Enhancing Contrasts in Reduplication
Suzanne Urbanczyk
University of Victoria
The enhancement of contrasts has been related to the functional goal of maximizing the distinctiveness of segments (Stevens and Keyser 1989; Flemming 1995). This paper presents evidence that a similar enhancement strategy occurs with reduplicative morphemes. First it will be shown that enhancement provides a nice account of a range of unexpected phonological processes which accompany reduplication. Then it will shown that the same functional goal is behind these ancilliary processes, maximizing distinctiveness. Finally, some of the striking parallels between enhancement of contrasting segments and contrasting reduplicative morphemes will be discussed.
Evidence that there is enhancement of contrasts in reduplication comes from examining languages with multiple reduplicative morphemes, where two morphemes have the same shape. In some cases shape alone is insufficient to distinguish the reduplicative morphemes. For example, in Mainland Comox (Northern Coast Salish) there are two reduplicative morphemes with CV- shape:
'diminutive' and 'imperfective' (Watanabe 1994). Observe in (1a) that syncope of post-tonic full
vowels occurs with 'diminutive', but not 'imperfective' (1b).
(1) a. ‘diminutive’
supayu ‘ax’ su-spayu ‘small ax’
atxw ‘room’ a-txw ‘small bed’
b. ‘imperfective’
uqwu ‘dig clams’ u-uqwu ‘digging clams’
agaut ‘to sneak away’ a-agaut ‘sneaking away’
In other cases the reduplicative morpheme has the same shape, but differs in terms of its position in the word. In Nxa'amxcin (Southern Interior Salish), there is a CVC- reduplicative prefix meaning 'augmentative' and a -CVC reduplicative suffix meaning 'characteristic' (Czaykowska-Higgins 1993). Observe that in this case the reduplicants differ segmentally; a schwa occurs with
'augmentative' (2a), but a full vowel occurs with 'characteristic' (2b). Unexpectedly, a widespread
process of unstressed vowel reduction doesn't affect the 'characteristic' vowel.
(2) a. 'augmentative' q'l-q'íl-t lx 'they're all sick'
b. 'characteristic' q'íl-q'il-t 'it hurts bad'
A final situation is two reduplicative morphemes that have similar form and function. Nuu-chahnulth (Southern Wakashan) has a great many words formed by affix-triggered reduplication (Rose 1981). Interestingly, total root reduplication occurs with two very similar aspectual morphemes which have an iterative meaning: 'repetitive' and 'intermittent'. Observe that in the Ahousaht dialect 'repetetitive' /-a/ triggers vowel lengthening in (3b).
(3) a. wat-q-ši ‘swallowed’
b. waat-waat-q-a ‘swallowing’ <repetitive>
c. wat-wat-q-š ‘swallowing off and on’ <intermittent>
In each case there is no purely phonological reason for the process to occur or be blocked. They are all instances of morphologically triggered (or blocked) processes. A question arises as to whether there is any explanation for this ancilliary phonological activity. What is striking is that the basic shapes of the reduplicants are the same. In all cases, the differences in segmentism serve
to enhance the phonological differences between stems with different meanings. As one can see by examining the results in (4), the reduplicants have similar forms; the process serves to enhance the difference between them. A contrast in meaning is correlated with a phonological divergence.
(4) a. Mainland Comox 'diminutive' CV- syncope
'imperfective' CV-
b. Nxa'amxcín 'augmentative' CC-
'characteristic' -CVC no vowel reduction
c. Ahousaht 'repetitive' Root- -a long vowel
'intermittent' Root- -š
In addition to the functional goal of maximizing distinctiveness, there are other similiarities between segmental and reduplicative enhancement. First, phonological enhancement only occurs when segments are similar along a particular dimension. For example, Flemming (1995) shows that rounding of palato-alveolar sibilants only occurs when there is another contrasting sibilant (English [s] vs. [w]). In sibilant enhancement the dimension is fricative noise; in reduplication the dimension is shape. Second, the enhancement feature is not as salient as the contrasting feature itself. The auditory effect of rounding is to lower the spectral energy; there is no audible off-glide with [w]. In reduplication, the enhancement feature is likewise a less salient an indicator of meaning. For example, in Nuu-chah-nulth, the aspectual distinction is made by different suffixes (/-a/ and /-š /), with vowel lengthening triggered by the first suffix. It should be noted that adjusting vowel length is more marked a strategy of indicating meaning than suffixation.
This paper extended the examination of enhancement to reduplication and found that there
are parallels. Unexpected phonological activity enhances differences between contrasting
reduplicative morphemes.
References
Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa: 1993b. The phonology and semantics of CVC reduplication in Moses-Columbian Salish. in Mattina and Montler (eds) American Indian Linguistics and Ethnography in Honor of Laurence C. Thompson. University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics 10: 47-72.
Flemming, Edward. 1995. Auditory Representations in Phonology. Ph.D. thesis, UCLA.
Rose, Suzanne. 1981. Kyuquot Grammar. Ph.D. thesis, University of Victoria.
Stevens, Kenneth, and Samuel J. Keyser. 1989. Primary features and their enhancements in consonants. Language 65: 81-106.
Watanabe, Honoré. 1994. A Report on Sliammon (Mainland Comox) Phonology and Reduplication. MA thesis, Hokkaido University.
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