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Dimensions of Iconicity
Edited by Angelika Zirker, Matthias Bauer, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 15] 2017
► pp. 63–84

Continuity and change

On the iconicity of Ablaut Reduplication (AR)

| Autonomous University of Madrid

Ablaut Reduplication (AR), as in see-saw, knick-knack, is frequently used in different languages to mimic movement. In this paper, I will discuss its possible iconic interpretations. Following and developing an idea originally suggested by Thun (1963: 75–87), I will show that AR is associated with a physical (visual or acoustic) alternating movement in the following way: reduplication in AR mimics continuity, including repetition, plurality, distribution and habitualness (Fischer 2011: 67), and vowel alternation mimics change including variation, change of direction, instability, uncertainty, vacillation, reciprocity and interruption. I will show that all these meanings can be derived from the combination of the two abstract notions of continuity and change as applied to different aspects of reality and from the results of various semantic shifts associated with reduplicative constructions in general (Fischer 2011: 65–67). I will discuss examples from different languages (including English, French, Spanish, Basque, Estonian, Khakas and Chinese) in order to check the general character of the proposed iconic analysis of AR expressions.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.English AR as a prosodic template
  • 3.An iconic analysis of AR expressions
  • 4. Sound iconicity in AR
  • 5.Movement iconicity in AR
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.15.04mor
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