Search: Start Page ➙ Language: French (fra) Alternative Names  Français Family/Group  Indo-European, Italic Area  Eurasia Typological Information  • syllable timed language; • final stress Reduplication Form-Function  CV- (diminutive) Relationship Form-Function  one form - one function Reduplication System  Reduplicated forms in French are always consonant-initial disyllables with an initial light syllable. When the base is a light syllable, the final syllable of the reduplicated word is also light. When the base is a heavy syllable, the final syllable of the reduplicated word is also heavy. If the simplex is polysyllabic, reduplication involves truncation in order to achieve a monosyllabic base (Scullen 2002: 178). Diachrony  Reduplication in French does not descend from Latin. It has its origin in child language. Reduplications are documented since the middle age, but the documented cases increase with the 19th century; cf. also Portuguese (Rainer 1998). Productivity  Reduplication is a productive process in French. The most productive process of reduplication in current spoken French is with inputs consisiting of a single heavy syllable (cf. Scullen 2002). Repetitive Operations  • onomatopoetics, e.g. glou-glou, toc-toc; • emphasis/intensification, e.g. très très folle "very very crazy" Recursive Operations  e.g. "très très chic" Stylistic Information  Reduplication is typical for colloquial speech (argot) and for child directed speech. Forms  Select ValueCV   Functions  Select Valuediminution lexical enrichment Patterns  Select Valuepartial Semantics  Select Valuediminuity other   Word Classes  Select Valueadjective/adverb — adjective/adverb adjective/adverb — noun noun — noun   All Examples  ⊟ References Mayerthaler, Willi 1977. Studien zur theoretischen und zur französischen Morphologie. Tübingen: Niemeyer; (relevant pages: 1 - 92)  Rainer, Franz 1998. "La réduplication française du type fifille d'un point de vue dichronique". In: Ruffino, Giovanni, eds., Atti del XXI Congresso Internazionale de Linguistica e Filologia Romanza, Tübingen: Niemeyer  Scullen, Mary Ellen 2002. "New Insights into French reduplication". In: Wiltshire, Caroline; Camps, Joaquim, eds., Romance Phonology and Variation, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company     Terminology    Glossary    Field Descriptions

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