Cover not available
Article published In:
Morphology and emotions across the world's languages
Edited by Maïa Ponsonnet and Marine Vuillermet
[Studies in Language 42:1] 2018
► pp. 226–255

Expressive values of reduplication in Barunga Kriol (northern Australia)

| ARC Centre of excellence for the Dynamics of Language | The Australian National University | The University of Sydney

This article describes the semantic values of reduplication in Barunga Kriol – an English-based creole of northern Australia –, with a focus on its expressive functions. Barunga Kriol reduplication has two types of functions. Its most frequent meaning is aspectual atelicity. In addition, it has a number of expressive meanings and connotations: hypocoristic usages; descriptions of children’s games and imitations; and a softening role in imperatives and reprimands. Contrary to the aspectual value of reduplication which is iconically motivated, expressive values are motivated by the pragmatic association of reduplication with children.

Expressive uses of reduplication in Borunge are rarer and less regular than the grammaticalized aspectual uses, which are very frequent. Aspectual reduplication is optional most of the time, so that explaining its actual distribution in discourse is a complicated matter. This article shows that this distribution can often be explained in the view of the expressive values of reduplication (some of them also conveyed by affixal evaluative morphology in the Australian languages that have been replaced by this creole). Thus, taking into account the expressive dimension of reduplication contributes significantly to the linguistic analysis of the grammaticalized aspectual function of reduplication.

