Reduplication

[Frank Seidel]

Dear Scott,

while it has nothing to do with reduplication there are several
constructions in Yeyi (Bantu, Niger-Congo) which pay significant attention
to the size and shape of things. Nominal derivation covers, among other
things, the semantics of hugeness, elongated items, smallness, and
stuntedness. It is interesting to note for the discussion here, that
derived elongated items in Yeyi often carry a connotation of thinness
(which arguably can be viewed as a form of diminutive) and in terms of
affective meaning items thusly derived are accompanied by a a specialized
pejorative connotation of raggedness or inadequacy (which goes counter to
the general assumption that all diminutive semantics go along with positive
affective semantics of endearment etc.). For Yeyi this stands in contrast
with the semantics of smallness accomplished by another derivative
formation, whose primary semantic core is just that smallness (or youth).
There are other interesting corelations of stuntedness and derogative,
while on the other hand thickness or bulbousness are not accompanied or
coupled with positive affective meaning.

Smallness:

  (222)

*mu-pundiI *(*ba-*) ‘child’ > *ka-pundiI* (*tu-*) ‘baby, toddler’

* *

*mu-shoroiii* (*mi-*) ‘head’ > *ka-shoroiii* (*tu-*) ‘small head’

* *

*li-zibaI* (*ma-*) ‘pool of water, waterhole’ > *ka-zibaI* (*tu-*) ‘small
pool of water’

The diminutive semantics of class 11 are not as general as the above and
refer to thinness. This derivation often implies that the item at issue is
inadequate or raggedy.

(223)

*mu-tshwaII* (*mi-*) ‘rope’ > *ru-thswaII* (*zun-*) ‘thin rope’

* *

*mu-ndaliII* (*mi-*) ‘maize’ > *ru-ndaliII* (*zun-*) ‘thin plant of maize,
long thin cone of maize’

* *

*mu-kurukaziII* (*ba-*) ‘old woman’ > *ru-kurukaziII* (*zun-*) ‘thin (and
possibly raggedy) old woman’

Stunted shape and/or derogative:

  (227)

*mu-kaziiii* (*ba-*) ‘woman’ > *shi-kaziiii* (*zi-*) ‘’bitch’ (fig.)’

* *

*lu-wuyuiii* (*ma-*) ‘baobab’ > *shu-wuyuiii* (zu-) ‘short and thick baobab’

Bigness/Thickness:

  (225)

*mu-neII* (*mi-*) ‘finger’ > *li-neII* (*ma-*) ‘big/thick finger’

* *

*shi-pataII* (*zi-*) ‘fruit’ > *li-pataII* (*ma-*) ‘big/thick fruit’

* *

*mu-tiII *(*mi-*) ‘tree’ > *li.tiII* (*ma-*) ‘big tree’

Hugeness/Bulbousness:

(226)

*shi-pataII* (*zi-*) ‘fruit’ > *mu-pataII* (*mi-*) ‘huge fruit’

* *

*ì-tàfúrèexf* (*zi-*) ‘table’ > *mù-tàfúrèexf* (*mi-*) ‘huge table’

* *

*li-yiII* (*ma-*) ‘egg’ > *mu-yiII* (*mi-*) ‘huge egg’

* *

*lu-dzundzoI* (*ma-*) ‘cloud’ > *mu-dzundzoI* *(mi-)* ‘1. huge cloud 2.
grey overcast sky’

* *

*u-nyandaI *(*ba-*) ‘barbelfish’ >* mu-nyandaI* (*mi-*) ‘huge/bulbous
barbelfish’)

* *

*i-nshwiII* *(zin-)* ‘fish’ > *mu-nshwiII* *(mi-)* ‘huge/bulbous fish’


 Hoping that you find this usefull, despite the fact that reduplication
does not factor here.

Examples are from
Seidel, Frank. 2008. A Grammar of Yeyi. A Bantu Language of Southern
Africa. Koeln: Koeppe Verlag.

