[Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives

Tue Dec 18 11:43:41 UTC 2018

dear Eva, dear all,

Indeed the polysemy of reduplication is often fascinating, due to its
semantic versatility.

In Mwotlap (Oceanic, Vanuatu) reduplication can encode diminutive
*and* augmentative
values.

(1)   n-ēy    'lobster'
=>    n-*ēyēy*  'prawn'       [Diminutive reading]

(2)   n-ēm̄     *liwo     *=>   n-ēm̄     *lililwo*

/Art-house  large/            /Art-house  large~RED/
'a large house'   =>  a) 'a very large house'  [Intensive reading]
                      b) 'many large houses'   [Plural reading]

(3)  na-qyan̄     'a hole'  (typically one large hole, e.g. 2-feet wide)
     na-*qyaqyan̄*  'many small holes'  (e.g. on a sieve)

[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.]

Used with verbs, reduplication can encode such values as distributional,
pluractional, iterative, habitual, imperfective, intensional.

These uses of reduplication are exemplified and discussed in a paper (available
here <http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#10> under 2004*a*)
where I tried to address the semantic fluidity of reduplication:

   - François, Alexandre. 2004. *La réduplication en mwotlap : les
   paradoxes du fractionnement*.
   In É. Zeitoun (ed.),* Les langues austronésiennes*. Special issue of *Faits
   de langues* n°24: 177–194.

(My reflection was inspired by Francesc Queixalós' notion of
"distensivity", cited earlier on in this thread.)

In a nutshell, I proposed to describe the effect of reduplication in
Mwotlap as a form of *semantic fragmentation*  ["fractionnement"].
If you take a large biscuit and smash it, you end up with

   - *less than* a biscuit    (= lots of small pieces of a biscuit, none of
   which is a full one)
   - *more than* a biscuit  (= lots of small biscuits)

This could be called the paradox of the Magical pocket
<https://dinolingo.com/japanese-for-kids/japanese-culture/magical-pocket-pokettono-naka-japanese-childrens-song/>
.

The effects of reduplication on verbs also are similarly versatile, and can
be understood as also reflecting a form of (notional, abstract)
"fragmentation".

Thus, the simple form *tot* 'chop' refers to a single (semelfactive) act of
chopping, typically understood as complete [e.g. chopping off a branch in a
single stroke].
Its reduplicated counterpart *totot* will, iconically, describe a series of
(mini-) chopping events, which can be understood as:

   - pluractional, iterative
   (several acts of chopping; chopping off several branches)
   - intensive
   (considerable amount of chopping)
   - tentative / conative
   (many attempts, typically unsuccessful, at chopping at smtg)
   - habitual
   ("chopping" as a habitual activity, e.g. describing the work of a
   lumberjack)
   - intensional
   (infinitive, nominalisation, non-finite:  the notion of chopping, as
   opposed to the description of a single referential ["extensional"] act)
   - imperfective aspect
   (describing an ongoing, and hence incomplete, action of chopping)
   - atelic / detransitivised uses
   - *tot* = telic, transitive;
      - *totot* = atelic, labile  (possibly intransitive)
      >> used in antipassive-like constructions with incorporated object,
      referring to the activity. [cf. Mithun 1984]

These verbal uses of reduplication can sometimes be understood as "
*augmentative*" in a way, through their pluractional / iterative /
intensive readings.  But in a different way, they are also akin to "
*diminutives*": because instead of a nice, massive one-stroke act of
chopping, reduplication can refer to repeated, possibly unsuccessful,
mini-acts of quasi-chopping.  As per the paradox of the Magical pocket.

best,
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François

LaTTiCe <http://lattice.cnrs.fr/Francois-Alexandre?lang=en> — CNRS–
<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Academia page <https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois> – Personal
homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
------------------------------

On Tue, 18 Dec 2018 at 09:37, Françoise Rose <francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr>
wrote:

> Here is another such discussion :
>
>
>
> Queixalós, Francesc. 2002. “Sur la distensivité”, in *Mémoires de la
> Société de Linguistique de Paris*: XII.La pluralité.
>
>
>
>
>
> *De :* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *De la part de*
> Zygmunt Frajzyngier
> *Envoyé :* lundi 17 décembre 2018 04:25
> *À :* Bill Palmer <bill.palmer at newcastle.edu.au>; Lier, Eva van <
> E.H.vanLier at uva.nl>; lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> *Objet :* Re: [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives
>
>
>
> Hi, Bill,
>
> You will find an early discussion of the plurality/diminutive function of
> reduplication in:
>
> Frajzyngier, Zygmunt. 1965. An analysis of intensive forms in Hausa verbs. *Rocznik
> Orientalistyczny* 29.2.31-51.
>
> All best,
>
> Zygmunt
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Bill Palmer <bill.palmer at newcastle.edu.au>
> *Date: *Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 2:06 PM
> *To: *"Lier, Eva van" <E.H.vanLier at uva.nl>, "
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org" <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives
>
>
>
> Hi Eva
>
>
>
> I’ve been doing some work recently on verbal number/pluractionality,
> particularly in some previously uninvestigated Papuan languages and in
> North American languages, and I’ve been struck by the fact that in some
> languages the pluractional morphology seems to give a diminutive reading
> instead of the verbal number meaning. This intersection between verbal
> number and diminutives is something that has not been investigated, to my
> knowledge, so I’m very pleased to hear of your project. I suggest thinking
> explicitly about verbal number, and I think it would be worth considering
> that the proposed aspectual functions you mention are actual verbal number,
> not aspect. It seems to me that some of the examples you give may be verbal
> number, not diminutive. The Hebrew example seems to conform to that. The
> four Slavic examples, Croatian, Czech, Slovene and Russian, might also be –
> I’d be interested in knowing what the underived verbs mean in those cases,
> and ditto with the Huave example. Maybe you and I could have a chat about
> this at some point. I’d be interested in hearing more about what you’re
> doing.
>
>
>
> best
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *On Behalf Of
> *Lier, Eva van
> *Sent:* Friday, 14 December 2018 11:34 PM
> *To:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> *Subject:* [Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives
>
>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> We are looking for examples and literature on verbal diminutives in and
> across languages.
>
>
>
> Currently, we have some information on verbal diminutives in various
> languages. Some examples include: German *hüsteln *(‘to cough lightly’),
> Italian *dormicchiare *(‘to doze’), Croatian *grickati *(‘to nibble’),
> Czech *třepotat *(‘to flutter’), Slovene *igričkati* (‘to play around’),
> Russian *xaxan’kat *(‘to giggle’), Finnish *luk-ais-e *(‘skim through (a
> text)’ < *luk- *‘read’), San’ani Arabic * tSaynai *(‘to pretend not to
> hear’ < *Saanaj *‘to not hear’), Hebrew *kifcec *(‘to jump around < *kafac
> *‘to jump’), Passamaquoddy *ə̆pə-ss-ìn *(sit-dim-animate.intransitive.2 <
> ‘sit down, little one!’), Huave *jujyuij *(‘to shake gently’), and Lardil
> *laala* (‘to jab lightly’ < *latha* ‘to spear’).
>
>
>
> These examples show that the morphological patterns that we subsume under
> “verbal diminutives” fulfill a number of semantic functions, such as
> iterative/frequentative/durative, low intensity, distributivity, and
> attenuation. These functions may extend (pragmatically) to playfulness,
> tentativeness, pretense/irrealis/fictiveness, trivialization, aimlessness,
> affection/intimacy, and contempt/pejorativeness. In some cases (see
> Passamaquoddy above), verbal diminutive marking implies that an event
> participant is a child or an otherwise small entity.
>
>
>
> Also, verbal diminutives can be expressed by various morphological means,
> including affixation, reduplication, and non-concatenative morphology. In
> some cases, the verbal diminutive markers are related to nominal
> diminutives; in other cases, they seem to have different origins, such as
> spatial markers. The productivity of verbal diminutive formation apparently
> differs between languages.
>
>
>
> We would be grateful for any references and/or examples of verbal
> diminutives in the language(s) of your expertise, including their
> semantics/pragmatics, formation, (diachronic) origin, productivity and
> usage frequency.
>
>
>
> We will post a summary.
>
>
>
> Many thanks in advance!
>
>
>
> Eva van Lier, Jenny Audring, Sterre Leufkens
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Eva van Lier, PhD
>
> Department of Linguistics
> University of Amsterdam
>
>
>
> www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier
>
>
>
> P.C.Hoofthuis, kamer 6.45
> Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam
>
>
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