Abstract
This paper discusses analogy as a source of total reduplication in Gizey (Masa < Chadic < Afroasiatic). Building on the Dual Theory of reduplication, I first argue that CV- reduplication in the Masa branch of Chadic is a phonological duplication substituting for the segmental material of a now obsolete prefix (*mV-). I then show that a considerable number of total reduplicatives in Gizey derive from analogical reduplication (morphological doubling) entailing the shift from Proto-Masa *CV- reduplication to total reduplication (*CV- reduplication > TOTAL reduplication). The target sublexicon triggering this analogical shift consists of pre-existing ideophonic/onomatopoeic total reduplicatives. The lexical material examined in this paper is composed mainly of frozen reduplicatives i.e., word forms built by duplicating unattested bases. I show that these vestigial reduplicatives also allow for positing two other morphological doubling processes where specific cophonologies truncate specified phonological material. I also consider potential challenges dealing with infixal reduplication.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The frozen reduplicatives described for Gizey and the other Masa languages can be found via this link: https://osf.io/up5v8/?view_only=c037935d91b54847ab8af7fc24279774
Notes
In reconstructions of Proto-Chadic, the -VːCV reduplicative morpheme used in Mbara has been considered, though unavailingly, as a method for encoding nominal plurality (Newman, 1990). While being attested in contemporary West, Biu-Mandara, and East Chadic languages, it is not yet entirely clear whether the *-VC(V) formative belonged to Proto-Chadic or emerged independently as a later development in those branches. Newman (1990) has also suggested that Proto-Chadic likely used the reduplicative morpheme *CV- as the primary means for forming pluractionals, i.e. verbal forms denoting an action that is ‘done a number of times, by a number of subjects or affecting a number of objects’ (Newman, 2009, p. 620). Here too, the pluractional use of this formative is well attested in the West and Biu-Mandara branches, but it appears to be rare in East Chadic (Newman, 1990), and has not been reported for Masa.
Mattes (2017) describes the semantic categories of frozen reduplication or ‘lexical reduplication’ as she refers to this phenomenon.
In Gizey, clitics are “omni-locatable” (Dixon, 2010, p. 222) word-like forms attaching to the right (enclitic) of different constituent types (words or phrases) and different word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.) and which generally provide information about person/number, directionality, definiteness, etc. For example, the definite article =na (an enclitic) can be found after a noun (e.g., in []N=nā ‘things-pl2=art’ – ‘the things’) or after an extended NP (e.g. [[]N [má nàm l=ùm=íj]RC]NP=nā ‘things-pl2 rel 3sm do.pfv=3sm=res=art’ – ‘the things he did’) but still marking definiteness irrespective of the nature or size of its host.
Marba and Lew form a dialectal continuum which will be referred to elsewhere in this paper as Marba-Lew.
The glottal stop in the Marba-Lew form relates to restrictions on vowels occurring at word-initial position; the same restriction applies in Gizey and Masana.
On 124 Marba words with ʔà- (identified in (Ajello et al., 2001), there are about 5% which correspond to total reduplication in Gizey and 95% which occur in their base form.
Nominalization with *mV- might have undergone a decline in productivity in individual Chadic languages or branches (e.g., in Masa). This explains why it is no more attested in some languages or branches while others have maintained it.
Note in passing that the intensification expressed by the -CV(C) construction type can be negative or positive as shown with the Zime examples herɓi-ɓe ‘small termitary’ < herɓe ‘termitary’ and tindiŋ-diŋ ‘very dark’ < tindiŋ ‘dark’ (Vincent, 2000).
References
Ajello, R. (2007). The linguistic expression of spatial relation in the Gizey language. In H. Tourneux (Ed.), Topics in Chadic linguistics IV: Comparative and descriptive studies. Papers from the 3rd biennial international colloquium on the Chadic languages (pp. 9–21). Rüdiger Köppe.
Ajello, R. (2011). Anthroponyms in the Gizey society (N-E Cameroon). In M. Frascarelli (Ed.), A country called Somalia: Culture, language and society of a vanishing state (pp. 13–31). L’Harmattan.
Ajello, R., & Melis, A. (2008). Dictionnaire Gizey-Français, suivi d’une liste lexicale Français-Gizey. Pisa: Edizioni ETS.
Ajello, R., Mayore, K., Melis, A., & Ousmanou, D. (2001). Lexique comparatif de six langues du Tchadique central (Gizey, Ham, Lew, Marba, Masa, Musey). Pisa: Edizioni Plus.
Al-Hassan, B. S. Y. (1998). Reduplication in the Chadic languages. A study of form and function. Oxford: Peter Lang GmbH.
