Reduplication of Urdu and English Words. Methodology and Data Analysis

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, , language: English, abstract: Reduplication is not an alien concept to begin with. It is a type of compounding process in terms of ¿reduplication compound or repetitive compound¿. Reduplication is a morphological process in which word, stem or root is doubled. This process takes place in two major types; total reduplication and partial reduplication. Total reduplication doubles the entire word whereas partial reduplication copies some phonological features of the word, stem or root.

The process of reduplication is found in many languages and has the quality of linguistic productivity. The productivity of reduplication process in Urdu and English language is reverse. English language has less productivity of Reduplication process but the linguistics has done a lot of work on it. There are two online dictionaries on reduplicated words in English language, where they present reduplicated words with their meanings and etymological origins. On the other hand, the productivity of reduplication process is immense in Urdu language but there is no online availability of literature on Reduplication in Urdu language. If material of some kind available online it is not very reliable.

Word Reduplication can be traced back to the 16th century from Latin word ¿Reduplication¿ or ¿reduplicationis¿ which means ¿doubling¿ and ¿folding¿. The term ¿Reduplicator¿ is used for the base word in reduplication even the reduplicated element is called ¿Reduplicant¿.

Reduplication plays central role in word formation process which undergoes in many languages and language groups. Reduplication process is very productive in Urdu language but the process remains almost unexplored in Pakistan. It is a rich field of linguistic investigation.