<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Joseph and everyone,</div><div><br>As Camil Staps mentioned, you can find some information on the functions of reduplicated nouns across languages in Mattiola & Barotto (2023). Additionally, as Alex pointed out, it's not uncommon in the languages of the world to have "opposite" functions expressed through reduplicative patterns (though often not the same pattern as in Mwotlap).<br><br>To my knowledge, reduplicative patterns used to express the superlative function (in its strict sense, not just prototypicality or intensification) are rarely attested cross-linguistically. However, in a very recent work of mine (unpublished yet), I found some cases of comparatives and superlatives expressed through reduplication (not full though) in certain Salishan languages (for example, Upper Chehalis). You might want to look at a recent PhD thesis on reduplication in Salishan languages (Mellesmoen 2025).<br><br>I also want to note that I am not sure we can consider cases like "deal of deals" as true reduplication, since between the two elements occur a subordinating relation and they occupy different "slots" within another construction (English Genitive Construction: X of Y), thus probably not being a repetition of the same element (X-X/X X), but rather two distinct elements filling different "positions" in a construction, and these positions are instantiated (let's say by chance) by two forms of the same lexical item (X of X-PL).<br><br>Best,<br>Simone</div><div><br>- Mattiola, Simone & Alessandra Barotto. 2023. Nominal reduplication in cross-linguistic perspective: from PLURALITY to CHANGE OF REFERENTS’ SPECIFICITY. <i>Studies in language </i>47(1). 135-189. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21050.mat">https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21050.mat</a></div><div>- Mellesmoen, Gloria Madeleine. 2025. <i>The grammar of Salish reduplication</i>. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia dissertation. <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0448511">https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0448511</a></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">---</font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">Dr. Simone Mattiola<br></font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">Assistant professor (senior) in Linguistics</font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">Department of Humanities</font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">University of Pavia</font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1">Piazza del Lino 2, 27100, Pavia (Italy)</font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><font size="1"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/simone-mattiola/" target="_blank">Website</a></font></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><a href="https://unipv.unifind.cineca.it/individual?uri=http%3A%2F%2Firises.unipv.it%2Fresource%2Fperson%2F769871" target="_blank"><font size="1">Institutional page</font></a></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><a href="https://unipv.academia.edu/SimoneMattiola" target="_blank"><font size="1">Academia.edu page</font></a></p><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin:0px"><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simone-Mattiola" target="_blank"><font size="1">Research gate page</font><br></a></p></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Il giorno gio 7 ago 2025 alle ore 12:14 Stefan Savić via Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> ha scritto:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div dir="auto">Hello, </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">No references come to mind, only two more examples with a superlative function from BCMS (Bosnian-Croatian-Mobntenegrin-Serbian): </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">na kraju krajeva 'at the end of the day, lit. on end of (all) ends'</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">dno dna 'rock bottom, used metaphorically, often to describe someone's reprehensive behaviour or acts, lit. bottom of (the) bottom'</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Best, </div>
<div dir="auto">Stefan</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
<br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Aug 6, 2025, 6:46 PM Joseph Brooks via Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> wrote:</div>
<blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204)">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Hi,</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">I'm wondering if anyone knows of any (cross-ling or for specific languages) work on this type of construction where a noun/phrase can be fully reduplicated for a superlative function
or other meanings such as an especially remarkable or exaggerated instance of something. For ex in Chini (Lower Sepik-Ramu, PNG) anggunu 'mosquito' vs anggunu anggunu '(place known for) especially bad mosquitoes'. Or as in English 'man's man', 'deal of deals'.</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Thanks,</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Joseph</div>
<div dir="auto" class="gmail_quote">_______________________________________________<br>
Lingtyp mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<a href="https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Lingtyp mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<a href="https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
</blockquote></div>