Allison, S. D. (2012). Aspects of a Grammar of Makary Kotoko (Chadic, Cameroon). Linguistics Graduate Theses & Dissertations, 16. https://scholar.colorado.edu/ling_gradetds/16?utm_source=scholar.colorado.edu%2Fling_gradetds%2F16&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.
Ameka, F. K. (1992). Interjections: The universal yet neglected part of speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 18, 101–118.
Anderson, S. R. (1992). A-morphous morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bakker, P. (1987). Reduplications in Saramaccan. Studies in Saramaccan Language Structure: Caribbean Culture Studies, 2, 17–40.
Barreteau, D. (1978). Aspects de la morphologie nominale du Mofu-Gudur. In J. P. Caprile & H. Jungraithmayr (Eds.), Préalables à la reconstruction du proto-tchadique (pp. 95–113). SELAF.
Barreteau, D., & Dieu, M. (2005). Linguistique. In Atlas de la province Extrême-Nord Cameroun (pp. 1–32). IRD Editions.
Cetnarowska, B. (2020). Competition between synthetic NN compounds and NN.gen phrasal nouns in Polish: Semantic niches, hapax legomena and low-level construction schemas. In L. Körtvélyessy & P. Štekauer (Eds.), Complex words: Advances in morphology (pp. 241–259). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Colombel, V. de. (2005). La langue ouldémé (Nord-Cameroun). Grammaire, texte, dictionnaire. Leuven: Peeters.
D’Ascenzo, F. (2019). I Gizey tra Camerun e Ciad. In L. Gaffuri, A. Melis, & V. Petrarca (Eds.), Tessiture dell’identità. Lingua, cultura e territorio dei Gizey tra Camerun e Ciad. (Figure 1, p. 2). Liguori Editore.
De Dominicis, A. (2006a). Resyllabification phenomena in Gizey. In V. Giordani, V. Bruseghini, & P. Cosi (Eds.), Atti del terzo Convegno Nazionale dell’Associazione Italiana di Scienze dellaVoce 2006 (pp. 181–184). EDK Editore, CD-ROM.
De Dominicis, A. (2006b). Tonal patterns of Gizey. In A. De Dominicis (Ed.), Undescribed & endangered languages: The preservation of linguistic diversity (pp. 60–163). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
De Dominicis, A. (2008). Phonological sketch of Gizey. Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online, 6, 1–78.
Dixon, R. M. W. (2010). Basic linguistic theory volume 1: Methodology. London: Oxford University Press.
Dougophe, S. (2015). The Morphosyntax of Mafa verbs [Unpublished master’s thesis, Université de Yaoundé I].
Frajzyngier, Z. (2002). A grammar of Hdi. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Frajzyngier, Z., Johnson, E., & Edwards, A. (2011). A grammar of Mina. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110893908.
Frick, E. (1978). The verbal system in Dghweɗe. Linguistics, 212, 5–43.
Gaffuri, L., & Melis, A. (2018). Pour une géographie des lieux sacrés gizey. Géographie et Cultures, 107, 95–116.
Gaffuri, L., Melis, A., & Patrarca, V. (2019). Tessiture dell’identità. Lingua, cultura e territorio dei Gizey tra Camerun e Ciad. Napoli: Liguori Editore.
Gooden, S. A. (2003). The phonology and phonetics of Jamaican creole reduplication. [Unpublished PhD thesis, The Ohio State University].
Gravina, R. (2014). The phonology of Proto-Central Chadic: The reconstruction of the phonology and lexicon of Proto-Central Chadic, and the linguistic history of the Central Chadic languages. Utrecht: LOT.
Hüning, M. (2009). Semantic niches and analogy in word formation: Evidence from contrastive linguistics. Languages in Contrast, 9, 183–201.
Inkelas, S. (2008). The dual theory of reduplication. Linguistics, 46(2), 351–401. https://doi.org/10.1515/LING.2008.013.
Inkelas, S. (2014). The interplay of morphology and phonology. London: Oxford University Press.
Inkelas, S., & Downing, L. J. (2015a). What is reduplication? Typology and analysis Part 1/2: The typology of reduplication. Language and Linguistics Compass, 9(12), 502–515. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12166.
Inkelas, S., & Downing, L. J. (2015b). What is reduplication? Typology and analysis Part 2/2: The analysis of reduplication. Language and Linguistics Compass, 9(12), 516–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12152.
Inkelas, S., & Zoll, C. (2005). Reduplication: Doubling in morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jaggar, P. J. (2001). Hausa. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Jones, B. (2011). A grammar of Wangkajunga: A language of the Great Sandy Desert of North Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific linguistics.
Mattes, V. (2017). Iconicity in the lexicon: The semantic categories of lexical reduplication. Studies in Language, 41, 813–842.
