132 Chapter 5 Reduplication
bukuna ‘the book’ ku-bukuna ‘the books’
motorra ‘the car’ tor-motorra ‘the cars’
It may seem quite natural to expect suffixes to play no role in final-syllable
reduplication as it is possible that reduplication precedes suffixation in the deri-
vation of a form. However, there are theoretical and phonological reasons for
rejecting such an explanation and instead attributing this to the fact that it is the
root that is specified as the target of reduplication.
First, the meaning of some derived forms indicates that suffixation pre-
cedes reduplication. For instance, the word men-tamenan means ‘plants’, a
plural noun. As will be seen shortly, reduplication is generally (although not
exclusively) associated with notions of plurality. The root for this word is the
verb tamen ‘plant’. In order to form a plural noun, the verb must first be nomi-
nalized, which is accomplished through affixation of -an, a nominalizing suffix:
[tamenV] + [anN] o [[tamenV]anN]. At this point, the plural noun can be derived
through final-syllable reduplication, yielding [men[[tamenV]anN]N]. Thus, based
on the meaning, it is more logical from the standpoint of grammatical theory for
suffixation to precede reduplication. Additionally, it has long been noted that
derivational morphological processes overwhelmingly tend to precede inflec-
tional processes. As nominalization is a derivational process and pluralization
an inflectional one, it is expected for -an to be suffixed first, deriving a noun
from a verb, and reduplication is subsequent to this, inflecting the noun for
number.
Second, there is evidence that suffixes are applied prior to reduplication
as phonological changes induced by the suffix are reflected in the reduplicated
syllable. Stevens (1985) illustrates this convincingly with the form wa'-buwa'an
‘fruits’. The root form is buwa ‘fruit’. Recall from Chapter 2 (section 5.1) that
sequences of identical vowels, here aa (realized as [ɤɤ] because of vowel har-
mony) trigger -epenthesis. Thus the affixation of -an induces -epenthesis,
resulting in [buwɤɤn]. When the final syllable of the root is reduplicated, the
is included in the reduplicant [wɤ-buwɤɤn] (where the reduplicated syllable is
in bold). If reduplication preceded suffixation, the expected form would be the
incorrect form *[wɤ-buwɤɤn] because there would be no final consonant in the
root. As the phonological change induced by suffixation shows up in the redup-
licated syllable, suffixation must precede reduplication. Indeed, as argued con-
vincingly by Stevens (1985), reduplication in Madurese must be a lexical
process that operates on the phonetic representation of the stem.
Further evidence for this ordering of affixation and reduplication is avail-
able from the interaction of final-syllable reduplication with the nominal cirum-
fix ka-...-an. Karaja'an ‘kingdom’ is a locative nominal derived from raja
‘king’. Application of final-syllable reduplication results in ja'-karaja'an ‘king-
doms’. The fact that the reduplicated syllable ja' occurs to the left of the affix