Functions of reduplication 145
(57) roma ‘house’ ma'-roma'an ‘toy house’
barung ‘warung’ rung-barungan ‘toy shop’
bintang ‘star’ tang-bintangan ‘fireworks’
This use of reduplication to indicate an imitation of an entity parallels the re-
duplication of a causativized verb to indicate pretending, which is imitation of
an action.
With verb roots, Ca (or initial-syllable) reduplication sometimes occurs
with the nominalizing suffix -an in the derivation of a result nominal.
(58) buruk ‘advise’ ba-burugan ‘advice’
laban ‘fight’ la-labanan ‘battle’
balas ‘respond’ ba-balasan ‘response’
There are a number of specialized instances of reduplication of nouns.
One that occurs quite frequently is the reduplication of ana' ‘child’. When re-
duplicated with the k-extension, na'-kana' need not be plural, but may denote a
single child, but crucially a child who is not the offspring of any of the partici-
pants being discussed. Thus, we find the distinctions in (59).
(59) a. Siti a-temmo ana'-eng e taman.
Siti AV-meet child-DEF at park
‘Siti met her child in the park.’
b. Siti a-temmo na'-kana'-eng e taman.
Siti AV-meet RED-child-DEF at park
‘Siti met the child in the park.’
In (59a), the child referred to is most likely Siti’s own child, or perhaps the
child of another person in the domain of discourse. However, in (59b) na'-kana'
does not refer to Siti’s child or the child of any other discourse participant. The
child has been mentioned in the discourse (hence, the definite suffix), but the
parents are likely unknown. Additionally, (59b) can be translated as ‘Siti met
the children in the park’.
Stevens (1968:167) identifies a number of instances in which nouns de-
rived through reduplication do not indicate any notion of plurality but have
special meaning related in some sense to the roots from which they are formed.
(60) bine ‘wife’ ne-bine ‘seed rice’
cethak ‘head’ thak-cethak ‘scarecrow’
tumbu ‘growth’ bu-tumbu ‘part of a plow’
birang ‘shy’ rang-birang ‘kind of caterpillar’