INTRODUCTION
C HAPTER I: I NTRODUCTION
This dissertation is a study of reduplication in general and a description of the types of
reduplication in Bikol (bcl)1, a Philippine language, in particular. Reduplication has always
attracted the attention of linguists, perhaps especially because speakers of Indo-European
languages are not familiar with the phenomenon, but they can find it in almost every non-
Indo-European language. Sapir noted that "Nothing is more natural than the prevalence of
reduplication, in other words, the repetition of all or part of the radical element" (Sapir
1921: 76). Among the many languages which make use of reduplication, the Philippine
languages are known to do so to an outstanding degree. Blake even argues that nowhere
"perhaps is this linguistic principle more productive than in the Philippine languages [...]"
(Blake 1917: 425). I do not consider this statement sustainable, but it reflects very well the
first impression that one gets by looking at the morphology of Philippine languages, namely
that reduplication can exercise almost all functions and that the operation can be applied
nearly without any restrictions. This might be seen as one of the many challenges that
Philippine languages pose to the universality of grammar (cf. Himmelmann 1991).
Although the extensive use of reduplication with its wide range of different forms and
meanings is often cited to be a characteristic feature of Austronesian languages, and although
there are some compilations of reduplication types for some of these languages2, grammars of
Austronesian languages usually do not provide any detailed analysis or explanation of the
reduplication system. What Sperlich (2001) notes on Niuean (niu), an Eastern-Polynesian
language, is true for Austronesian languages in general: Previous studies "... have noted the
importance of reduplication but have not analysed the phenomenon in depth" (Sperlich 2001:
280). Grammars usually list the different forms and their respective meanings (at best,
different types are separated from each other), but no further information on morphology,
syntax and semantics of the reduplication types is provided. In order to be able to obtain
deeper insights to reduplication in Austronesian languages, different systems must be
described and compared. In a broader perspective, this is then also relevant for larger
typological research on the topic.
1 The small letter codes refer to the Ethnologue, 15th edition (http://www.ethnologue.com/).
2 For example Blake (1917) and Naylor (1986) for Tagalog (tgl), Gonda (1950) for Indonesian languages,
Finer (1986/87) for Palauan (pau), or Kiyomi (1995) for Malayo-Polynesian.
1
INTRODUCTION
The "Graz Database on Reduplication"3 is dedicated to such a cross-linguistic typological
study of the phenomenon, collecting a broad array of data from very different and
typologically sampled languages. Naturally in such broad comparative work, many details
have to be simplified for structural reasons.
This dissertation on reduplication in Bikol aims to exemplify the other side of the same
coin – a detailed study of one specific reduplication system of one language. To this end it
makes use of insights gained from cross-linguistic research, and it pays back its dues, since
the much more detailed insights into a specific system undoubtedly enrich the typological
results and structural knowledge of reduplication in general. This is expressed by the citation
of Trendelenburg, chosen by Pott as a motto for his work (1862: ii): "Wo das Einzelne scharf
beobachtet wird, offenbart es an sich die Züge des Allgemeinen."
Due to its high iconicity and to its association with child (directed) speech, reduplication was
and is often considered to be a "primitive" means of word formation. Wundt (1900) analyzes:
"Der einfachste Fall einer Verbindung articulirter Laute zu einem Ganzen [...] ist
die Lautwiederholung. Sie lässt sich einerseits als die primitivste Form der
Wortbildung überhaupt auffassen, als eine Form, die eben erst an der Gre
