Reduplication at the Word Level

Download or read book Reduplication at the Word Level written by Haritini Kallergi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to earlier approaches, this study suggests that Modern Greek (MG) is a language that exhibits reduplication, in the form of Total Reduplication (TR). The analysis addresses the morphosyntactic, phonological, semantic and pragmatic aspects of the types of TR in MG, and the constraints and/or preferences of speakers concerning their use. The typology of TR focuses on four cross-linguistically common meanings/functions, identified as the intensive, the contrastive, the distributive and the iterative. Part of the analysis of these functional types is based on data that come from two experiments with native speakers; the one confirms or refines earlier assumptions on to the relation of the above meanings/functions with word classes and semantic features of words; the other clarifies the idea of prosodic unity in TR and sheds light into various aspects of the relation of intonation with the interpretation of TR constructions. Also, the formal and lexical constraints on the use of TR are discussed with respect to the status of TR (particularly, the "grammatical"-"lexical" opposition). In general, TR seems to be a borderline case between grammar and the lexicon and a heterogeneous category, in that it involves grammatical, pragmatic and lexical construction types. However, the constructions in question meet highly specific criteria for their status as TR types and the process is productive and considerably regularized (rule-governed) in MG. In this sense, TR should not be merely taken as a strategy for "emphasis", but should be systematically represented in grammar textbooks.