Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 47:1 (2023) ► pp.135–189

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Nominal reduplication in cross-linguistic perspective

From plurality to change of referents’ specificity

 | University of Bologna
 | University of Bologna
Published online: 23 May 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21050.mat
Abstract
This paper aims at investigating the semantics of nominal reduplication cross-linguistically. Nominal reduplication is treated as an iconic morphological device expressing functions that have something to do with plurality. Nevertheless, in the languages of the world, other types of functions are attested as well, which seem to pivot around different notions like conceptual similarity, heterogeneity, combinations of them, or even possession. Based on a large-scale cross-linguistic analysis, we provide a typology of nominal reduplication considering the range of semantic functions and the type of reduplicative patterns. We argue that the attested variation clearly points to a common semantic core underlying the various functions, and this core can be identified in some modification of the degree and type of referentiality. Finally, the attested tendencies and correlations may shed new light on the role of iconicity in explaining the connection between reduplicated nouns and their functions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical premises
    • 2.1Reduplication
    • 2.2Reduplication and iconicity
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Functions of nominal reduplication in the world’s languages
    • 4.1Plural and related functions
    • 4.2Functions conveying exemplary status: Set construction and associativity
    • 4.3Functions conveying categorial status: Related variety and taxonomy
    • 4.4Evaluative meanings
    • 4.5Exclusiveness
    • 4.6Indeterminacy
    • 4.7Denoting new referents
    • 4.8Possession
    • 4.9Other functions
  • 5.An overview on frequency data
  • 6.The functional domain of nominal reduplication
    • 6.1From plurality to change of referents’ specificity
    • 6.2From plurality to referentiality: What about iconicity?
  • 7.Beyond nominal reduplication
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (98)
References
Abbi, Anvita. 1992. Reduplication in South Asian languages. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Limited.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Dik. 2011. Language sampling. In Song, Jae Jung (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic typology, 100–127. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bar-el, Leora. 2008. Verbal number and aspect in Skwxwú7mesh. Recherches linguistiques de Vincennes 371. 31–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhatia, Tej K. 1993. Punjabi: A cognitive-descriptive grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boas, Franz. 1892. Notes on the Chemakum Language. American Anthropologist 51. 37–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bugenhagen, Robert D. 1995. A Grammar of Mangap-Mbula: An Austronesian Language of Papua New Guinea. Notes on Linguistics. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar. Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capell, Arthur & Hinch, H. E. 1970. Maung grammar: Texts and vocabulary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Churchward, Maxwell C. 1953. Tongan Grammar. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Churchward, Maxwell C. 1999 [1953]. Tongan grammar. Tonga: Vava’u Press. (Originally Published by Oxford University Press, 1953).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohn, Abigail C. 1989. Stress in Indonesian and bracketing paradoxes. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 7(2). 167–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cristofaro, Sonia. 2004. Past habituals and irrealis. In Yury A. Lander, Vladimir A. Plungian & Anna Yu. Urmanchieva. (Eds.). Irrealis and irreality, 256–272. Moscow: Gnosis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2001. Radical construction grammar. Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Typology and universals, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cysouw, Michael. 2007. Building semantic maps: The case of person marking. In Bernhard Wälchli & Matti Miestamo. (Eds.), New challenges in typology, 225–248. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Semantic maps as metrics on meanings. Linguistic Discovery 8(1). 70–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daniel, Michael & Edith Moravcsik. 2013. The associative plural. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath. (Eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL], last access 18 April 2022.)
Dineen, Anne H. 1990. A comparative survey of reduplication in Australian languages. Canberra: Australian National University: MA thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Feu, Veronica. 1996. Rapanui. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunn, Michael J. 1999. A grammar of Chukchi. Canberra: Australian National University PhD dissertation.
Evans, Nicholas. 1995. A grammar of Kayardild, with historical-comparative notes on Tangkic. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2011. Cognitive iconic grounding of reduplication in language. In Pascal Michelucci, Olga Fischer & Christina Ljungberg. (Eds.), Semblance and signification, 55–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Colleen M. 2001. The morpheme-to-stress principle in Tohono O’odham. Linguistics 39(5). 941–972. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galloway, Brent Douglas. 1977. A grammar of Chilliwack Halkomelem. Los Angeles: University of California PhD dissertation.
