1Total Reduplication in Tati within the Framework of Morphological Doubling Theory

morphological purposes. Reduplication is divided into two main types in most languages: total reduplication and partial reduplication. The present study aims to describe this process, classify different types and patterns of total reduplication, and explore its semantic functions in Tati language (the Rudbari dialect) within the framework of Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT) (Inkelas & Zoll, 2005). The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and the data, which consist of about 150 reduplication constructions in Tati, have been collected from written texts, and based on one of the author’s language intuition. Among the most important findings of this study, the followings are worth mentioning: there are two main types of total reduplication in Tati, pure total reduplication and added total reduplication and each of them has some subcategories. In this language, the elements engaged in total reduplication can belong to different grammatical categories, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, phrases, sounds, or onomatopoeia. The semantic functions of reduplication in Tati can range from clear meanings to iconic and idiomatic meanings expressing continuation, abundancy, hesitation, increasing and decreasing the intensity.

Reduplication is a morphological process and has a high productivity in some languages. In reduplication a whole word or part of it is repeated. According to the copied part linguists categorize this process into two types: total reduplication and partial reduplication. Each reduplication construction consists of two parts: the base and the reduplicant. The base is the part that is totally or partially copied and the reduplicant is the repeated part. Total reduplication is divided into two types: pure total reduplication and added total reduplication and each of them has their own subcategories. There are two main approaches toward reduplication, phonological approach and morphological approach. In this paper we try to analyze reduplication in Tati language within the framework of the second approach.

Inkelas and Zoll (2005) introduced a model for analyzing reduplication constructions. Their model is called Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT). According to this theory, each reduplication construction consists of two daughters or two inputs (equal to the base and the reduplicant in phonological theory) and a mother node (reduplication construction). The two daughters must have the same morpho-syntactic features, however, phonological identity is not required. There is a significant hypothesis in this theory which claims that the daughters are independent, but identical at semantic levels.

This descriptive-analytical research is done within the framework of Morpholodical Doubling Theory of Inkelas and Zoll (2005). The data consist of about 150 reduplication constructions in Tati language and have been collected from written texts. The corresponding author’s language intuition was also used for providing examples. All reduplication constructions of this research have been written phonetically and divided into seven categories regarding the grammatical category of the elements involved in pure total reduplication. For each type of total reduplication some examples have been provided and semantic functions of each kind of total reduplication have been studied.

There are two types of total reduplication in Tati language: pure and added total reduplication. In pure total reduplication, only the base is totally repeated. Regarding the grammatical category of the elements engaged in pure total reduplication, we can divide it into seven subcategories. In this language, pure total reduplication of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, imperatives, phrases, sounds, or onomatopoeia can be observed. In this kind of reduplication, the grammatical category of the reduplication construction can be the same as the base or they can belong to different grammatical categories. Pure total reduplication of nouns has three patterns, and the construction can be a noun, an adverb or an adjective. Pure total reduplication of adjectives has two patterns, and the resulting construction can be an adjective or an adverb. Pure total reduplication of adverbs has only one pattern in which the final construction is an adverb too. Pure total reduplication of sounds and onomatopoeia also have one pattern in which the grammatical category of the reduplication construction is the same as the grammatical category of the base. When there is an imperative as the base in pure total reduplication, the grammatical category of reduplication construction is a noun or an adverb, so it has two patterns. If a phrase is used as the base, there will be two patterns. In the first pattern two phrases are put together as the base and the reduplicant and the result will be an adverb. In the second pattern, a phrase consisting of a numeral or /tɑ/ or /gela/ (that are two numerals in Tati) is repeated totally and the final construction is an adverb or an adjective. In added total reduplication, an element is added between the base and the reduplicant, or after the reduplicant. We will have medial added total reduplication if the element is added between the base and the reduplicant. In Tati this process is done with the preposition /be/ or the formatives /e/ and /ɑ/. In final added total reduplication, a morpheme will follow the second input or the reduplicant; and in Tati this process is done with suffixes /e/, /ere/, /ake/, /ijaj/ and /i/. Reduplication constructions in Tati are used to express meanings such as plurality, abundance, consistency, increasing and decreasing the intensity. They are also used to talk about details of an action or similar items to the base.

In this descriptive-analytical research, we described and categorized different types of total reduplication in Tati language (the Rudbari dialect) within the framework of Morphological Doubling Theory of Inkelas and Zoll (2005). The results of this study show that total reduplication in Tati is of two main types: pure total reduplication and added total reduplication. Pure total reduplication is divided into seven sub-types: pure total reduplication of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, imperatives, phrases, sounds and onomatopoeia. Added total reduplication has two sub-types: medial and final added reduplication. Medial added total reduplication in Tati is done with the preposition /be/ or the formatives /e/ and /ɑ/. Final added total reduplication has five subcategories in Tati and is done with suffixes /e/, /ere/, /ake/, /ijay/ and /i/. In Tati, reduplication in nouns shows plurality and abundance; in adjectives shows increasing and decreasing the intensity of the adjective; in adverbs shows rapidity, intensity, distance and consistency, and in verbs it is used to talk about details of an action, rapidity, intensity, continuation of an action or situation, hesitation, and similar actions to the verb. In most cases the meaning of the reduplication construction can be predicted according to the meaning of the inputs.