Cognitive iconic grounding of reduplication in language

Authors
Publication date 2011
Host editors
  • P. Michelucci
  • O. Fischer
  • C. Ljungberg
Book title Semblance and signification
ISBN
  • 9789027243461
Series Iconicity in language and literature, 10
Pages (from-to) 55-81
Number of pages 27
Publisher Amsterdam: Benjamins
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC)
Abstract My aim in this paper will be to find out to what extent opaque reduplications could also be said to be (or to have been) motivated (i.e. forming iconic signs), with the further aim of exploring the possibility of a common source for all reduplicated forms. I will show by referring to the way repetition is used in signed languages, by looking at the various functions the prefix ge- has in Germanic languages, which resembles reduplication in terms of its semantics, and by taking common pathways of semantic change into consideration, that such a common source may be said to exist.
Document type Chapter
Language English
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