Linguistic
reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The cla ...
is a distinct grammatical feature in
Russian, where it can be used to derive reduplicated forms from existing stems to intensify their meanings in different ways.
Reduplication is also observable in borrowed words, such as "" (;
ping-pong
Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...
) and "" (;
zig-zag), but since the words were borrowed as is from other languages, they are not examples of reduplication as it works in the
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
of Russian.
Syllabic/root/stem reduplication
There is virtually no productive
syllabic or
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
/
stem
Stem or STEM most commonly refers to:
* Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant
* Stem group
* Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Stem or STEM can also refer to:
Language and writing
* Word stem, part of a word respon ...
reduplication in the modern Russian language.
[, in Proc. Intl. Congress ''Russian Language: Historical Fates and Modern Times'' (), Moscow, MSU, March 13–16, 2001, section "Word Formation of the Modern Russian Language" ]
An ancient
lexical stratum of the Russian language provides examples such as "" (; mommy), "" (;
daddy), "" (;
granny)—a phenomenon common to many languages. It is argued that these words originated in the
reduplicated babbling of
infant
In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...
s.
Word reduplication
Word reduplications are mostly the feature of the
colloquial language and in most cases do not constitute separate dictionary entries.
[ Word reduplication may occur in the following forms:
*a hyphenated ]word
A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
, both of standard vocabulary or standard ''ad hoc
''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...
'' word formation
In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:
* the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or
* the creation of new lexemes in a particular language
Morphological
A common method of word form ...
**exact reduplication:
***"" (; "very few", lit. "few-few")—a vocabulary word
***"" (; "very white (snow)", lit. "white-white (snow)")—''ad hoc'' formation, for adjectives
**inflected reduplication:
***"" (; "very long time ago", lit. "pastly-past")
***"" (; "very white", lit. "whitely-white")
**Reduplication of adjectives using the enhancement preposition "" ()
***"" (; "very big", lit. "big-very-big"
***"" (; "very white", lit. "white-very-white")
*A repetition of a word in dialogues as a device used either to request or to promise a higher degree of cooperation:[Israeli, A. (1997). "Syntactic reduplication in Russian: A cooperative principle device in dialogues". Journal of Pragmatics, 27(5), 587-609]
**"" or "", ()—a general-purpose urge to do something, literally "give it, give it!", meaning "Come on!" or "Let's do it!"
**"" (; "Run, run!")—a specific urge to run: to run fast or to run right away.
**"" ()—an enhanced agreement: "Of course, of course!"
**"" ( "Yes, yes")—an utterance used in dialogs to indicate either constant attention ("yes, yes, I am listening") or agreement ("yes, yes, of course")
* Shm-reduplication and m-reduplication, to express irony, borrowed from Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
and Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
n cultures respectively, sometimes used as a mockery of the corresponding languages or peoples; see Russian jokes about Georgians for examples of this phenomenon
*As an expression of a frequentative
In grammar, a frequentative form (abbreviated or ) of a word indicates repeated action but is not to be confused with iterative aspect. The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a frequentativ ...
or of a prolonged action
**"" (; "They are pulling and pulling, but cannot pull it he turnipout")—a phrase from the classical fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
''Repka'' ("", "The Turnip")
**"" (; " eis looking and looking")
**"" (; " ewent and went")
* Onomatopoeic reduplication
**"" (; the sound of the droplets of water)
**"" () or "" (); the sound of a clock ticking
**"" (); bowwow, barking of a dog
*Frequentative
In grammar, a frequentative form (abbreviated or ) of a word indicates repeated action but is not to be confused with iterative aspect. The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a frequentativ ...
, often combined with ideophonic/onomatopoeic derivation
**"" (), from "", "to slash with a knife"
**"" (), from "" ("to jump", "to hop"). A similar derivation in English would be " When the red red robin/Comes bob bob bobbing along").
Affixal reduplication
A peculiarity of Russian language is synonymic affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...
al reduplication, whereby a root may acquire two productive suffixes or prefixes, different, but of the same semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
, with the corresponding intensification of the meaning:[
*Affectional ]diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
s:
**"" ()→"" ()→"" ( " girlfriend"). Here, ""→"" is an example of consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of al ...
, and "" and "" are two diminutive-generating suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es. This kind of word formation is especially productive for given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...
s: "" (, "Catherine
Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...
")→"" (, hypocoristic)→"" ( "Katyusha
Katyusha () is a diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina or Yekaterina, the Russian form of Katherine
Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in c ...
")→"" ()→"" (, sounds intentionally ridiculous)
*Another example:
**"" (, "to forget")→"" (, "to forget for a while")→"" ()
See also
* Amredita
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reduplication In The Russian Language
Russian language
Reduplication