144 Chapter 5 Reduplication
(53) buwa ‘fruit’ wa'-buwa'-an ‘fruits’
tamenan ‘plant’ men-tamen-an ‘(various kinds of) plants’
daun ‘leaf’ un-daun-an ‘(various kinds of) leaves’
In the case of men-tamenan ‘types of plants’, the -an of tamenan ‘plant’ is the
nominalizing suffix. In most instances, suffixes cannot co-occur, and thus only
one instance of -an occurs in men-tamenan.
3.2.1 Temporal expressions
Used with temporal nouns, reduplication serves to denote more a particular part
of the time (54) or indicate plurality (55), sometimes denoting frequency or
duration with additional morphology (56).
(54) laggu ‘morning’ gu-laggu ‘early morning’
malem ‘night’ lem-malem ‘late night/all night’
seyang ‘afternoon’ yang-seyang ‘late afternoon’
(55) taon ‘year’ on-taon ‘years’
laggu' ‘tomorrow’ gu'-laggu' ‘future’
(56) are ‘day’ re-sa'-are ‘every day/day after day’
malem 'night' lem-sa-malem ‘every night’
taon ‘year’ a-on-taon ‘for years’
bulan ‘month’ a-lan-bulan ‘for many months’
lan-bulan-an ‘for months and months’
re-are-yan ‘for days and days’
The reduplication in (54) is related to the emphatic use of reduplication, the
early morning or the late night being the extreme edge of either. In (55), the
reduplication signals simple plurality, with the notion of the future being com-
prised of ‘many tomorrows’. Finally, in combination with other morphology,
the plurality of the time units indicates frequency with the prefix sa-, which can
denote ‘all’. Or with the prefix a- or the adverbial suffix -an, the plurality of the
time unit indicates duration.
3.2.2 Additional functions
Reduplication of a concrete noun in combination with the suffix -an frequently
indicates that the entity being described is a toy version or an imitation of the
type of entity denoted by the noun stem.