Reduplication in Italian Dialects

Olga Kellert & Sebastian Lauschus
(University of Göttingen)
Reduplication in Italian Dialects
In our talk, we will examine the phenomenon of reduplication in different Italian Dialects.
The phenomenon of reduplication is known to exist in Italian and it has two main functions:
First, it has the function of an intensification in relation to gradable adjectives (e.g. piccolo
piccolo ‘very small’). Second, it may express prototypes in relation to nouns (e.g. caffè caffè
‘real coffee’) (cf. Bonacchi, 2012, Wierzbicka 1986, Maiden & Telmon 1997, Dressler et al.
1994, among others). Our main interest concerns the following questions:
1. What types of reduplication do we find in Italian dialects and do they have other
functions than mentioned above?
2. Can we propose a unitary analysis for all of these types?
According to our data based on different sources such as dictionaries, texts, questionnaires
and linguistic literature, reduplication can be used in a much wider range in Italian dialects
(partially already observed in Rohlfs 1968, Maiden & Telmon 1997, Greco 1976). It appears
with different syntactic categories: verbs, prepositional phrases, conjunctions, adverbs,
nouns, adjectives (see Rohlfs 1968, Greco 1976).
The following examples give and overview on reduplication with different semantic functions
in different Italian dialects:

(1)
Path or transition
a.
la
pallòttele i
passàtte a fuóre
the pellet
she went
to out
“The pellet went from one side to the other.”
b.
jiri casi
casi
go house house
“to go from house to house”

(2)
Franco-Provençal
(Faeto, Diz. FP: 2)
Calabrese
(Rohlfs 1968: 90)
Expression of sequency
a.
ripa
ripɘ
riverside riverside
“along the riverside”
Tarentino
(Greco 1976: 313)
b.
í
ponda ponda
go crest
crest
“to go along the mountaintop”
Sonnino (Lazio)
(Rohlfs 1968: 90)
c.
ó
pióue
a bòtte
a bòtte
it
rains
to once to once
“It rains from time to time.”
Franco-Provençal
(Faeto, Diz. FP: 1)

(3)
a fuóre
to out
Destination
a.
kampańńa
kampańńɘ
countryside
countryside
“to the countryside”
Tarentino
(Greco 1976: 313)
1
Olga Kellert & Sebastian Lauschus
(University of Göttingen)
b.

(4)

(5)
Quantification
a.
mattina
mattinɘ
cumenz’ a
morning
morning
begins
to
“Every morning he starts to scream.”
ghjí strellennɘ
scream
b.
l’acqua
si
jittava pisi
pisi
the-water self fell
weight weight
“The water came down with a lot of force.”
Abruzzese
(Rohlfs 1968: 91)
Abruzzese
(Rohlfs 1968: 91)
Topicalization
a mimmi
mi praxidi
to me-me me pleases
“As to me, I like it!”

(6)
Tarentino
(Greco 1976: 313)
kasa
kasɘ
house house
“to the house”
Campidanese
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Expression of affirmation/assertion
gljó gljó /
seíje seíje
“indeed, of course, without doubt”
Franco-Provençal
(Faeto, Gr. FP: 217)
As to the second question of our research, we will show how most of the types mentioned
above can be subsumed under one general type by a compositional analysis. Time
permitted, we will relate our analysis to existing compositional analyses of reduplication in
other unrelated languages (e.g. Afrikaans, see Van Huyssteen 2004).
Literature & Sources:
Bonacchi, S. (2012): „Un abbraccio forte forte, un amore grande grande”: Zur semantischen Valenz
der Reduplikation im Italienischen und zu den Möglichkeiten ihrer Wiedergabe im Polnischen
und im Deutschen. In: Studia Germanica Gedanensia , 27, pp. 47-59.
Diz. FP = Dizionario Francoprovenzale-Italiano, Italiano-Francoprovenzale di Faeto. Sportello
Linguistico Francoprovenzale (2006).
Dressler, W. et al. (1994): Morphopragmatics. Diminutives and Intensifiers in Italian, German and
Other Languages. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Gr. FP = Grammatica francoprovenzale di Faeto. Sportello Linguistico Francoprovenzale (2006).
Greco, R. A. (1976): Il costrutto reduplicato nel dialetto tarentino. In: Problemi di morfosintassi
dialettale : Atti dell' XI Convegno del C.S.D.I., Pisa: Pacini, pp. 311-314.
Maiden, M. & Telmon, T. (1997): Word structure and word formation. In: M. Maiden (ed.), The
Dialects of Italy. London: Routledge, pp. 116- 123.
Rohlfs, G. (1968): Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti: Morfologia (Vol. 2).
Torino: Einaudi.
Van Huyssteen, G. (2004): Motivating the Composition of Afrikaans Reduplications: a Cognitive
Grammar Analysis. Ms.
Wierzbicka, A. (1986): Italian reduplication: cross-cultural pragmatics and illocutionary semantics. In:
Linguistics, 24: pp. 287-315.
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https://pollycoke.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/e-a-mia-mi-piaci/.
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