Vol 03 No 4 TESL Reporter

              gia uia
teaching english as a second language
vol 3 no 4 i
Lale HAWMI l AIE

summer 1970

on Reeeeaaabiilliity and reduplication ab rep atttab
by pete r H priies fr
it frequently occurs that a function within a construction is described as being 1 repeatable note the style of grammar I will use here distinguishes between a function and the fillers of the function terms such as modifier head determiner subject and predicate etc are labels for function while terms such as adjective adjective phrase noun phrase clause noun etc are labels for classes which are fillers of functions the article english word order by alice C pack presents a chart of the english noun phrase where each of the
fries is an assistant professor in the linguistics department at the university of wisconsin he serves as TESL representative for region V in the national association of foreign student affairs NAFSA
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dr peter

the sequences of words in the examples cited so far with no regard for the meaning they convey one might say that the two occurrences of each modifier function are independent usually they differ as in thin rectangular card but occasionally they are identical as in blue blue sea the semantic interpretation of the two types of examples presented indicates that they are not parallel when the two fillers are different the two modifiers cumulatively modify the head noun when they are the same one merely intensifies the other several types of formal evidence support this distinction 1 one reason to distinguish between the two types of repeatability let me call them the first example and repeatability

taken as representing a function while each of the words in the columns is a potential filler of the function the modifier functions of the noun phrases such as the thin rectangular card and the blue translucent fishbowl in which thin rectangular blue and translucent all fill a shape modifier function thin and rectangular or a color modifier function blue and translucent sometimes apparently similar examples are also cited to demonstrate the repeatability of the modifier functions these examples involve repetitions of identical words such as a round round ball and a blue blue ocean if we consider only

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language acquisition by nancy A cramer

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TESL reporter

reduplication the repetition of the identical lexical item would be to find a word which may be reduplicated but which does not occur in a repeatable function it seems to me that the mccuffe nce of very in the o cc rr e intensifier function of the adjective phrase is exactly this sort of situation we find a very big boy an awfully big boy but not an awfully very big boy a very awfully big boy the last examples show that the function is not repeatable on the other hand we do find a very very big boy an awfully awfully big boy these examples show that very and awfully may undergo reduplication 2 another reason to distinguish the two types of repetition is the effects of many repetitions of the function or the fillers if the modifier function is repeated many times within one noun phrase the result may be hard to understand but it does not automatically become funny i ap da ed the old dellapidatted big red barn four repetitions of very or blue on the other hand produce a comical effect rather than any addition in meaning of the type gained from repetition of the function ve y the very verry very very big barn the blue blue blue blue sea 3 reduplication does not co occur with any other filler of the intensifier function within the adjective phrase the very old old man awfully big big barn this is formal evidence that reduplication is ens fi a type of intensiifer similar to very or awfully 4 finally it is useful to note that only certain words may undergo reduplication comfortably within the intensifier function of the adjective phrase we find the following very words undergoing reduplication awfully really quite real and terribly the following fillers of the intensifier function of the adjective phrase do not undergo reduplication pretty fairly such rather and most similarly while the modifier function of the noun phrase is repeatable only certain fillers within that function may undergo reduplication a big big barn

an old old house a narrow narrow channel but not a young young man an historical historical society a rectangular rectangular card by contrast there is no limitation on what fillers may occur within repeated functions the adjective blue may occur in a color modifier function whether or not there is color immediately another modifier
prece eding or following there are however o restrictions on what color modifiers may co occur within the same noun phrase one may find the blue translucent fishbowll but bow probably not the blue orange fish bowl note that sequences like blue green and bluish green are taken not as sequences of two color modifier functions color modifier color modifier green blue fishbowl green bluish fishbowl but as complex fillers of the same color modifier function color modifier blue green fishbowl bluish green fishbowl that is to say blue and orange cannot co occur within the same noun phrase where as blue and translucent can co occurrrence restrictions of this type are cu en from the restrictions on different reduplication mentioned above since every word or phrase which may occur within the color modifier function may co occur in the same noun phrase with at least some other filler of that function in terms of the examples above we find that blue and orange cannot co occur in the same noun phrase but blue and translucent and orange and translucent may draw from this and is reduplication a discussion repeatability are to be distinguished b repeatability is a feature of functions while reuplilccabiliitty is a feature of word items d dup i abil y and may be a filler of a function and c reduplication in the adjective phrase at least is a kind of intensifier
alice C pack english word order TESL reporter volume 3 pp 67 1969 a 67 2 WC watt english reduplication journal 12 a of english linguistics volume 2 pp 96 129 1968
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the conclusion to

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