Areal perspectives on total reduplication of verbs in Sinitic
The topic of reduplication in Sinitic languages has attracted much attention in the literature, but studies adopting a comparative and areal perspective are still lacking. This paper aims to analyse the correlations between form and function in reduplicating constructions in a sample
of twenty Sinitic languages, representing eight branches of the family, comparing them to a set of fourteen non-Sinitic languages of the East- and Southeast Asian area. We will show that the various semantic nuances conveyed by reduplicated verbs could be argued to derive from the core meaning
of verbal reduplication as iteration of an event, either over a bounded or an unbounded timespan. On the structural level, a pervasive feature of reduplication lies in its compliance to strict requirements on the morphological makeup of the base. This holds especially in the case of the reduplication
of disyllabic and bimorphemic verbs with increasing semantics, a consistent pattern across our sample.
Keywords: East- and Southeast Asian languages; Reduplication; Sinitic; iconicity; total reduplication
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 January 2015
- International Journal sponsored by the Foundation "Foundations of Language"
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