Georgakopoulos, Thanasis & Stéphane Polis. 2018. The semantic map model: State of the art and future avenues for linguistic research. Language and Linguistics Compass 12(2). 12:e12270. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghomeshi, Jila, Ray Jackendoff, Nicole Rosen & Kevin Russell. 2004. Contrastive focus reduplication in English (the salad-salad paper). Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 221. 307–357. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T. 2001. Syntax. An introduction. 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Göksel, Aslı & Celia Kerslake. 2005. Turkish: A comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goswami, Upendranath. 1970. A study on Kāmrūpī: A dialect of Assamese. Gauhati, Assam: Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grandi, Nicola, & Lívia Körtvélyessy. (Eds.). 2015. Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haiman, John. 1980. The iconicity of grammar: isomorphism and motivation. Language 591. 781–819. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haji-Abdolhosseini, Mohammad, Diane Massam & Kenji Oda. 2002. Number and events: Verbal reduplication in Niuean. Oceanic Linguistics 41(2). 475–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel, Martin Haspelmath & Sebastian Bank. 2021. Glottolog 4.4. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL], last access 18 April 2022.)
Haspelmath, Martin. 2003. The geometry of grammatical meaning: Semantic maps and cross-linguistic comparison. In Micheal Tomasello. (Ed.), The new psychology of language, Vol. 21, 217–242. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in cross-linguistic studies. Language 86(3). 663–687. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horton, A. E. 1949. A grammar of Luvale. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hurch, Bernhard. (Ed.). 2005. Studies on reduplication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inkelas, Sharon. 2012. Reduplication. In Jochen Trommer. (Ed.), The morphology and phonology of exponence: The state of the art, 355–378. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Non-concatenative derivation: Reduplication. In Rochelle Lieber & Pavol Štekauer. (Eds), The Oxford handbook of derivational morphology, 169–189. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inkelas, Sharon & Laura J. Downing. 2015. What is reduplication? Typology and analysis part 1/2: The typology of reduplication. Language and Linguistics Compass 9(12). 502–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnston, Raymond Leslie. 1980. Nakanai of New Britain: The grammar of an Oceanic language. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University for Linguistic Circle of Canberra.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Key, Harold. 1965. Some semantic functions of reduplication in various languages. Anthropological Linguistics 71. 88–101.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirton, Jean & Charlie, Bella. 1996. Further aspects of the grammar of Yanyuwa, Northern Australia. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiyomi, Setsuko. 1993. A typological study of reduplication as a morpho-semantic process: evidence from five language families (Bantu, Australian, Papuan, Austroasiatic and Malayo-Polynesian). Bloomington: Indiana University PhD dissertation.
Kluge, Angela. 2017. A grammar of Papuan Malay. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Komu, Mary W. 2008. An analysis of Gikuyu reduplication in the light of prosodic morphological approach. Nairobi: Kenyatta University MA thesis.
Kornfilt, Jaklin. 1997. Turkish. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, Silvia & Darlene LaCharité. 2005. Less is more: Evidence from diminutive reduplication in Caribbean Creole languages. In Bernhard Hurch. (Ed.), Studies on reduplication, 533–546. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuipers, Aert H. 1974. The Shuswap language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leslau, Wolf. 2000. Introductory grammar of Amharic. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lǐ, Yuèyuán & Dan Ponsford. 2018. Predicative reduplication: Functions, their relationships and iconicities. Linguistic Typology 22(1). 51–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1983. A grammar of Manam. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lynch, John & Rex Horoi. 2002. Arosi. In John Lynch, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (Eds.), The Oceanic languages, 562–572. Richmond: Curzon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lynch, John & Malcolm Ross. 2002. Banoni. In John Lynch, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (Eds.), The Oceanic languages, 440–455. Richmond: Curzon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, Christopher. 1999. Definiteness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mattes, Veronika. 2014. Types of reduplication: A case study of Bikol. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mattiola, Simone & Francesca Masini. Forthcoming. Discontinuous reduplication: A typological sketch. STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
Mauri, Caterina. 2017. Building and interpreting ad hoc categories: a linguistic analysis. In Joanna Blochowiak, Cristina Grisot, Stephanie Durrleman & Cristopher Laenzlinger. (Eds.), Formal models in the study of language, 297–326. Berlin: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mauri, Caterina & Andrea Sansò. 2021. Heterogeneous sets: a diachronic typology of associative and similative plurals. Linguistic Typology. Available at , last access 18 April 2022.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merlan, Francesca. 1994. A grammar of Wardaman. A language of the Northern Territory of Australia. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti. 2003. Clausal negation: A typological study. Helsinki: University of Helsinki PhD dissertation.
