Reduplication (Udmurt)
TtlRdp
TtlRdp: Total reduplication of an entire word, relative stem, or absolute stem (root) is used productively.
| (1) | gord-gord |
|---|
| red‑red |
| ’bright red’ (Kelmakov – Saarinen 1994: 112) |
| (2) | śöd | da | śöd |
|---|
| dark | and | dark |
| ’pitch dark, very dark’ (Kelmakov – Saarinen 1994: 112) |
| (3) | umoj-umoj | vala-ny |
|---|
| well‑well | understand‑INF |
| ’understand very well’ (Shlyakhova 2013: 1330) |
| (4) | duno-leś | duno |
|---|
| expensive‑ABL | expensive |
| ’very expensive’ (Shlyakhova 2013: 1330) |
| (6) | kora-ľľa-ľľa-ny |
|---|
| cut‑FREQ‑FREQ‑INF |
| ’cut repeatedly’ [wood] (Kelmakov – Saarinen 1994: 125) |
| (7) | vyľyś-vyľyś |
|---|
| again | again |
| ’again and again’ (Asztalos et al. 2021: 269) |
| (8) | zup-zup |
|---|
| ’the sound of the heart beating’ (Fejes 2016: 3273) |
| (9) | ćukin-bekin |
|---|
| ’in a tottering way [walking unsteadily]’ (Kozmács 2002: 463) |
| (10) | kyryž-meryž |
|---|
| curvy‑RED |
| ’very crookedly’ (Shlyakhova 2013: 1330) |
In Udmurt, the most common form of productive reduplication is total reduplication, with intensification as its main function. That is, the higher degree form of a certain quality of adjectives and adverbs can be expressed by the reduplication of the stem (besides using intensifiers such as tuž ’very’). Reduplication used for colour terms (1) characterises almost every dialect. The conjunction da ‘and’ may also appear between the two elements, especially in the Northern Lower Cheptsa dialect (2) (Kelmakov – Saarinen 1994: 112–113). Reduplication can be used to intensify non-colour-term adjectives or adverbs as well (3). The first member in the reduplicate can be marked for ablative case (4) (cf. Shlyakhova 2013: 1330). Reduplication is attested on the level of morphology too: the frequentative suffix can be reduplicated in certain northern dialects in order to emphasise the repetitive nature of an event (6) (Kelmakov – Saarinen 1994: 94, 125). Imperfective aspect is expressed in other instances of reduplication too: e.g. reduplicated adverbs (7) frequently appear in habitual sentences. Total (8) or partial (9) reduplication is widely attested with onomatopoeic words, but this function of reduplication cannot be considered productive. Besides total reduplication, partial reduplication may also have an intensifying function by combining the partial repetition of the stem with a sound change (echo reduplication) (10), but these cases cannot be considered productive either (l. Asztalos et al. 2021).
Author: Laura Horváth
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