Reduplication in Slavic and Baltic: loss and renewal

摘要

The exposition comprises three parts. Part 1 surveys the Indo-European reduplication patterns (RPs) that have been lost in Slavic and Baltic: the languages show little or no evidence of inherited RPs in present and perfect formations, and in intensive verbs (Sect. 2.1), but some vestiges of reduplication in nouns can be identified (Sect. 2.2). Part 2 describes innovated RPs in the Slavic verb; they can be posited on the basis of scanty evidence that has survived the Late Common Slavic loss of coda obstruents. Part 3 describes Baltic innovations reflected in Lithuanian: reduplicative root formations (Sect. 4.1), several minor lexicalized RPs (Sect. 4.2.), and the para-lexical part of speech called eventives (Sect. 4.3). Their content categories, types of expression, patterns of iconicity, and grammatical function are analysed and exemplified in some detail. It is suggested that formations such as these may form the natural background for the creation of new patterns of morphological expression including patterns of reduplication.