωμι dídōmi «I give» (present)
• δέδωκα dédōka «I have given» (perfect)

• *σίσδω sísdō → ἵζω hízō «I set» (present)
• *σέσδομαι sésdomai → ἕζομαι hézomai «I sit down» (present; from sd-, zero-grade of root in *sed-os → ἕδος hédos «seat, abode»)

The Proto-Indo-European word *kʷekʷlos = «wheel» (Greek κύκλος kuklos «circle») also has reduplication, likely for onomatopoeia.^{[citation needed]}

English

English uses some kinds of reduplication, mostly for informal expressive vocabulary. There are three types:

• Rhyming reduplication: hokey-pokey, razzle-dazzle, super-duper, teenie-weenie, wingding

Although at first glance «Abracadabra» appears to be an English rhyming reduplication it in fact is not; instead, it is derived from the Aramaic formula «Abəra kaDavəra» meaning «I would create as I spoke»)

• Exact reduplications (baby-talk-like): bye-bye, choo-choo, night-night, no-no, pee-pee, poo-poo

Couscous is not an English example for reduplication, since it is taken from a French word which has a Maghrebi origin.

• Ablaut reduplications: bric-a-brac, chit-chat, criss-cross, ding-dong, jibber-jabber, kitty-cat, knick-knack, pitter-patter, splish-splash, zig-zag.

In the ablaut reduplications, the first vowel is almost always a high vowel and the reduplicated ablaut variant of the vowel is a low vowel.

None of the above types are particularly productive, meaning that the sets are fairly fixed and new forms are not easily accepted, but there is another form of reduplication that is used as a deprecative called shm-reduplication that can be used with most any word; e.g. baby-shmaby, cancer-schmancer and fancy-schmancy. This process is a feature of American English from Yiddish, starting among the American Jews of New York City, then the New York dialect and then the whole country.

When the slang -ma- infix is used on a two-syllable word with an initial open syllable, the second syllable is reduplicated and the infix appears in between, though often the first instance of the reduplicated syllable is reduced to consonant-schwa. Thus from oboe we get oboe-ma-boe or oba-ma-boe, and from purple we get purple-ma-ple or purpa-ma-ple (Yu 2004).

Contrastive focus reduplication. Exact reduplication can be used with contrastive focus (generally where the first noun is stressed) to indicate a literal, as opposed to figurative, example of a noun, or perhaps a sort of Platonic ideal of the noun, as in «Is that carrot cheesecake or carrot CAKE-cake?».^[3] This is similar to the Finnish use mentioned above. An extensive list of such examples is found in [1].

More can be learned about English reduplication in Thun (1963), Cooper and Ross (1975), and Nevins and Vaux (2003).

Dutch

While not common in Dutch, reduplication does exist. Most, but not all (e.g., pipi, blauwblauw (laten), taaitaai (gingerbread)) reduplications in Dutch are loanwords (e.g., koeskoes, bonbon, (ik hoorde het) via via) or imitative (e.g., tamtam, tomtom).^[4] Another example is a former safe sex campaign slogan in Flanders: Eerst bla-bla, dan boem-boem (First talk, then have sex). In Dutch the verb «gaan» (to go) can be used as an auxiliary verb, which can lead to a triplication: we gaan (eens) gaan gaan (we are going to get going). The use of gaan as an auxiliary verb with itself is considered incorrect, but is commonly used in Flanders.^[5] Numerous examples of reduplication in Dutch (and other languages) are discussed by Daniëls (2000).

Afrikaans

Afrikaans regularly utilizes reduplication to emphasize the meaning of the word repeated. For example, krap means «to scratch one’s self,» while krap-krap-krap means «to scratch one’s self vigorously.» [2] Reduplication in Afrikaans has been described extensively in the literature — see for example Botha (1988), Van Huyssteen (2004) and Van Huyssteen & Wissing (2007).

Romance

In Italian reduplication was used both to create new words or words associations (tran-tran, via via, leccalecca) and to intensify the meaning (corri!, corri! = run!, run!).

Common in Lingua Franca, particularly but not exclusively for onomatopoeic action descriptions: «Spagnoli venir…boum boum…andar; Inglis venir…boum boum bezef…andar; Francés venir…tru tru tru…chapar.» («The Spaniards came, cannonaded, and left. The English came, cannonaded heavily, and left. The French came, trumpeted on bugles, and captured it.»)^[6]

Common uses for reduplication in French are the creation of hypocoristics for names, whereby Louise becomes Loulou, and Zinedine Zidane becomes Zizou; and in many infantile words, like dada, ‘horse’ (standard cheval), tati, ‘aunt’ (standard tante), or tonton, ‘uncle’ (standard oncle).

In Romanian, reduplication is not uncommon and it has been used for both the creation of new words (including many from onomatopoeia), for example, mormăi, ţurţur, dârdâi, and for expressions, like talmeş-balmeş, harcea-parcea, terchea-berchea, ţac-pac, calea-valea, hodoronc-tronc, or in more recent slang, trendy-flendy.