. 2005. Standard negation: The negation of declarative verbal main clauses in a typological perspective. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miestamo, Matti, Dik Bakker & Antti Arppe. 2016. Sampling for variety. Linguistic Typology 20(2). 233–296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montaut, Annie. 2008. Reduplication and echo words in Hindi/Urdu. In Rajendra Singh. (Ed.), Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics 2008, 21–91. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Edith A. 1978. Reduplicative constructions. In Joseph H. Greenberg, Charles A. Ferguson, Edith A. Moravcsik. (Eds.), Universals of human language. Vol. 31: Word structure, 297–334. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paperno, Denis. 2014. Grammatical sketch of Beng. Mandenkan 511. 1–130.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles S. 1932. Collected writings, Vol. 21: Elements of logic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pott, August Friedrich. 1862. Doppelung (Reduplikation, Gemination) als eines der wichtigsten Bildungsmittel der Sprache, beleuchtet aus Sprachen aller Welttheile. Lemgo: Meyer'sche Hofbuchhandlung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raffo, Yolanda Adela. 1972. A phonology and morphology of Songish. A dialect of Straits Salish. Lawrence: University of Kansas PhD dissertation.
Regier, Terry. 1994. A preliminary study of the semantics of reduplication. Berkeley: International Computer Science Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Reduplication and the arbitrariness of the sign. In Morton Ann Gernsbacher & Sharon J. Derry. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 887–892. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rijkhoff, Jan & Dik Bakker. 1998. Language sampling. Linguistic Typology 2(3). 263–314. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rijkhoff, Jan, Dik Bakker, Kees Hengeveld & Peter Kahrel. 1993. A method of language sampling. Studies in Language 17(1). 169–203. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, J. O. 1976. His and hers morphology: the strange case of Tarok possessives. In Larry Hyman, L. Jacobson & Russell Schuh. (Eds.), Studies in African linguistics, Supplement 61, 201–209. Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, UCLA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosen, Joan. 1977. The functions of reduplication in Indonesian. In Ignatius Suharno. (Ed.), Miscellaneous Studies in Indonesian and languages of Indonesia, Part IV, 1–9. Jakarta: NUSA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rozhanskiy, Fedor Ivanovich. 2015. Two semantic patterns of reduplication: Iconicity revisited. Studies in Language 39(4). 992–1018. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubino, Carl. 2005. Reduplication: Form, function and distribution. In Bernhard Hurch. (Ed.), Studies on reduplication, 11–30. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Reduplication. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath. (Eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL], last access 18 April 2022.)
Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, Paul & Fe T. Otanes. 1972. Tagalog reference grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, Hans. 2002. Rotuman. In John Lynch, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (Eds.), The Oceanic languages, 815–832. Richmond: Curzon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sharpe, Margaret C. 1972. Alawa phonology and grammar. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stolz, Thomas. 2007. Re: duplication: Iconic vs counter-iconic principles (and their areal correlates). In Paolo Ramat & Elisa Roma. (Eds.), Europe and the Mediterranean as linguistic areas: Convergencies from a historical and typological perspective, 317–350. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Total reduplication vs. echo-word formation in language contact situations. In Peter Siemund & Noemi Kintana. (Eds.), Language contact and contact languages: Hamburg studies on multilingualism 71, 107–132. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stolz, Thomas, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze. 2011. Total reduplication. The areal linguistics of a potential universal. Berlin: Akademie. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Terrill, Angela. 2003. A grammar of Lavukaleve. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tosco, Mauro. 1991. A grammatical sketch of Dahalo including texts and a glossary. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tyler, Stephen B. 1969. Koya: An outline grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús. 2011. A grammar of Chol, a Mayan language. Austin: University of Texas at Austin PhD dissertation.
Voegelin, Charles F. 1935. Tübatulabal grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkins, David P. 1989. Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): Studies in the structure and semantics of grammar. Canberra: Australian National University PhD dissertation.
Woollams, Geoff. 1996. A Grammar of Karo Batak, Sumatra. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeitoun, Elizabeth. 2005. A grammar of Mantauran (Rukai). Taipei: Academica Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ziervogel, Dirk. 1952. A grammar of Swazi. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Staps, Camil
2025. Iconic features in nominal reduplication. Linguistic Typology DOI logo
Minova, Mariya Vladimirovna, Elena Viktorovna Kopylova, Yuliya Andreevna Kuznetsova, Elena Anatol'evna Nikolaeva & Vera Anatol'evna Zhelamskaya
2023. The Phenomenon of Reduplication as a Method of Word Formation in Modern French, Spanish, English and Russian Languages. Филология: научные исследования :4 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue