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.
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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).
]N=nā ‘things-
]N [má nàm l=ùm=íj]RC]NP=nā ‘things-References
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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.
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-021-09389-3