Slavic languages

The reduplication in the Russian language serves for various kinds of intensifying of the meaning and exists in several forms: a hyphenated or repeated word (either exact or inflected reduplication), and forms similar to shm-reduplication.

Persian

Reduplication is a very common practice in Persian, to the extent that there are jokes about it. Mainly due to the mixed nature of the Persian language, most of the reduplication comes in the form of a phrase consisting of a Persian word -va- (and) and an Arabic word, like «Taghdir-Maghdir». Reduplication is particularly common in the city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran. One can further categorize the reduplicative words into «True» and «Quasi» ones. In true reduplicative words, both words are actually real words and have meaning in the language in which it is used. In quasi-reduplicative words, at least one of the words does not have a meaning. Some examples of true reduplicative words in Persian are: «Xert-o-Pert» (Odds and ends); «Čert-o-Pert» (Nonsense); «Čarand-o-Parand» (Nonsense); «Āb-o-Tāb» (much detail). Among the quasi-reduplicative words are «Zan-o-man» (wife); «Davā-Mavā» (Argument); «Talā-malā» (jewelry); and «Raxt-o-Paxt» (Items of Clothing). In general reduplication in Persian, is mainly a mockery of words with non-Persian origins.

Indo-Aryan (and Dravidian) languages

Typically all Indo-Aryan languages, like Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali use reduplication in some form or the other. It is usually used to sound casual, or in a suggestive manner. It is often used to mean etcetera. For example in Hindi, chai-shai (chai means tea, while this phrase means tea or any other supplementary drink or tea along with snacks). Quite common in casual conversations are a few more examples like shopping-wopping, khana-wana. Reduplication is also used in Dravidian languages like Telugu for the same purpose.

Nepalese

A number of Nepalese nouns are formed by reduplication. As in other languages, the meaning is not that of a true plural, but collectives that refer to a set of the same or related objects, often in a particular situation.

For example, «rangi changi»* describes an object that is extremely or vividly colorful, like a crazy mix of colors and/or patterns, perhaps dizzying to the eye. The phrase «hina mina» means «scattered,» like a large collection of objects spilled (or scampering, as in small animals) in all different directions. The basic Nepalese word for food, «khana» becomes «khana sana» to refer to the broad generality of anything served at a meal. Likewise, «chiya» or tea (conventionally made with milk and sugar) becomes «chiya siya»: tea and snacks (such as biscuits or cookies). *Please note, these examples of Nepalese words are spelled with a simplified Latin transliteration only, not as exact spellings.

Turkish

In Turkish, a word can be reduplicated while replacing the initial consonants (not being m, and possibly missing) with m. The effect is that the meaning of the original word is broadened. For example, tabak means «plate(s)», and tabak mabak then means «plates, dishes and such». This can be applied not only to nouns but to all kinds of words, as in yeşil meşil meaning «green, greenish, whatever». Although not used in formal written Turkish, it is a completely standard and fully accepted construction.

Finnish

Reduplication is commonly used only with ‘suurensuuri’ ‘big of big’, ‘pienenpieni’ ‘small of small’ and ‘hienonhieno’ ‘fine of fine’ but other adjectives may sometimes be duplicated as well, where a superlative is too strong an expression, somewhat similarly to slavic languages. The structure may be written also separately as ‘genitive’ ‘nominative’, which may create confusion on occasion (f.e. ‘suurensuuri jalka’ ‘big of big foot’ vs. ‘suuren suuri jalka’ ‘big foot of a big one’)

Hungarian

Reduplication is usually rhyming. It can add emphasis: ‘pici’ (tiny) -> ici-pici (very tiny) and it can modify meaning: ‘néha-néha’ (‘seldom-seldom’: seldom but repeatedly), ‘erre-arra’ (‘this way-that way’, meaning movement without a definite direction), ‘ezt-azt’ (‘this-that’, meaning ‘all sort of things’), Reduplication often evokes a sense of playfulness and it’s quite common when talking to small children.

Bantu languages

Reduplication is a common phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to form a frequentive verb or for emphasis.[3],[4]

• Swahili piga ‘to strike’; pigapiga ‘to strike repeatedly’
• Ganda okukuba (oku-kuba) ‘to strike’; okukubaakuba (oku-kuba-kuba) ‘to strike repeatedly, to batter’
• Chewa tambalalá ‘to stretch one’s legs’; tambalalá-tambalalá to stretch one’s legs repeatedly’

Popular names that have reduplication include

• Bafana Bafana
• Chipolopolo
• Eric Djemba-Djemba
• Lualua
• Ngorongoro

Hebrew

In the Hebrew, reduplication is used in nouns and adjectives. For stress, as in גבר גבר (Gever Gever) where the noun גבר ‘man’ — is duplicated to mean a manly man, a man among man. Or as in לאט לאט (le-aht le-aht) where the adverb לאט ‘slowly’ — is duplicated to mean very slowly.

Meaning every, as in יום יום (yom yom) where the noun יום ‘day’ is duplicated to every day, day in day out, day by day.

Some nouns and adjectives can also be made into diminutives by reduplication of the last two consonants, e.g.

• כלב (Kelev) = Dog
• כלבלב (Klavlav) = Puppy
• חתול (Chatul) = Cat
• חתלתול (Chataltul) = Kitten
• לבן (Lavan) = White
• לבנבן (Levanban) = Whitish
• קטן (Katan) = Small
• קטנטן (Ktantan) = Tiny

Reduplication in Hebrew is also productive for the creation of verbs, by reduplicating the root or part of it e.g.:

dal (דל) ‘poor,spare’ > dilel (דלל) ‘to dilute’ but also dildel (דלדל) ‘to impoverish, to weaken’; nad (נד) ‘to move, to nod’ > nadad (נדד) ‘to wander’ but also nidned (נדנד) ‘to swing, to nag’.

Sino-Tibetan

Burmese

In Burmese, reduplication is used in verbs and adjectives to form adverbs. Many Burmese words, especially adjectives such as လှပ (‘beautiful’ [l̥a̰pa̰]), which consist of two syllables (when reduplicated, each syllable is reduplicated separately), when reduplicated (လှပ → လှလှပပ ‘beautifully’ [l̥a̰l̥a̰ pa̰pa̰]) become adverbs. This is also true of many Burmese verbs, which become adverbs when reduplicated.

Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality. For instance, ပြည်, means «country,» but when reduplicated to အပြည်ပြည်, it means «many countries» (as in အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ, «international»). Another example is အမျိုး, which means «kinds,» but the reduplicated form အမျိုးမျိုး means «multiple kinds.»

A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate «one or the other»:

• ယောက် (measure word for people) → တစ်ယောက်ယောက် (someone)
• ခု (measure word for things) → တစ်ခုခု (something)

Chinese

Adjective reduplication is common in Standard Chinese, typically denoting emphasis, less acute degree of the quality described, or an attempt at more indirect speech: xiǎoxiǎo de 小小的 (small), chòuchòu de 臭臭的 (smelly). In case of adjectives composed of two characters (morphemes), each character is reduplicated separately: piàoliang 漂亮 (beautiful) reduplicates as piàopiàoliangliang 漂漂亮亮.

Verb reduplication is also common in Standard Chinese, conveying the meaning of informal and temporary character of the action. It is often used in imperative expressions, in which it lessens the degree of imperativity: zuòzuò 坐坐 (sit (for a while)), děngděng 等等 (wait (for a while)). Compound verbs are reduplicated as a whole word: xiūxixiūxi 休息休息 (rest (for a while)).

Noun reduplication is found in the southwestern dialect of Mandarin, which is nearly absent in Standard Chinese. For instance, in Sichuan, bāobāo 包包 (handbag) is used whereas Beijing and Guoyu use bāor 包儿. However, there are few nouns that can be reduplicated in Standard Chinese, and reduplication denotes generalisation and uniformity: rén 人 (human being) and rénrén 人人 (everybody (in general, in common)), jiājiāhùhù 家家户户 (every household (uniformly)) — in the latter jiā and hù additionally duplicate the meaning of household, which is a common way of creating compound words in Chinese.

Japanese

A small number of native Japanese nouns have collective forms produced by reduplication (possibly with rendaku), such as 人々 hitobito «people» (h → b is rendaku) – these are written with the iteration mark «々» to indicate duplication. This formation is not productive and is limited to a small set of nouns. Similarly to Standard Chinese, the meaning is not that of a true plural, but collectives that refer to a large, given set of the same object; for example, the formal English equivalent of 人々 would be «people» (collective), rather than «persons» (plural individuals).

Japanese also contains a large number of mimetic words formed by reduplication of a syllable. These words include not only onomatopoeia, but also words intended to invoke non-auditory senses or psychological states. By one count, approximately 43% of Japanese mimetic words are formed by full reduplication,^[7][8] and many others are formed by partial reduplication, as in がささ〜 ga-sa-sa- (rustling)^[9] – compare English «a-ha-ha-ha».

Austro-Asiatic

Vietnamese

Words called từ láy are found abundantly in Vietnamese. They are formed by repeating a part of a word to form new words, altering the meaning of the original word. Its effect is to sometimes either increase or decrease the intensity of the adjective, and is often used as a literary device (like alliteration) in poetry and other compositions, as well as in everyday speech.