Kind regards,

Frank

-- 
Frank Seidel, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Center for African Studies at the University of Florida
427 Grinter Hall - PO Box 115560
Gainesville, FL 32611-5560
Tel: 352.392.2183
Fax: 352.392.2435

 Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu> wrote:

> Walman, a Papuan language, is similar to what Östen says about Russian.
>  While the diminutive most typically conveys both small size and
> endearment, it can also be used only to express endearment or only to
> express small size.
>
> Matthew
>
>
> On 3/3/13 10:41 PM, Östen Dahl wrote:
>
>> I am not sure if Paul's claim about the non-existence of diminutive
>> constructions that refer only to small size implies that no diminutive
>> could ever be used referring only to size, but at least in Russian there
>> are diminutives that seem fairly free of evaluative or expressive meaning.
>> For instance, "stol-ik" does not seem to mean anything but "small table":
>> http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/**%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%**B8%D0%BA<http://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA>
>>
>> - östen
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion List for ALT [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.**LINGUISTLIST.ORG<LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>]
>> On Behalf Of Paul Hopper
>> Sent: den 3 mars 2013 22:14
>> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.**ORG<LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
>> Subject: Re: Reduplication
>>
>> Dear Alex, David and All,
>>
>> Thanks, Alex, for sharing this most interesting article. I notice that in
>> fact even in the examples you cite, smallness is not present as an
>> undiluted feature of reduplication--"distribution" or "fragmentation" is
>> also involved, and sometimes also collectivity and plurality, which is (and
>> you point this out also) characteristic of the meaning of reduplication in
>> other Austronesian languages. You note a kind of paradox
>> here: "distribution" is expansive, but diminution is contractive:
>>
>> "On touche ici du doigt un paradoxe de la réduplication nominale. D'un
>> côté, l'effet d'éclatement suggère une croissance en étendue, comme si
>> fragmenter une entité revenait à la multiplier, à la distribuer sur un
>> grand nombre d'occurrences – d'où les valeurs plurielles et collectives.
>> Mais par ailleurs, ce même processus de fragmentation revient à
>> représenter la notion N sous une forme réduite, comme s'il s'agissait,
>> cette fois-ci, de la diviser – d'où les valeurs diminutives attestées en
>> mwotlap, comme dans d'autres langues austronésiennes." (from Alex François'
>> article)
>>
>> I'm not convinced that we have examples of a diminutive construction that
>> refers only to small size, but my confidence is wavering a little.
>>
>> - Paul
>>
>>
>>
>>  hello,
>>>
>>> Reduplication is common in Austronesian languages, with a variety of
>>> meanings.
>>> One of these meanings (albeit a rare one, and non-productive) is
>>> diminutive.
>>>
>>> e.g. West Tarangan (Maluku, Indonesia):   *seldi* 'shrimp' =>
>>> *sel**sel**di*'small shrimp'   (Nivens 1993: 384)
>>>
>>>         Manam (Oceanic, PNG):  *moata* 'snake'  =>  *moata-moata* 'worm'
>>> (Lichtenberk 1983: 611)
>>>
>>>         Mwotlap (Oceanic, Vanuatu):  *Ä“y* 'lobster'  =>  *Ä“y**Ä“y*
>>> 'shrimp'
>>> (François 2004: 181)
>>>                             *qol* 'surgeonfish, larger variety'  =>
>>> *qolqol*'surgeonfish, smaller variety'
>>>
>>> I mentioned these examples in my discussion of reduplication and its
>>> polysemy in the language Mwotlap.
>>> Reduplication is there only fully productive for verbs and adjectives;
>>> for nouns, it is a process of lexical derivation, which only affects
>>> some lexemes.
>>> Its semantics include (on nouns) diminutive, qualitative, plural, and
>>> (on
>>> verbs) pluractional, distributive, intensive, atelic, intensional,
>>> infinitive, etc.  I tentatively proposed the notion of "fragmentation"
>>> as a way to capture reduplication's core underlying meaning in this
>>> language.
>>>
>>> François, Alexandre. 2004. La réduplication en mwotlap : les
