Understanding Chasu Reduplication

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1.0 Introduction Reduplication is one of the word formation processes demonstrated in many languages of the world. In Bantu languages, the common word formation processes are the agglutinative nature of languages (affixation), borrowing, compounding and reduplication (Contini-Morava 2007). ‘Reduplication in Bantu languages is phonological as it has the phonological constraints that are based on the prosodic features’ (Odden 1996). In Bantu languages reduplication processes are either complete or partial. It is complete in a sense that the whole stem/base is copied and it is partial in a sense that only part of the stem is copied. However, whether the doubled segment is the whole word or part of the word, the newly formed word becomes part and parcel of the vocabulary of that particular language. There are similarities in the reduplication processes that are found in most Bantu languages. They, however, pose several disagreements upon reduplication behaviors between different word categories involved, specifically verbal reduplication. For example, in earlier research it was established that reduplication in Bantu languages was phonologically determined, i.e. minimally and maximally a reduplicant was bisyllabic and prosodologically constrained. Other Bantu languages demonstrate only the minimality bisyllabic requirement i.e. a reduplicant must have at least two syllables (see Odden 1996 for Kikerewe; Matondo 2006 for Sukuma). Recent works in the Bantu area indicate that a reduplicant is morphologically motivated i.e. morphological constraints contribute to the reduplication processes (cf. Downing 2003 for Bukusu; Marlo 2002 for Lusaamia). The main aim of this paper is to describe and analyse reduplication processes involved in C... ... middle of paper ... ...nd of reduplication may show several tendencies as discussed below: 3.1 Nouns Nouns in Chasu receive reduplication in almost not the familiar ways, depending on the syllables and prefixes. Monosyllabic nouns receive total reduplication of the stem and the prefixes that make the base of nouns. Copying of the prefix depend entirely on the fact that most of monosyllabic nouns in Chasu cannot express full meaning without applying at least one prefix. The whole word is repeated, and sometimes, though related to the new word, the reduplicant may express the meaning that is different from the original word. There are cases where the prefix of the noun is reduplicated together with the stem. When it is used that way, it may be diminutive and just describe the object as something which has a certain quality but not the real thing. Let us have a look on the following examples:

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