Examples of reduplication increasing intensity:

• đau → đau điếng: hurt → hurt horribly
• mạnh → mạnh mẽ: strong → very strong
• rực → rực rỡ: flaring → blazing

Examples of reduplication decreasing intensity:

• nhẹ → nhè nhẹ: soft → soft (less)
• xinh → xinh xinh: pretty → cute
• đỏ → đo đỏ: red → somewhat red
• xanh → xanh xanh: blue/green → somewhat blue/green

Examples of blunt sounds or physical conditions:

• loảng xoảng — sound of glass breaking to pieces or metallic objects falling to the ground
• hớt hơ hớt hải— (also hớt ha hớt hải) — hard gasps -> in extreme hurry, in panic, panic-stricken
• lục đục — the sound of hard, blunt (and likely wooden) objects hitting against each other -> disagreements and conflicts inside a group or an organisation

Khmer

Khmer uses reduplication for several purposes, including emphasis and pluralization. Reduplication in Khmer, like many Mon–Khmer languages, can express complex thoughts. Khmer also uses a form of reduplication known as «synonym compounding», in which two phonologically distinct words with similar or identical meanings are combined, either to form the same term or to form a new term altogether.

Austronesian

The wide use of reduplication is certainly one of the most prominent grammatical features of Indonesian and Malay (as well as of other South-East Asian and Austronesian languages^[10]

Malay and Indonesian

In Malay and Indonesian, reduplication is a very productive process. It is used for expression of various grammatical functions (such as verbal aspect) and it is part in a number of complex morphological models. Simple reduplication of nouns and pronouns can express at least 3 meanings :

1. Diversity or non-exhaustive plurality :
   1. Burung-burung itu juga diekspor ke luar negeri = «All those birds are also exported out of the country».
2. Conceptual similarity :
   1. langit-langit = «ceiling; palate; etc.» < langit = «sky»;
   2. jari-jari = «spoke; bar; radius; etc.» < jari = «finger» etc.
3. Pragmatic accentuation :
   1. Saya bukan anak-anak lagi! «I am not a child anymore!» (anak = «child»)

Reduplication of an adjective can express different things :

• Adverbialisation : Jangan bicara keras-keras! = «Don’t speak loudly!» (keras = hard)
• Plurality of the corresponding noun : Rumah di sini besar-besar = «The houses here are big» (besar = «big»).

Reduplication of a verb can express various things :

• Simple reduplication :
  • Pragmatic accentuation : Kenapa orang tidak datang-datang? = «Why aren’t people coming?»
• Reduplication with me- prefixation, depending on the position of the prefix me- :
  • Repetition or continuation of the action : Orang itu meukul-mukul anaknya : «That man continuously beat his child»;
  • Reciprocity : Kedua orang itu pukul-memukul = «Those two men would beat each other».

Notice that in the first case, the nasalisation of the initial consonant (whereby /p/ becomes /m/) is repeated, while in the second case, it only applies in the repeated word.

Tetum

In Tetum, reduplication is used to turn adjectives into superlatives.

Māori

The Māori language (New Zealand) uses reduplication in a number of ways.^[11]

Reduplication can convey a simple plural meaning, for instance wahine «woman», waahine «women», tangata «person», taangata «people». Biggs calls this «infixed reduplication». It occurs a small subset of people words in most Polynesian languages.

Reduplication can convey emphasis or repetition, for example mate «die», matemate «die in numbers»; and de-emphasis, for example wera «hot» and werawera «warm».

Reduplication can also extend the meaning of a word; for instance paki «pat» becomes papaki «slap or clap once» and pakipaki «applaud»; kimo «blink» becomes kikimo «close eyes firmly».

Australian Aboriginal languages

Reduplication is common in many Australian place names due to their Aboriginal origins. Examples: Turramurra, Parramatta, Wooloomooloo. In the language of the Wiradjuri people of south eastern Australian, plurals are formed by doubling a word, hence ‘Wagga’ meaning crow becomes Wagga Wagga meaning ‘place of many crows’. This occurs in other place names deriving from the Wiradjuri language including Gumly Gumly, Grong Grong and Book Book.

See also

• Ideophone
• Augment
• Amredita
• Language acquisition
• Syntactic doubling
• For an example of a language with many types of reduplication see: St’at’imcets language#Reduplication.
• Word word
• List of people with reduplicated names

