Reduplication in languages: A case study of languages of China

Dan Xu (1)

1 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

Reduplication is widely attested in human languages, especially in the southern hemisphere. This distribution, often complementary with plural markings, is also found in languages spoken in China, which show a correlation between plural marking and reduplication/classifiers: if reduplication and clas-sifiers are found extensively, then plural marking is not developed, and is sensitive to the semantic feature [+human]. The more plural marking is developed, such as in Altaic languages, the less this semantic feature is required. The more a language possesses a developed plural-marking morphology, the less it needs reduplication and classifiers. Subjectivity plays a key role in reduplicated adjectives. Reduplication is iconically motivated. Positive degree constitutes its core meaning. Reduplication with negative meaning characterizes the grammaticali-zation process from icon to symbol.

Mots clés: reduplication; iconicity; motivation; plurality; typology

Domaines: Linguistique

Dan Xu. Reduplication in languages: A case study of languages of China . Dan Xu. Plurality and Classifiers across languages in China, 2012. ⟨hal-01386244⟩