[Lingtyp] function of fully reduplicated nouns

[Stefan Savić]

Hello,

No references come to mind, only two more examples with a superlative function from BCMS (Bosnian-Croatian-Mobntenegrin-Serbian):

na kraju krajeva 'at the end of the day, lit. on end of (all) ends'

dno dna 'rock bottom, used metaphorically, often to describe someone's reprehensive behaviour or acts, lit. bottom of (the) bottom'

Best,
Stefan


On Wed, Aug 6, 2025, 6:46 PM Joseph Brooks via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>> 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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