Notes

References

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• Botha, Rudi P. (1988). Form and meaning in word formation : a study of Afrikaans reduplication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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• Cooper, William E.; and Ross, «Háj» John R. (1975). World order. In R. E. Grossman, L. J. San, and T. J. Vance (Eds.), Papers from the parasession on functionalism (pp. 63–111). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.
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• Haeberlin, Herman. (1918). “Types of Reduplication in Salish Dialects.” International Journal of American Linguistics 1: 154-174.
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• Inkelas, Sharon; & Zoll, Cheryl. (2005). Reduplication: Doubling in morphology. Cambridge studies in linguistics (No. 106). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80649-6.
• Key, Harold. (1965). Some semantic functions of reduplication in various languages. Anthropological Linguistics, 7(3), 88-101.
• Marantz, Alec. (1982). Re reduplication. Linguistic Inquiry 13: 435-482.
• McCarthy, John J. and Alan S. Prince. (1986 [1996]). Prosodic morphology 1986. Technical report #32. Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science. (Unpublished revised version of the 1986 paper available online on McCarthy’s website: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/pub/papers/pm86all.pdf).
• McCarthy, John J.; and Prince, Alan S. (1995). Faithfulness and reduplicative identity. In J. Beckman, S. Urbanczyk, and L. W. Dickey (Eds.), University of Massachusetts occasional papers in linguistics 18: Papers in optimality theory (pp. 249–384). Amherst, MA: Graduate Linguistics Students Association. (Available online on the Rutgers Optimality Archive website: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?id=568).
• McCarthy, John J.; and Prince, Alan S. (1999). Faithfulness and identity in prosodic morphology. In R. Kager, H. van der Hulst, and W. Zonneveld (Eds.), The prosody morphology interface (pp. 218–309). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Available online on the Rutgers Optimality Archive website: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?id=562).
• Moravcsik, Edith. (1978). Reduplicative constructions. In J. H. Greenberg (Ed.), Universals of human language: Word structure (Vol. 3, pp. 297–334). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Nevins, Andrew; and Vaux, Bert. (2003). Metalinguistic, shmetalinguistic: The phonology of shm-reduplication. (Presented at the Chicago Linguistics Society, April 2003). (Online version: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/@qclBWVDkyQupkDAI/yuTibEgY?78).
• Oller, D. Kimbrough. 1980. The emergence of the sounds of speech in infancy, in Child Phonology Vol. I, edited by G. H. Yeni-Komshian, J. F. Kavanaugh, and C. A. Ferguson. Academic Press, New York. pp. 93–112.
• Raimy, Eric. (2000). Remarks on backcopying. Linguistic Inquiry 31:541-552.
• Rehg, Kenneth L. (1981). Ponapean reference grammar. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii.
• Reichard, Gladys A. (1959). A comparison of five Salish languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 25, 239-253.
• Shaw, Patricia A. (1980). Theoretical Issues in Dakota Phonology and Morphology. Garland Publ: New York. pp. ix + 396.
• Shaw, Patricia A. (2004). Reduplicant order and identity: Never trust a Salish CVC either?. In D. Gerdts and L. Matthewson (Eds.), Studies in Salish linguistics in honor of M. Dale Kinkade. University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics (Vol. 17). Missoula, MT: University of Montana.
• Stark, Rachel E. (1980). Features of infant sounds: The emergence of cooing. Journal of Child Language Vol 5(3) Oct 1978, 379-390.
• Thun, Nils. (1963). Reduplicative words in English: A study of formations of the types tick-tock, hurly-burly, and shilly-shally. Uppsala.
• Yu, Alan C. L. (2004). Reduplication in English Homeric Infixation.
• Van Huyssteen, Gerhard B. (2004). Motivating the composition of Afrikaans reduplications: a cognitive grammar analysis. In: Radden, G & Panther, K-U. (eds.). Studies in Linguistic Motivation. ISBN 3-11-018245-9. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 269–292.
• Van Huyssteen, Gerhard B and Wissing, Daan P. (2007). Datagebaseerde Aspekte van Afrikaanse Reduplikasies. [Data-based Aspects of Afrikaans Reduplications]. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 25(3): 419–439.
• Watters, David E. (2002). A grammar of Kham. Cambridge grammatical descriptions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81245-3.
• Wilbur, Ronnie B. (1973). The phonology of reduplication. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois. (Also published by Indiana University Linguistics Club in 1973, republished 1997.)

External links

• Reduplication (Lexicon of Linguistics)
• What is reduplication? (SIL)
• Echo-Word Reduplication Lexicon
• Exhaustive list of reduplications in English
• List of contrastive focus reduplications in English
• graz database on reduplication (gdr) Institute of Linguistics, University of Graz

1. Features Values

The repetition of phonological material within a word for semantic or grammatical purposes is known as reduplication, a widely used morphological device in a number of the world’s languages. The languages classified on the accompanying map are sorted into three categories: languages that do not employ reduplication as a grammatical device, languages that productively employ both partial and full reduplication, and languages that only employ full reduplication.

Full reduplication is the repetition of an entire word, word stem (root with one or more affixes), or root. Examples are Nez Perce (Sahaptian; northwestern United States) full word lexical reduplication: té:mul  ‘hail’ vs. temulté:mul  ‘sleet’ (Aoki 1963: 43), or Tagalog full root reduplication, shown here with the verbalizing prefix mag-, where the reduplicant isip  is identical to the base isip  ‘think’: mag-isip  ‘to think’ vs. mag-isip-isip  ‘to think about seriously.’

