<div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">dear Joseph, dear all,</font></div></div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Indeed the polysemy of reduplication is often fascinating, due to its semantic versatility.</font></div><div style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">In Mwotlap (Oceanic, Vanuatu) reduplication can encode diminutive <i>and</i> augmentative values. </font></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div><div><font face="monospace, monospace">(1) n-ēy 'lobster'</font></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace">=> n-<b>ēyēy</b> 'prawn'</font><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace"> </span><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace"> [Diminutive reading]</span></div><div><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace"><br></span></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace">(2) n-ēm̄ <b>liwo </b>=> n-ēm̄ <b>lililwo</b></font></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><div><font face="monospace, monospace" size="1">/Art-house large/ </font><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace;font-size:x-small">/Art-house large~RED/ </span></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace">'a large house' => a) 'a very large house'</font><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace"> </span><span style="font-family:monospace,monospace"> [Intensive reading]</span></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace"> b) 'many large houses' [Plural reading]</font></div></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div><div><div><font face="monospace, monospace">(3) na-qyan̄ 'a hole' (typically one large hole, e.g. 2-feet wide)</font></div><div><font face="monospace, monospace"> na-<b>qyaqyan̄</b> 'many small holes' (e.g. on a sieve)</font></div><br></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">[Note: Mwotlap doesn't encode grammatical plural on non-human referents; so the plural reading is here implied by lexical derivation, rather than being a grammatical plural. Some human nouns form their grammatical plural by reduplication.]</font></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"></span></font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">These uses of reduplication are exemplified and discussed in a paper (</span><a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#2004a" target="_blank" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">available here</a><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">) where I tried to address the semantic fluidity of reduplication:</span></div><div><ul><li><font color="#351c75" face="verdana, sans-serif">François, Alexandre. 2004. <b>La réduplication en mwotlap : les paradoxes du fractionnement</b>.<br>In É. Zeitoun (ed.),<i> Les langues austronésiennes</i>. Special issue of <i>Faits de langues</i> n°24: 177–194.</font></li></ul></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">In a nutshell, I proposed to describe the effect of reduplication in Mwotlap as a form of <i>semantic fragmentation</i> ["fractionnement"].</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">If you take a large biscuit and smash it, you end up with </font></div><div><ul><li><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><u>less than</u> a biscuit (= lots of small pieces of a biscuit, none of which is a full one)<br></font></li><li><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><u>more than</u> a biscuit (= lots of small biscuits)<br></font></li></ul></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="verdana, sans-serif">The nominal uses of reduplication can be explained by the same sort of semantic ambiguity, between "more" and "less".</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Used with verbs, reduplication can encode such<span class="gmail_default"> diverse</span> values as distributional, pluractional, iterative, habitual, imperfective, intensional. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Just like with nouns, these verbal uses of reduplication can sometimes be understood as "<u style="">augmentative</u>" in a way, through their pluractional / iterative / intensive readings. But in a different way, they are also akin to "<u style="">diminutives</u>": because instead of a massive one-stroke act of chopping, reduplication can refer to repeated, possibly unsuccessful, mini-acts of quasi-chopping.</font></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><br></div></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">best</font></div></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" style="" face="verdana, sans-serif">Alex</font><hr style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:13.33px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" width="70" size="1" noshade align="left"><p style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><font size="2"><span style="color:rgb(69,129,142)">Alex François</span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></font></p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a style="text-decoration:none" href="http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">LaTTiCe</a> — <a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="https://www.cnrs.fr/en" rel="noopener" target="_blank">CNRS</a></span></font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font></span><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="https://www.cnrs.fr/en" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1">—</font></span></a><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ENS</a></span></font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none">–</span></font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="https://www.psl.eu/en" rel="noopener" target="_blank">PSL</a></span></font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"> — </font></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sorbonne nouvelle</a></span></font></span><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></font></span></a><font size="1"><a title="ENS" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" target="_blank"></a><br></font><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/alex-francois" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Australian National University</a></span></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Personal homepage</a><br></span></font></span></div><div><font size="1">___________________</font><font size="1">___________________</font><font size="1">___</font><br><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></font></span></div></div></div></div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Camil Staps via Lingtyp</strong> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>></span><br>Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 at 09:43<br>Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] function of fully reduplicated nouns<br>To: Joseph Brooks <<a href="mailto:brooks.josephd@gmail.com">brooks.josephd@gmail.com</a>>, Linguistic Typology <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>><br></div><br><br><u></u>
<div>
<p>Hi Joseph,</p>
<p>Contrastive focus reduplication offers a "prototypical" meaning,
as in SALAD-salad (green, as opposed to a tuna/fruit salad, say -
see Ghomeshi et al. 2004). It is attested in many languages, but
does not match your description "especially remarkable or
exaggerated" exactly. Mattiola & Barotto (2023) mention Kikuyu
and Modern Greek as marking prototypicality with full
reduplication, and Alawa as marking it with partial reduplication.
