Functions of reduplication 137
c. pa-
pasenneng-senneng ‘make happy (PL)’
papote-pote ‘make white (PL)’
palabu-labu ‘cause to fall (PL)’
As is the case with final-syllable reduplication, verbal suffixes are never
reduplicated in whole-word reduplication. Thus in (20), only the second instan-
tiation of the reduplicated material, the root, carries a suffix (which is in bold-
face).^1
(23) ngennallagi ‘introduce’ ngennal-ngennallagi ‘introduce (PL)’
amassa'agi ‘cook for’ amassa'-massa'agi ‘cook for (PL)’
ngereme ‘send to’ ngerem-ngereme ‘send to (PL)’
mokole ‘hit repeatedly’ mokol-mokole ‘hit repeatendly (PL)’
ajaran ‘study often’ ajar-ajaran ‘study often (PL)’
aberka'an ‘run often’ aberka'-berka'an ‘run often (PL)’
Only prefixes and circumfixes are of potential interest with respect to
Ca/initial-syllable reduplication. In each case, the reduplicated syllable follows
the prefix. The reduplicant is bolded in (24).
(24) tolong ‘help’ ata-tolong ‘help (PL)’
buruk ‘advise’ aba-buruk ‘advise (PL)’
lenggi ‘sit’ ela-lenggi'i ‘be sat on (PL)’
buruk ‘advise’ ebu-buruk ‘be advised (PL)’
It should be noted that lenggi ‘sit’ is from a higher speech level and is transiti-
vized with the locative suffix -e (realized here as [i]), which makes it eligible for
the object voice morphology that occurs word initially.
3. Functions of reduplication
Reduplication is used in the majority of cases to signal plurality. This can be
plurality of actions, plurality of entities, plurality of effect, either directly or by
metaphorical extension. This is familiar from other languages, and many of the
specific grammatical functions and meanings have been noted for reduplication
in other languages. However, not all instances of reduplication have any ob-
vious connection to plurality, as in the case of denoting imitation or toy objects
(^1) Note that the a in aberka'an ‘run often’ is the actor voice prefix and so occurs only in
the first instance of the root, whereas the initial a in ajaran ‘study often’ is part of the
root ajar and thus is present on the root and the copy.