Partial reduplication may come in a variety of forms, from simple consonant gemination or vowel lengthening to a nearly complete copy of a base. In Pangasinan (Austronesian; Philippines) various forms of reduplication are used to form plural nouns.

(1) Pangasinan (Rubino 2001b: 540) 

CV-	toó	‘man’	totóo	‘people’
-CV-	amigo	‘friend’	amimígo	‘friends’
CVC-	báley	‘town’	balbáley	‘towns’
C1V-	plato	‘plate’	papláto	‘plates’
CVCV-	manók	‘chicken’	manómanók	‘chickens’
Ce-	duég	‘carabao’	deréweg	‘carabaos’

The following feature values are represented on the map: 

It has been observed that languages with productive partial reduplication will also make use of full reduplication (Moravcsik 1978: 328), making semantic and grammatical distinctions in the use of the two reduplicative types as seen in Squamish (Salishan; British Columbia). 

(2) Squamish (Kuipers 1967) 

total:	k˚a’i ̪ʔk˚ai ̪	‘play hide and seek’
		from the root	k˚ai ̪
partial:	s-λ’lλ’lmut	‘old people’
		from the singular	s-λ’lmu’t

Languages that employ partial reduplication may do so in various ways. Reduplicated material is most often found at the beginning of a base, but occurs also in medial and final position. 

(3) Reduplicative prefixes, suffixes and infixes: 

a.	Hunzib (Nakh-Daghestanian; eastern Caucasus)
	initial CV(C) reduplication (van den Berg 1995: 34)
	bat’iyab	‘different’	bat’bat’iyab	‘very different’
	muǧáƛ	‘after’	mu.muǧáƛ	‘much later’
b.	Choctaw (Muskogean; Mississippi and Alabama)
	medial CV reduplication (Kimball 1988: 440)
	tonoli	‘to roll’	tononoli	‘to roll back and forth’
	binili	‘to sit’	bininili	‘to rise up and sit down’
c.	Paumarí (Arauan; Amazonas, Brazil)
	final disyllabic reduplication (Chapman and Derbyshire 1991)
	a-odora-dora-bakhia-loamani-hi
	1pl-gather.up-redup-frequently-really-theme
	‘We keep gathering them.’

The phonological nature of the reduplicated material varies from language to language and construction to construction. Reduplicative morphemes can be characterized by number of phonemes included in the copy, C, CV, CVC, V, CVCV, etc. (see 1, 3); the number of syllables to be reduplicated (see 3); or the number of repeated morae. In Ngiyambaa (Pama-Nyungan; New South Wales, Australia), the reduplicant consists of a copy of the first syllable and a copy of a light version of the second syllable, not including final vowel lengthening or a coda consonant (Donaldson 1980): magu-magu:  ‘around one,’ dhala-dhalarbi-ya  [redup-shine-pres] ‘to be pretty shiny’. In some cases, even the number of times a sequence is reduplicated is a morphological factor, e.g. Mokilese duplication vs. triplication: roar  ‘give a shudder’ > roarroar  ‘be shuddering’ > roarroarroar  ‘continue to shudder’ (Harrison 1973).

Reduplicative constructions can also be characterized as being simple, complex, or automatic. A simpleconstruction is one in which the reduplicant matches the base from which it is copied without phoneme changes or additions (see 3). A complex construction involves reduplication with some different phonological material, such as a vowel or consonant change or addition, or morpheme order reversal. Mangarrayi (Northern Territory, Australia) has a reduplicative construction to denote plurality in which the consonant of the second syllable and the vowel of the first syllable are copied to form a new second syllable in the derived word. The newly created syllable does not correspond to any constituent in the original word: walima  ‘young person’ > walalima  ‘young people’; yirag  ‘father’ > yirirag-ji  ‘father and children’ (Merlan 1982). In Tuvan (Turkic; Russia), diminutive ‘s’  reduplication copies the entire base except the initial consonant, which is replaced by [s] in the reduplicant, e.g. pelek  ‘gift’ > pelek-selek  ‘gift.diminutive’. For bases that are vowel-initial, an onset [s] is added to the reduplicant, e.g. aar  ‘heavy’ > aar-saar  ‘heavy.diminutive’; uuruk-suuruk  ‘simultaneously’ (Harrison 2000). Patterns such as these exist in a number of languages and are collectively referred to as “echo constructions.”

Nias (Sumatra, Austronesian; Sumatra) disyllabic reduplication sometimes includes voicing: a-fusi  ‘white’ a-vuzi-vuzi  ‘whitish’ (Brown 2001). Reduplication can also be discontinuous, in which case a small segment is inserted between the reduplicant and base. In Alamblak (Sepik; Papua New Guinea), ba  joins reduplicated constituents in an intensifying construction:

(4) Alamblak (Bruce 1984) 

hingna-marɲa-ba-marɲa-më-r

work-redup—ba-straight-remote.pst-3sg.m

‘he worked very well’

Automatic reduplication is reduplication that is obligatory in combination with another affix, and which does not add meaning to the overall construction; the affix and reduplicated matter together are monomorphemic, e.g. the Ilocano (Austronesian; Philippines) pretentative prefix aginCV-: singpet  ‘behave’, agin-si-singpet  ‘to pretend to behave.’