Keywords: reduplication, expressivity, creole, emotions, aspect
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reduplication in Barunga Kriol
    • 2.1The language and its speakers
    • 2.2Methodology
    • 2.3The status of reduplication in Barunga Kriol
      • 2.3.1Generational variation
      • 2.3.2Evaluative morphology in Barunga Kriol and in local Australian languages
  • 3.Expressive values of reduplication
    • 3.1Hypocoristic function
    • 3.2“Pretence” function
    • 3.3Imperatives and pragmatic attenuation
  • 4.Aspectual values of reduplication
    • 4.1Atelicity
    • 4.2Redundancy: Atelic predicates
    • 4.3Redundancy: Alternative encoding of atelicity
      • 4.3.1The suffix ‑bat
      • 4.3.2The suffix ‑ing
      • 4.3.3Four alternative forms to express atelicity
  • 5.Explaining the distribution of reduplication in discourse
    • 5.1Rules of grammar: Which predicates reduplicate?
    • 5.2Rules of discourse: When do reduplicable predicates reduplicate?
      • 5.2.1Ran ‘run’
      • 5.2.2Slip ‘sleep’
      • 5.2.3Plei ‘play’
      • 5.2.4Summary of the distribution of reduplication in discourse
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 19 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.00009.pon
References
Baptista, Marlyse
2003 Reduplication in Cape Verdean Creole. In Silvia Kouwenberg (ed.), Twice as meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and other contact languages, 177–184. Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, Simon
2004 Mind reading: The interactive guide to emotions. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Dan I. Slobin
1994 Relating events in narratives. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Besten, Hans den, Carla Luijks & Paul Roberge
2003 Reduplication in Afrikaans. In Silvia Kouwenberg (ed.), Twice as meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and other contact languages, 271–287. London: Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight
1978 Intonation across languages. In Joseph Harold Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Human Language 11, 471–524. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca
1994 The evolution of grammar. Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
1976 Aspect. An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cutfield, Sarah
2011 Demonstratives in Dalabon. A language of south-western Arnhem Land. Melbourne: Monash University PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
2016 Common lexical semantics in Dalabon ethnobiological classification. In Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch & Jane Simpson (eds.), Language, land and story in Australia. London: EL Publishing.Google Scholar
Disbray, Samantha
2008 More than one way to catch a frog: A study of children’s discourse in an Australian contact language. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. & Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi
1994 Morphopragmatics. Diminutives and intensifiers in Italian, German and other languages. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2003 Bininj Gun-Wok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas, Dunstan Brown & Greville Corbett
2001 Dalabon pronominal prefixes and the typology of syncretism: A network morphology analysis. In Booij Geert & Jaap Van Marle (eds.), Yearbook of morphology 2000, 103–172. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas & Francesca Merlan
2003 Dalabon verb conjugation. In Nicholas Evans (ed.), The non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: Comparative studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region, vol. 5521, 268–283. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas, Francesca Merlan & Maggie Tukumba
2004 A first dictionary of Dalabon. Maningrida: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation.Google Scholar
Fortin, Antonio
2011 The morphology and semantics of expressive affixes. Oxford: The University of Oxford PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Grandi, Nicola & Lívia Körtvélyessy
2015 Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Dorothea
2012 Descriptions of motion and travel in Jaminjung and Kriol. Manchester: University of Manchester PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Jurafsky, Daniel
1996 Universal tendencies in the semantics of the diminutive. Language 72(3). 533–578. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kallergi, Haritini
2015 Total reduplication as a category of expressives. (Counter)evidence from Modern Greek. Studies in Language 34(4). 873–904. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koch, Harold
2000 The role of Australian Aboriginal languages in the formation of Australian Pidgin grammar: transitive verbs and adjectives. In Jeff Siegel (ed.), Processes of language contact: Case studies from Australia and the South Pacific, 13–46. Saint-Laurent, Québec: Fides.Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, Silvia
2003 Twice as meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and other contact languages. London: Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar
Kouwenberg, Silvia & Darlene LaCharité
2001 The iconic interpretations of reduplication: Issues in the study of reduplication in Caribbean Creole languages. European Journal of English Studies 5(1). 59–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 The meanings of “more of the same”. Iconicity in reduplication and the evidence for substrate transfer in the genesis of Caribbean Creole languages. In Silvia Kouwenberg (ed.), Twice as meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and other contact languages, 7–18. London: Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar
2011 The typology of Caribbean Creole reduplication. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 26(1). 194–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Arbitrariness and iconicity in total reduplication. Evidence from Caribbean Creoles. Studies in Language 39(4). 971–991. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Jason & Kazuko Obata
2010 Languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – A uniquely Australian heritage. Year Book Australia, vol. 2009–10 Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Mayer, Mercer
2003 Frog, where are you? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Putnam Inc.Google Scholar
McKay, Graham
1975 Rembarrnga: a language of Central Arnhem Land. Canberra: The Australian National University PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Merlan, Francesca & Pascale Jacq
2005 Jawoyn-English dictionary and English finder list. Katherine: Diwurruwurru-Jaru Aboriginal Corporation.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Edith A.
1978 Reduplicative constructions. In Joseph Harold Greenberg (ed.), Universals of human language, 297–334. Standford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, Aliyah & Alexis Michaud
2007 La réduplication: universaux iconiques et valeurs en systèmes. Faits de langues. La réduplication 291. 117–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Musharbash, Yasmine
2008 Yuendumu everyday. Contemporary life in a remote Aboriginal settlement. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
2013 Night, sight, and keeping safe: An exploration of aspects of Warlpiri and Western sleep. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 241. 48–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Németh, Boglárka & Anna Sőrés
Evaluative morphology in the verbal domain. Complex verbs suffixed by -kVdik in Hungarian. In Maïa Ponsonnet & Marine Vuillermet eds. Morphology and emotions across the world’s languages. Special issue of Studies in Language 42 1
Nicholls, Sophie
2009 Referring expressions and referential practice in Roper Kriol. Armidale, Australia: University of New England PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
2013 Cultural scripts, social cognition and social interactions in Roper Kriol. Australian Journal of Linguistics 33(3). 282–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noyce, Philip
2002 Rabbit-proof fence. Australia: Jabal Films PtyLtd.Google Scholar
Ponsonnet, Maïa
2010 Brainwash from English? Barunga Kriol speakers views about their language. Anthropological Linguistics 52(2): 160–83.Google Scholar
2014a The language of emotions: The case of Dalabon (Australia). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b Documenting the language of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). Caveats, solutions and benefits. In Aicha Belkadi, Kakia Chatsiou & Kirsty Rowan (eds.), Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory Conference 41, 1–13. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
2016 Reflexive, reciprocal and emphatic functions in Barunga Kriol. In Felicity Meakins & Carmel O’Shannessy (eds.), Loss and renewal. Australian languages since contact. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Submitted Do linguistic properties influence expressive potential? The case of two Australian diminutives. Anthropological Linguistics.Google Scholar
Rhydwen, Mari
1995 Kriol is the color of Thursday. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1131. 113–119. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, Françoise
2018 Rise and fall of diminutives: four centuries of Mojeño evaluative morphology. In Maïa Ponsonnet & Marine Vuillermet (eds.), Morphology and emotions across the world’s languages. Special issue of Studies in Language 42(1).Google Scholar
Sandefur, John R.
1979 An Australian Creole in the Northern Territory: A description of of Ngukurr-Bamiyili dialects. Darwin: SIL-AAB.Google Scholar
1986 Kriol of North Australia: A language coming of age. Darwin: SIL-AAB.Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward
1921 Language: an introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Saulwick, Adam
2003a A first dictionary of Rembarrnga. Maningrida: Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, Maningrida Arts and Culture.Google Scholar
2003b Aspects of the verb in Rembarrnga, a polysynthetic language of northern Australia: Grammatical description, texts and dictionary. Linguistics. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
2015 The good, the bad and the ugly: The morphosyntax of evaluation in Dalabon. In Nicola Grandi & Lívia Körtvélyessy (eds.), Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology, 430–437. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Schultze-Berndt, Eva, Maïa Ponsonnet & Denise Angelo
In preparation. The semantics of modal markers in Northern Australian Kriol.
Stump, Gregory
1993 How peculiar is evaluative morphology. Journal of linguistics 291. 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Warwick
2009 Samson and Delilah. Australia: Scarlett Pictures PtyLtd.Google Scholar
Turchetta, Barbara
2015 Evaluative morphology in Pidgins and Creoles. In Nicola Grandi & Livia Kortvelyessy (eds.), Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology, 170–183. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
1984 Diminutives and depreciatives: Semantic representation for derivational categories. Quaderni di Semantica 51. 123–130.Google Scholar
Woodbury, Anthony C.
1998 Documenting rhetorical, aesthetic and expressive loss in language shift. In Leonore A. Grenoble & Lindsay J. Whaley (eds.), Endangered languages. Language loss and community response, 234–258. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Brown, Connor & Maïa Ponsonnet
2021. Constraints on subject elision in northern Australian Kriol: Between discourse and syntax. Australian Journal of Linguistics 41:3 ► pp. 287 ff. DOI logo
Phillips, Joshua
2018. A sense of agency. Studies in Language 42:2 ► pp. 329 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.