Reduplication in Russian

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Reduplication in Russian is used to intensify meaning in different ways.

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Reduplication is also observable in borrowed words, such as "пинг-понг" ([pʲɪnkˈponk]; ping-pong) and "зигзаг" ([zʲɪɡˈzak]; zig-zag), but since the words were borrowed as is from other languages, they are not examples of reduplication as it works in the grammar of Russian.

Syllabic/root/stem reduplication

There is virtually no productive syllabic or root/stem reduplication in the modern Russian language. [1]

An ancient lexical stratum of the Russian language provides examples such as "мама" ([ˈmamə]; mommy), "папа" ([ˈpapə]; daddy), "баба" ([ˈbabə]; granny)a phenomenon common to many languages. It is argued that these words originated in the reduplicated babbling of infants.

Word reduplication

Word reduplications are mostly the feature of the colloquial language and in most cases do not constitute separate dictionary entries. [1] Word reduplication may occur in the following forms:

Affixal reduplication

A peculiarity of Russian language is synonymic affixal reduplication, whereby a root may acquire two productive suffixes or prefixes, different, but of the same semantics, with the corresponding intensification of the meaning: [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 О. Ю. Крючкова, "Специфика внутрисловных удвоений в русском языке", in Proc. Intl. Congress Russian Language: Historical Fates and Modern Times ("Русский язык: исторические судьбы и современность"), Moscow, MSU, March 13–16, 2001, section "Word Formation of the Modern Russian Language" (in Russian)
  2. Israeli, A. (1997). "Syntactic reduplication in Russian: A cooperative principle device in dialogues". Journal of Pragmatics, 27(5), 587-609