>>> paradoxes du
>>> fractionnement<http://alex.**francois.free.fr/data/**AlexFrancois_2004_*
>>> *Reduplication_Mwotlap.pdf<http://alex.francois.free.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2004_Reduplication_Mwotlap.pdf>
>>> >.
>>> In Elizabeth Zeitoun (ed.), *Les langues
>>> austronésiennes<http://fdl.**univ-lemans.fr/fr/liste-des-**
>>> numeros/n23_24.html<http://fdl.univ-lemans.fr/fr/liste-des-numeros/n23_24.html>
>>> >.
>>> *Special issue of *Faits de langues* n°24: 177-195.
>>>
>>> Incidentally, Mwotlap does not use reduplication for hypocoristic
>>> functions.  The diminutive meaning is thus here "pure", i.e. not
>>> contaminated by any affective meaning such as expressivity, endearment
>>> or familiarity  — a situation Paul suggested should be “difficult,
>>> perhaps impossible† to find.
>>>
>>> best,
>>> Alex
>>>
>>> ********
>>>
>>> 2013/3/3 Anvita Abbi<anvitaabbi at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>  Dear Scott,
>>>> Base reduplication for diminutives or for approximation of taste and
>>>> color adjectives is common in most of the Indo-Aryan languages , e.g.
>>>> *hari '*green'* *but *hari hari *'greenish' or *karwa *'bitter' but
>>>> *karwa karwa *'somewhat bitter' in Hindi.
>>>> Munda languages such as Kharia also have similar structures, e.g.
>>>> *goej*  'dead' but *goej goej* 'dead-like'.
>>>> Kurux, a North Dravidian language shares the structure with Hindi
>>>> because of contact with IA languages.
>>>> Austroasiatic languages such as Khasi is very rich in expressive
>>>> morphology to indicate diminutive meaning but the non reduplicated
>>>> part can not be considered a base as it has no meaning of its own.
>>>> For details see *Reduplication in South Asian languages. An areal,
>>>> typological and historical study *(1991) by Anvita Abbi.. Allied
>>>> Publishers.
>>>> Anvita
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Scott T. Shell<ay2493 at wayne.edu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Hello all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm looking for languages that reduplicate base forms to create
>>>>> diminutives.
>>>>>
>>>>> An example from Bamyili Creole:
>>>>>
>>>>> bragbrag        'froggy'          pəpəp         'puppy'
>>>>> daŋgidaŋgi      'donkey'          daldal        'dollie'
>>>>>
>>>>> Can anyone else help add to this list? It is important that the
>>>>> reduplication process carries no grammatical information. Also, I
>>>>> must point out that I am not looking for partial base reduplication.
>>>>> It must be the entire base.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Scott T. Shell
>>>>> Graduate Student, Wayne State University
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Prof. Anvita Abbi
>>>> Centre for Linguistics
>>>> School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies Jawaharlal Nehru
>>>> University New Delhi 110067 www.andamanese.net
>>>> President: Linguistic Society of India
>>>> URL:
>>>> http://www.jnu.ac.in/**FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?**
>>>> SendUserName=anvita<http://www.jnu.ac.in/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=anvita>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Alex François
>>> LACITO-CNRS<http://lacito.vjf.**cnrs.fr/index_en.htm<http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/index_en.htm>>,
>>> France;
>>> Australian National
>>> University<http://chl.anu.edu.**au/disciplines/linguistics/**index.php<http://chl.anu.edu.au/disciplines/linguistics/index.php>
>>> >,
>>> Canberra
>>> http://alex.francois.free.fr
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Paul J. Hopper,
>> Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Dietrich
>> College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University,
>> Pittsburgh, PA 15213, Tel. 412-683-1109, Fax 412-268-7989.
>>
>> Adjunct Professor of Linguistics,
>> Department of Linguistics,
>> University of Pittsburgh.
>>
>> Senior External Fellow,
>> School of Linguistics and Literature,
>> Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Freiburg i.Br., Germany
>>
>
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