2. Function

Reduplicative morphemes can carry a number of meanings, and in some languages the same reduplicative morpheme is used to denote quite contrary meanings. For example, the Ilocano CVC- distributive prefix for nouns, when applied to numbers, specifies limitation: sab-sábong  ‘various flowers’, wal-waló  ‘only eight’. With verbs (and adjectives), reduplication may be used to denote a variety of things, such as number (plurality, distribution, collectivity), distribution of an argument, tense, aspect (continued or repeated occurrence; completion; inchoativity), attenuation, intensity, transitivity (valence, object defocusing), or reciprocity. For example, Alabama (Muskogean; Alabama) marks the temporary versus permanent distinction in verbal aspect via reduplication (vowel lengthening): loca  ‘to be black (covered in soot)’ vs. lóoca  ‘to be a black person’, as well as attenuation via germination: kasatka  ‘cold’ > kássatka  ‘cool’, lamatki  ‘straight’ > lámmatki  ‘pretty straight’ (Hardy and Montler 1988). Luiseño (Uto-Aztecan; California) employs two types of reduplication quite iconically to denote various plural actions: lawi  ‘to make a hole’, law-lawi  ‘to make two holes, make a hole twice’, lawa-láwi  ‘to make many holes, more than two’ (Kroeber and Grace 1960). Similarly, Lampung (Lampungic, Austronesian; Sumatra) uses different reduplicative constructions to signal varying degrees of intensity: balak-balak  ‘very large,’ xa-xabay  ‘somewhat afraid’ (Walker 1976). Mountain Arapesh (Torricelli; Papua New Guinea) employs reduplication to intensify or distribute the meaning of an action, often implying carelessness or lack of control on the part of the agent: su  ‘touch, hold’, susu  ‘touch all over, paw’; ri̵pok  ‘cut’, ri̵ri̵pok  ‘hack up’ (Dobrin 2001: 36).

With nouns, reduplicative morphemes have been known to denote concepts such as number (see 1), case, distributivity, indefiniteness, reciprocity, size (diminutive or augmentative), and associative qualities. For instance, Ilocano reciprocals: balem-bales (CVCN-revenge) ‘avenge each other’ (Rubino 2000: 84); Chukchi (Chukotko-Kamchatkan) absolutive singulars: jokwa-t (eider.duck-pl) ‘eider ducks’ vs. jokwa-jow (eider.duck-redup[abs.sg]) ‘eider duck, absolutive’ (Dunn 1999: 132); and Yawelmani (Penutian; California) associatives k’ɔhis  ‘buttocks’ > k’ɔk’ɔhis  ‘one with large buttocks’ (Newman 1944).

With numbers, reduplication has been found to express various categories including collectives, distributives, multiplicatives, and limitatives. For example, Santali (Munda; India) gɛ-gɛl  ‘10 each, by tens’; Pangasinan limitatives tal-talora  ‘only three’; Ao (Tibeto-Burman; India) final CVC reduplication distributives asem  ‘three’ > asemsem  ‘three each’, ténet  ‘seven’ > ténetnet  ‘seven each’ (Gowda 1975: 39).

Reduplication is also used derivationally to alter word class, e.g. Kayardild (Tangkic; Queensland, Australia) kandu  ‘blood’ > kandukandu  ‘red’ (Evans 1995); Luiseño (Uto-Aztecan) lepi  ‘to tan, soften’ > lepé-lpi-š  ‘pliable’ (Kroeber and Grace 1960); Tigak (Austronesian) giak  ‘send’ > gigiak  ‘messenger’ (Beaumont 1979); Khoekhoe (Central Khoisan; Namibia) causatives !óḿ  ‘difficult’ > !óm!om  ‘make something difficult’ (Hagman 1977: 18; note that the tone of the second syllable is lowered to mid tone).

Languages on the map are classified as having a productive reduplicative morpheme only if the morpheme can be systematically generalized to a set of open class words, and the morpheme can still be applied in the modern form of the language. Modern Greek, for example, is classified as a language that does not meaningfully employ reduplication, although there are a few reduplicative forms present in the modern language that are remnants of a previously productive reduplicative process. In Ancient Greek, the perfect was formed by a Ce— reduplicative prefix, e.g. gé-grapha  ‘I have written’; the modern equivalent is now periphrastic éxo ɣráp-si [I.have write-ptcp]. The old construction still appears, however, in some learned words, e.g. dhe-dho-ména (Ce-give-mediopassive) ‘data’, je-ɣon-os (Ce-become/happen-perfect) ‘event.’ Modern Greek has also borrowed from Turkish a nonproductive reduplicative prefix used with at least one affective/intensive adjective: tsir-tsiplákis  ‘buck naked’ from tsiplákis  ‘naked’ (cf. Turkish bem-beyaz  ‘very white’ from beyaz  ‘white’).