Melis, A. (2006a). Dictionnaire Marba. Yagoua: CCMVL.
Melis, A. (2006b). Dictionnaire Masa-français: Dialectes gumay et ɦaara (Tchad). Napoli: Edizioni Plus.
Melis, A. (2019). Storia e identità linguistica. In Tessiture dell’identità. Lingua, cultura e territorio dei Gizey tra Camerun e Ciad (pp. 43–104). Liguori Editore.
Meyer, R., & Wolff, E. H. (2019). Afroasiatic linguistic features and typologies. In E. H. Wolff (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of African linguistics (pp. 246–325). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Newman, P. (1986). Reduplicated nouns in Hausa. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 8, 115–132.
Newman, P. (1989). The historical change from suffixal to prefixal reduplication in Hausa pluractional verbs. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 11, 37–44.
Newman, P. (1990). Nominal and verbal plurality in Chadic. Dordrecht: Foris publications.
Newman, P. (2000). The Hausa language: An encyclopedic reference grammar. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Newman, P. (2009). Hausa and the Chadic languages. In B. Comrie (Ed.), The world’s major languages (2nd ed., pp. 618–634). London: Routledge. http://hdl.handle.net/2022/21482.
Newman, P. (2013). The Chadic language Family: Classification and name index. Mega-Chad research network / Réseau Méga-Tchad. http://lah.soas.ac.uk/projects/megachad/misc.html.
Novotna, J. (2000). Reduplication in Swahili. Afrikanische Arbeitspapiere, 64, 57–73.
Orgun, C. O. (1996). Sign-based morphology and phonology with special attention to optimality theory [PhD dissertation]. University of California.
Orgun, C. O., & Inkelas, S. (2002). Reconsidering bracket erasure. In G. Booij & J. Van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of morphology 2001 (pp. 115–146). Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3726-5_4.
Pesetsky, D. (1979). Russian morphology and lexical theory. http://157.138.8.12/jspui/bitstream/11707/69/1/Posetsky.pdf.
Roberts, J., & Soulokadi, A. C. (2019). On ideophones in Musey. In H. Tourneux & Y. Treis (Eds.), Topics in Chadic linguistics X – papers from the 9th biennial international colloquium on the Chadic languages, Villejuif, September 7–8, 2017 (pp. 215–226). Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Schuh, R. G. (1998). A grammar of Miya. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schuh, R. G. (2002). The locus of pluractional reduplication in West Chadic. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.488.2030&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Schuh, R. G. (2008). Agentive nouns and derived verbs in Hausa. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f432/f6c46292a89fd895e8e2dfe260b35d90edf3.pdf?_ga=2.206889363.1200358648.1600339877-1009201699.1600250840.
Schuh, R. G. (2017). A Chadic Cornucopia. P. Newman (Ed.). Oakland: Department of Linguistics. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zx6z32d.
Shryock, A. (n.d.). A dictionary of Musey. https://silo.tips/download/a-dictionary-of-musey.
Steriade, D. (1988). Reduplication and syllable transfer in Sanskrit and elsewhere. Phonology, 5, 73–155.
Stump, G. T. (2001). Inflectional morphology: A theory of paradigm structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tourneux, H. (1978). Le mulwi ou vulum de Mogroum (Tchad): Phonologie-éléments de grammaire. Paris: SELAF.
Tourneux, H. (1986). La langue Mbara. In Les Mbara et leur langue (Tchad) (pp. 119–249). Paris: SELAF.
Viljoen, M. H. (2013). A grammatical description of the Buwal language. Victoria: La Trobe University.
Vincent, V. (2000). Le lexique Zimé-français (vun heɗe). http://zime.free.fr/lexique.htm.
Yu, A. C. L. (2005). Toward a typology of compensatory reduplication. In J. D. Alderete, A. Kochetov, & C. Han (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th West Coast conference on formal linguistics (pp. 397–405).
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Mikhail Kissine and Philippe De Brabanter for numerous corrections, discussions, and suggestions. I am also very grateful to Yvonne Treis, Abbie Hantgan, Tatiana Nikitina, Izabela Jordanoska, Rogier te Paske, Ekaterina Aplonova, Silué Songfolo Lacina, Bethany Lycan, Olga Kuznetsova, two anonymous reviewers and Morphology’s editor for helpful suggestions. I am deeply indebted to Antonino Melis for always sharing his Gizey data with me. This work also benefited from numerous exchanges with members of the Labex EFL during my research visit at the LLACAN (Sept. 27 – Dec. 20, 2020).
Funding
My research is funded by the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) under the MINI ARC framework.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guitang, G. Frozen reduplication in Gizey: insights into analogical reduplication, phonological and morphological doubling in Masa. Morphology 32, 121–151 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-021-09389-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-021-09389-3