6. Kinds of morphemes and morphological processes
6.4. Reduplication and non-concatenative morphology
Reduplication
Reduplication is a special morphological process that involves full or partial copying of the stem. Some examples of full reduplication in Javanese are shown in (4). In all of these examples, reduplication indicates plurality.
| (4) | bare form | bare form gloss | reduplicated form | reduplicated form gloss |
| a. | baita | ship | baita~baita | various ships |
| b. | səsupe | ring | səsupe~səsupe | various rings |
| c. | omaha | house | omaha~omaha | various houses |
(Uhlenbeck 1978: 90, as cited by Booij 2005: 35)
Javanese also has partial reduplication. Whereas the reduplicated forms in (4) repeat the entire stem, the reduplicated forms in (5) only reduplicate the initial consonant. Note that the vowel that has been added in the reduplicated forms is not copied from the stem; in all cases, it is a /ə/, regardless of the vowels of the stem. In all of the examples in (5), reduplication indicates a change from a noun into a verb.
| (5) | bare form | bare form gloss | reduplicated form | reduplicated form gloss |
| a. | gəni | fire | g~ə-gəni | to warm oneself by the fire |
| b. | jawah | rain | j~ə-jawah | to play in the rain |
| c. | tamu | guest | t~ə-tamu | to visit |
(Uhlenbeck 1978: 90, as cited by Booij 2005: 35)
Javanese uses many different reduplicative patterns with a variety of meanings. For a thorough description of many of the ways reduplication is used in Javanese, see Miyake (2011).
According to the Leipzig glossing rules, reduplication should be marked with a tilde (~) connecting the reduplicant to the stem.
Non-concatenative morphology
Affixes, for the most part, join the root on its edges, resulting in a linear string of morphemes, but not all morphological processes result in a linear string of morphemes. Morphological processes that produce affixes in a linear string are called concatenative, from the Latin word catena ‘chain’, while morphological processes that do not result in a linear string are called non-concatenative. We have already seen some examples of non-concatenative morphology; suprafixes, which modify the prosody of a word, are one type of non-concatenative morphology.
Root-and-pattern morphology
A well-known example of non-concatenative morphology is root-and-pattern morphology, which is common in the Semitic language family. In Semitic languages, many roots consist only of three consonants. These are known as triconsonantal roots. Different sets of vowels are interwoven between the consonants in specific patterns, creating different but related word forms. These vowel patterns are sometimes called transfixes, because they are inserted across the root. An example from Hebrew is shown below in (1).
| (1) |
Transfix pattern | Pattern meaning | Hebrew verb | Gloss |
| a. | CaCaC | intransitive verb | gadal | He grew. |
| b. | CiCeC | to cause X | gidel | He raised. |
| c. | CuCaC | to be caused to be X | gudal | He was raised. |
| d. | hiCCiC | to make X | higdil | He enlarged. |
| e. | huCCaC | to be made to be X | hugdal | He was enlarged. |
(adapted from Ussishkin 2000: 659)
Example (1) shows several Hebrew words formed from the triconsonantal root gdl. In the first column, we see several different transfixes that can be applied to the root. Each transfix pattern includes three Cs which represent the placement of the root consonants. The transfix pattern also indicates which vowels are interwoven into the word and where, as well as if there are any additional consonants, such as the initial /h/ in examples (d) and (e).
Triconsonantal roots are bound roots, because they cannot appear on their own, without the vowels of a transfix.
Ablaut
| (2) | singular | plural |
| a. | mouse | mice |
| b. | goose | geese |
| c. | tooth | teeth |
| d. | woman | women |
| (3) | bare form | past tense | past participle |
| a. | sing | sang | sung |
| b. | come | came | come |
| c. | find | found | found |
| d. | get | got | got |
| e. | drive /dɹɑiv/ | drove /dɹoʊv/ | drive-n /dɹɪvən/ |
Key takeaways
- Reduplication is a morphological process whereby the stem is copied. The entire stem can be copied, which is called full reduplication, or just part of the stem, which is called partial reduplication.
- Non-concatenative morphology are morphological processes that do not result in a linear string. Suprafixes, root-and-pattern morphology, and ablaut are all examples of non-concatenative morphology.
- Root-and-pattern morphology is common in Semitic languages and consists of triconsonantal roots that are combined with a transfix. Transfixes indicate which vowels should be used and the arrangement of the consonants.
- Ablaut is when a morphological category is marked by a vowel change.
Check yourself!
Consult the following data in answering the check yourself questions:
| (4) | Javanese | ||
| a. | abang | ‘red’ | |
| b. | abang-abang | ‘some what red, reddish’ | |
| c. | biru | ‘blue’ | |
| d. | biru-biruan | ‘bluish’ | |
(Miyake 2011: 50)
| (5) | Morrocan Arabic | ||
| a. | ktəb | ‘write’ | |
| b. | ktab | ‘book’ | |
| c. | ktuba | ‘books’ | |
| d. | katib | ‘writer’ | |
(Noamane 2018)
| (6) | a. | sing-song |
| b. | ding-dong | |
| c. | chat-chat | |
| d. | dilly-dally |
References and further resources
For a general audience
🎉 McLendon, Lisa. November 9 2020. Why ablaut reduplication is top-top. ACES: The society for editing. https://aceseditors.org/news/2020/why-ablaut-reduplication-is-tip-top
For students
Booij, Geert. 2005. The grammar of words: An introduction to linguistic morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Academic sources
🔍 Miyake, Yoshimi. 2011. Reduplication in Javanese. Asian and African Languages and Linguistics 6: 45-59.
Noamane, Ayoub. 2018. Morphological causatives in Moroccan Arabic: Word-based or root-based? Asinag 13: 217-240.
Uhlenbeck, E. M. 1978. Studies in Javanese Morphology. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Ussishkin, Adam. 2000. Root-and-pattern morphology without roots or patterns. Proceedings of the North East Linguistics Society 30(2).
A morphological process involving the full or partial copying of the stem.
Morphological processes that result in a linear string of morphemes, such as prefixation or suffixation.
Morphological processes that do not result in a linear string of morphemes, such as suprafixes, transfixes, or ablaut.
An affix that is encoded through the prosodic structure of the stem, such as through stress, length, or pitch.
The patterns of stress and intonation in a language.
A way of forming words common in Semitic languages, in which words are formed by adding transfixes to triconsonantal roots. The transfixes determine the arrangement of the consonants and the vowels that are inserted in between the three consonants of the root, and also sometimes additional consonants.
A root consisting only of three consonants, as is common in root-and-pattern morphology in Semitic languages.
An affix that is interwoven among the segments of the root, such as in root-and-pattern morphology in Semitic languages.
synonym: internal change
A morphological process that changes the vowel in the stem.
synonym: ablaut
A morphological process that changes the vowel in the stem.
A word without any inflectional morphemes applied to it, or the simplest form in a paradigm.
A form of the English verb used in the perfect (e.g., have sung or have eaten) or in the passive (e.g., was sung or was eaten).
The past participle is often marked with -en or shares the same form as the past tense, but there are also many verbs with an irregular past participle.