As can be seen from the map, reduplication is a much more pervasive phenomenon than someone coming from a Western European world view might imagine. Reduplication is very common throughout Austronesian (Pacific islands, Philippines, Indonesia, Madagascar), Australia, South Asia, and many parts of Africa, the Caucasus, and Amazonia. In the Western Hemisphere, some language families are particularly amenable to reduplication (Salishan, Pomoan, Uto-Aztecan, Algonquian, Yuman, Sahaptian, Siouan, etc.) while others are not, such as Athabaskan and Eskimo-Aleut. Western Europe is one area where reduplication does not play a critical role in the morphology. However, many Indo-European languages in the east, which are in contact with other language families, do have reduplicative morphemes.

3. Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Brian Joseph for the Greek data. 

Reduplicative Words

Updated on August 09, 2019

A reduplicative is a word or lexeme (such as mama) that contains two identical or very similar parts. Words such as these are also called tautonyms. The morphological and phonological process of forming a compound word by repeating all or part of it is known as reduplication. The repeated element is called a reduplicant.

David Crystal wrote in the second edition of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language:

«Items with identical spoken constituents, such as goody-goody and din-din, are rare. What is normal is for a single vowel or consonant to change between the first constituent and the second, such as see-saw and walkie-talkie.

«Reduplicatives are used in a variety of ways. Some simply imitate sounds: ding-dong, bow-wow. Some suggest alternative movements: flip-flop, ping-pong. Some are disparaging: ​dilly-dally, wishy-washy. And some intensify meaning: teeny-weeny, tip-top. Reduplication is not a major means of creating lexemes in English, but it is perhaps the most unusual one.»

(Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003)

Characteristics

Reduplicatives can rhyme but aren’t required to. They likely have a figure of sound represented in them, as alliteration (repetition of consonants) and assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) would be common in a word or phrase that doesn’t change much among its parts, such as in this by Patrick B. Oliphant, «Correct me if I’m wrong: the gizmo is connected to the flingflang connected to the watzis, watzis connected to the doo-dad connected to the ding dong.”

According to «Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History» by Kate Burridge:

«The majority of…reduplicated forms involve a play on the rhyme of words. The result can be a combination of two existing words, like flower-power and culture-vulture, but more usually one of the elements is meaningless, as in superduper, or both, as in namby-pamby. Now, it struck me the other day that a large number of these nonsense jingles begin with ‘h.’ Think of hoity-toity, higgledy-piggledy, hanky-panky, hokey-pokey, hob-nob, heebie-jeebies, hocus-pocus, hugger-mugger, hurly-burly, hodge-podge, hurdy-gurdy, hubbub, hullabaloo, harumscarum, helter-skelter, hurry-scurry, hooley-dooley and don’t forget Humpty Dumpty. And these are just a few!»
(HarperCollins Australia, 2011)

Reduplicatives differ from echo words in that there are fewer rules in forming reduplicatives.

Borrowed Reduplicatives

The history of reduplicatives in English starts in the Early Modern English (EMnE) era, which was about the end of the 15th century. In the third edition of «A Biography of the English Language,» C.M. Millward and Mary Hayes noted: 

«Reduplicated words do not appear at all until the EMnE period. When they do appear, they are usually direct borrowings from some other language, such as Portuguese dodo (1628), Spanish grugru (1796) and motmot (1651), French haha ‘ditch’ (1712), and Maori kaka (1774). Even the nursery words mama and papa were borrowed from French in the 17th century. So-so is probably the sole native formation from the EMnE period; it is first recorded in 1530.»

(Wadsworth, 2012)

Morphological and Phonological

Sharon Inkelas wrote in «Studies on Reduplication» that there are two separate methods, producing two different types or subsets of reduplication: phonological duplication and morphological reduplication. «Below we list some criteria for determining when a copying effect is reduplication and when it is phonological duplication.

(1) Phonological duplication serves a phonological purpose; morphological reduplication serves a morphological process (either by being a word-formation process itself or by enabling another word-formation process to take place…).

(2) Phonological duplication involves a single phonological segment…; morphological reduplication involves an entire morphological constituent (affix, root, stem, word), potentially truncated to a prosodic constituent (mora, syllable, foot).

(3) Phonological duplication involves, by definition, phonological identity, while morphological reduplication involves semantic, not necessarily phonological, identity.

(4) Phonological duplication is local (a copied consonant is a copy of the closest consonant, for example), while morphological reduplication is not necessarily local.»​ («Morphological Doubling Theory: Evidence for Morphological Doubling in Reduplication.» ed. by Bernhard Hurch. Walter de Gruyter, 2005)