They also recognize a function "intensification", marked by
partial reduplication in Luvale (e.g. cixika 'fever' → cixikaxika
'a great fever'), Rukai, Tiri-Mea, and Tonga, and by echo
reduplication in Western Farsi.<br>
</p>
<p>I recently performed a cross-linguistic survey of functions of
nominal reduplication, which will appear in Linguistic Typology.
In addition to the languages already mentioned, I found a
prototypicality meaning (or something similar) expressed by full
reduplication in Nande (Mutaka 1990):</p>
<p>- aká-húka 'insect' → aká-húká-húka 'real insect' (aká- is an
initial vowel and stem prefix; the stem is fully reduplicated).</p>
<p>Other possibly relevant examples, with partial reduplication,
from Tswana (Krüger 2006: 41, 43, without bases):</p>
<p>- mogologolo 'a very old man'<br>
- tautau 'a real strong lion'<br>
</p>
<p>... Turkmen (Clark 1998: 510):</p>
<p>- gap-gara 'coal black'<br>
- gıp-gırmıδı 'bright red'<br>
- gap-garaŋkı 'pitch dark'<br>
- tap-takır 'smooth as silk'<br>
- čıp čınım 'absolute truth'</p>
<p>... and Zimbabwean Ndebe (Hyman & Sibanda 2008: 307):</p>
<p>- ku-gulu 'leg' → ku-gulu.gulu 'a real leg'<br>
- bi-la 'intestines' → bi-la.bi-la 'real intestines'<br>
</p>
<p>Thai has a precision/intensive meaning marked by echo
reduplication (Noss 1964: 71):</p>
<p>- /phləən/ 'to be absorbed → /phl^əəd-phləən/ 'completely
engrossed'<br>
- /n`yaj/ 'to be tired' → /nèd-n`yaj/ 'exhausted'<br>
- /klaaŋ/ 'middle, amidst' → /thâam-klaaŋ/ 'exact center'</p>
<p>Finally, Tsou has a parallel for the "place known for ..." in
Chini, expressed with parallel reduplication (Tung 1964: 169):</p>
<p>- púzu 'fire' → pupúzu 'fireplace (where there is plenty of
fire)'<br>
- pái 'rice plant' → papái 'rice field (where rice plants are
many)'</p>
<p>Jaqaru also has a partial reduplication pattern with this
meaning. I don't have access to the original example from where
I'm writing, but Hardman (2000: 52–53) mentions at least 'rock' →
'area with many rocks' and 'house' → 'place with many houses'.</p>
<p>The Tsou and Jaqaru patterns do not include a
prototypical/intensive meaning component though.</p>
<p>All best,<br>
Camil<br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">--
Dr. Camil Staps
Leibniz Centre General Linguistics (ZAS)</pre>
<div>On 2025-8-7 00:45, Joseph Brooks via
Lingtyp wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>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><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks,<br>
</div>
<div>Joseph</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
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