[Lingtyp] function of fully reduplicated nouns

[Paolo Ramat]

Dear  Joseph and All
to my knowledge the most recent article on reduplication is my contribution
to the Festschrift fuer Thomas  Stolz published by De Gruyter : " Exploring
Structures in Languages " 2025. The title of my article is '
Whhat(ever)will be, will be'
Different types of RED are discussed there.
Best, Paolo.

Prof. Dr. Paolo Ramat
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Socio corrispondente
'Academia Europaea'
'Societas Linguistica Europaea', Honorary Member
Università di Pavia (retired)
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS Pavia) (retired)

piazzetta Arduino 11 - I 27100 Pavia
##39 0382 27027
347 044 98 44

Il Gio 7 Ago 2025, 13:15 SIMONE MATTIOLA via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> ha scritto:

> Dear Joseph and everyone,
>
> As Camil Staps mentioned, you can find some information on the functions
> of reduplicated nouns across languages in Mattiola & Barotto (2023).
> Additionally, as Alex pointed out, it's not uncommon in the languages of
> the world to have "opposite" functions expressed through reduplicative
> patterns (though often not the same pattern as in Mwotlap).
>
> To my knowledge, reduplicative patterns used to express the superlative
> function (in its strict sense, not just prototypicality or intensification)
> are rarely attested cross-linguistically. However, in a very recent work of
> mine (unpublished yet), I found some cases of comparatives and superlatives
> expressed through reduplication (not full though) in certain Salishan
> languages (for example, Upper Chehalis). You might want to look at a recent
> PhD thesis on reduplication in Salishan languages (Mellesmoen 2025).
>
> I also want to note that I am not sure we can consider cases like "deal of
> deals" as true reduplication, since between the two elements occur a
> subordinating relation and they occupy different "slots" within another
> construction (English Genitive Construction: X of Y), thus probably not
> being a repetition of the same element (X-X/X X), but rather two distinct
> elements filling different "positions" in a construction, and these
> positions are instantiated (let's say by chance) by two forms of the same
> lexical item (X of X-PL).
>
> Best,
> Simone
>
> - Mattiola, Simone & Alessandra Barotto. 2023. Nominal reduplication in
> cross-linguistic perspective: from PLURALITY to CHANGE OF REFERENTS’
> SPECIFICITY. *Studies in language *47(1). 135-189.
> https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21050.mat
> - Mellesmoen, Gloria Madeleine. 2025. *The grammar of Salish
> reduplication*. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia
> dissertation.
> https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0448511
>
> ---
>
> Dr. Simone Mattiola
>
> Assistant professor (senior) in Linguistics
>
> Department of Humanities
>
> University of Pavia
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/Pavia+Piazza+del+Lino+2,+27100,+Pavia+(Italy?entry=gmail&source=g>
>
> Piazza del Lino 2, 27100, Pavia (Italy
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/Pavia+Piazza+del+Lino+2,+27100,+Pavia+(Italy?entry=gmail&source=g>
> )
>
> Website <https://sites.google.com/view/simone-mattiola/>
>
> Institutional page
> <https://unipv.unifind.cineca.it/individual?uri=http%3A%2F%2Firises.unipv.it%2Fresource%2Fperson%2F769871>
>
> Academia.edu page <https://unipv.academia.edu/SimoneMattiola>
>
> Research gate page
> <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simone-Mattiola>
>
>
> Il giorno gio 7 ago 2025 alle ore 12:14 Stefan Savić via Lingtyp <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> ha scritto:
>
>> 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> 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20250807/8be1e7bf/attachment.htm>