A model and typology of reduplication in Sora
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2013
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Swarthmore College. Asian Studies Prog.
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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2013 Recipient of the Alice L. Crossley Award in Asian Studies
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Abstract
Reduplication is found in an unparalleled thirteen percent of the lexicon in Sora, a
Munda language of eastern India with 310,000 speakers. Most cross-linguistically
attested forms of reduplication are present in Sora, from full to partial, faithful to
unfaithful, fixed segmentism, triplication and ordered reduplication. Reduplication in
Sora is often onomatopoeic and occurs at higher rates in children's language. However,
reduplication is not productive; many of the base forms are not distinct lexemes in Sora.
Previous models like the morphological doubling model (Inkelas & Zoll 2005) cannot
successfully derive reduplication that is not semantically-driven. Other models, like
Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolenksy 1993; McCarthy 2006) cannot successfully
account for all forms of reduplication with a single set of constraints. However, the
precedence relations model (Raimy 2000) is a loop-based model which accounts for all
forms of reduplication in Sora, regardless of their semantics. Full reduplication, like [baIJ'
baIJ] 'to be strong', is derived from a precedence loop placed at the coda IIJI that leads to
the onset /b/, repeating the entire base. Partial reduplication, like [d3U-'d3Ud] 'to lull to
sleep', requires that the beginning or the end of the loop be altered to encompass a
portion of the base. Triplication, like [ke-ke-'ke] 'the scream of the peafowl', requires
repetition of the loop and ordered reduplication, like [da-'daIJ-da-'daIJ] 'the sound of
cutting wood', requires the interaction of distinct precedence loops. My intent is to
provide a typology of reduplication in Sora and show that a single model can account for
all forms.