In:The Morphosyntax of Reiteration in Creole and Non-Creole Languages
Edited by Enoch O. Aboh, Norval Smith and Anne Zribi-Hertz
[Creole Language Library 43] 2012
► pp. 251–284
Reiteration in Pichi
Forms, functions and areal-typological perspectives*
Published online: 27 June 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.43.08yak
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.43.08yak
Pichi, an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, features four types of reiteration. Amongst them, reduplication and repetition can be distinguished on formal and semantic grounds. Reduplication is a derivational operation consisting of self-compounding and tone deletion. It is restricted to dynamic verbs and yields iterative, dispersive and attenuative meanings. Repetition occurs with all major word classes, renders more iconic meanings and is analyzed as semi-morphological in nature. A comparison with verbal reiteration in a cross-section of West African languages and two of its sister languages in the Caribbean allows the conclusion that Pichi reduplication reflects an areal pattern. I conclude further that Pichi reduplication is not exceptionally iconic nor specifically “creole” in nature.
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2018. Negation in Pichi (Equatorial Guinea). In Negation and Negative Concord [Contact Language Library, 55], ► pp. 103 ff.
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2020. Sociolinguistic characteristics of the English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa. In Advances in contact linguistics [Contact Language Library, 57], ► pp. 61 ff.
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