[Lingtyp] function of fully reduplicated nouns

[Camil Staps]

Hi Joseph,

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.

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):

- aká-húka 'insect' → aká-húká-húka 'real insect' (aká- is an initial 
vowel and stem prefix; the stem is fully reduplicated).

Other possibly relevant examples, with partial reduplication, from 
Tswana (Krüger 2006: 41, 43, without bases):

- mogologolo 'a very old man'
- tautau 'a real strong lion'

... Turkmen (Clark 1998: 510):

- gap-gara 'coal black'
- gıp-gırmıδı 'bright red'
- gap-garaŋkı 'pitch dark'
- tap-takır 'smooth as silk'
- čıp čınım 'absolute truth'

... and Zimbabwean Ndebe (Hyman & Sibanda 2008: 307):

- ku-gulu 'leg' → ku-gulu.gulu 'a real leg'
- bi-la 'intestines' → bi-la.bi-la 'real intestines'

Thai has a precision/intensive meaning marked by echo reduplication 
(Noss 1964: 71):

- /phləən/ 'to be absorbed → /phl^əəd-phləən/ 'completely engrossed'
- /n`yaj/ 'to be tired' → /nèd-n`yaj/ 'exhausted'
- /klaaŋ/ 'middle, amidst' → /thâam-klaaŋ/ 'exact center'

Finally, Tsou has a parallel for the "place known for ..." in Chini, 
expressed with parallel reduplication (Tung 1964: 169):

- púzu 'fire' → pupúzu 'fireplace (where there is plenty of fire)'
- pái 'rice plant' → papái 'rice field (where rice plants are many)'

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'.

The Tsou and Jaqaru patterns do not include a prototypical/intensive 
meaning component though.

All best,
Camil

--
Dr. Camil Staps
Leibniz Centre General Linguistics (ZAS)

On 2025-8-7 00:45, Joseph Brooks via Lingtyp wrote:
> Hi,
>
> 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'.
>
> Thanks,
> Joseph
>
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