PSEUDO-REDUPLICATION, REDUPLICATION AND REPETITION ...

244Andrei A. Avram 20Table 2Meaning of reduplication expressed by word classesN JA T GPA PM RPAnouns plurality plurality pluralityadjectives intensifying intensifying intensifying intensifying intensifyingquantifiers intensifying distributive intensifying intensifyingdistributiveverbs intensifying intensifyinghabitual habitualiterative iterativedistributive distributiveadverbs intensifying intensifying intensifying intensifyingdemonstratives emphasispossessivesemphasisThe relative importance of reduplication in inflection and derivation is alsodifferent. Miller’s (2003: 290) conclusions that “reduplication in Juba Arabic ismainly of the inflectional and iconic type” and that “the very few cases ofderivational reduplication are unproductive and largely lexicalized” can beextrapolated to the other Arabic-lexified pidgins and creoles discussed in thispaper. Inflectional (iconic) reduplications is the best represented in all of them,whereas derivational (non-iconic) reduplication is not productive, with theexception of a few instances, most of which are already lexicalized or areundergoing lexicalization.Moreover, the status of reduplication is very different in the languages underconsideration. In Turku, Gulf Pidgin Arabic, Pidgin Madam and Romanian PidginArabic it does not really qualify for the status of a formal operation inmorphology 18 . Reduplication in these languages is infrequent, optional, i.e. notsystematic. According to Maas (2005: 395), this “should be distinguished fromgrammaticalized reduplicating patterns […] which cannot be avoided (i.e. whichare not mere stylistic options)”. Moreover, the meanings of reduplicated forms arefrequently identical to those of the corresponding bases or can be expressed viarepetition, which may consist of three or even four copies 19 . As put by Hurch et al.(2005: 3), “the repetition of words and phrases is a frequent phenomenon inprobably all languages of the world”. Such cases should therefore be analyzed asinstances of doubling or iteration, in the sense of Maas (2005: 395), whodistinguishes between “doubling [and] in the case of more than two forms […]iteration”. Maas (2005: 397) further states that “doubling or iteration can beholistic”, i.e. “achieved by the simple repetition of utterances or their parts, e.g.words”. To sum up, reduplication in Turku, Gulf Pidgin Arabic, Pidgin Madam andRomanian Pidgin Arabic should be regarded as a discourse strategy, since“repetitions of any kind usually serve rhetorical purposes” (Hurch et al. 2005: 3).18 In the sense of Haspelmath (2002: 22) and Booij (2005: 28).19 Miller (2003: 295) uses the term “triplication” and “quadruplication” to refer to such instances.