Title

Dr. Elizabeth Zeitoun

<hsez@gate.sinica.edu.tw>

Academia Sinica

        This talk intend to reassess Yeh (2000a-b, 2003) earlier’s study on reduplication in Saisiyat from two perspectives, empirical and theoretical.

        On the empirical level, it aims at presenting data never reported before: three patterns of reduplication are examined, Ca-reduplication, partial reduplication (including the following subpatterns: CV-, CVC-, CVV- and -CV- reduplication, which carry out quite the same semantic functions) and full reduplication. Among these, Ca- and CVC- are the most productive patterns.

        On the theoretical level, it reexamines certain universal assumptions regarding reduplication and determine whether they can be proved viable to account for Saisiyat reduplication. One assumption is that the reduplicant domain should be a prosodic unit. In Saisiyat reduplication copies neither a syllable, a mora, nor a foot. It distinguishes light (CV-) and heavy (CVC-, CVV-) syllables but privileges the latter. Other issues are also touched on, in particular, the reduplication of certain affixes, and the occurrence of doublet forms.