Reduplication in Russian explained

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

Reduplication is also observable in borrowed words, such as "Russian: пинг-понг" (pronounced as /[pʲɪnkˈponk]/; ping-pong) and "Russian: зигзаг" (pronounced as /[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 "Russian: мама" (pronounced as /[ˈmamə]/; mommy), "Russian: папа" (pronounced as /[ˈpapə]/; daddy), "Russian: баба" (pronounced as /[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:

• a hyphenated word, both of standard vocabulary or standard ad hoc word formation
  • exact reduplication:
    • "Russian: чуть-чуть" (pronounced as /[tɕʉtʲ ˈtɕʉtʲ]/; "very few", lit. "few-few") - a vocabulary word
    • "Russian: белый-белый (снег)" (pronounced as /[ˈbʲɛlɨj ˈbʲɛlɨj (sʲnʲɛk)]/; "very white (snow)", lit. "white-white (snow)") - ad hoc formation, for adjectives
  • inflected reduplication:
    • "Russian: давным-давно" (pronounced as /[dɐˈvnɨm dɐˈvno]/; "very long time ago", lit. "pastly-past")
    • "Russian: белым-бело" (pronounced as /[bʲɪˈlɨm bʲɪˈlo]/; "very white", lit. "whitely-white")
  • Reduplication of adjectives using the enhancement preposition "Russian: пре-" (pronounced as //prʲe//)
    • "Russian: большой-пребольшой" (pronounced as /bɐˈlʲʂoj prʲɪbɐˈlʲʂoj]/; "very big", lit. "big-very-big"
    • "Russian: белый-пребелый" (pronounced as /[ˈbʲɛlɨj prʲɪˈbʲɛlɨj]/; "very white", lit. "white-very-white")
• A repetition of a word in dialogues as a device used either to request or to promise a higher degree of cooperation:^[2]
  • "Russian: Давай, давай!" or "Russian: Давай-давай", (pronounced as /[dɐˈvaj dɐˈvaj]/) - a general-purpose urge to do something, literally "give it, give it!", meaning "Come on!" or "Let's do it!"
  • "Russian: Беги, беги!" (pronounced as /[bʲɪˈɡʲi bʲɪˈɡʲi]/; "Run, run!") - a specific urge to run: to run fast or to run right away.
  • "Russian: Конечно, конечно!" (pronounced as /[kɐˈnʲeʂnə kɐˈnʲeʂnə]/) - an enhanced agreement: "Of course, of course!"
  • "Russian: Да, да" (pronounced as /[da da]/ "Yes, yes") - an utterance used in dialogs to indicate either constant attention ("yes, yes, I am listening") or agreement ("yes, yes, of course")
• Shm-reduplication and m-reduplication, to express irony, borrowed from Yiddish and Central Asian cultures respectively, sometimes used as a mockery of the corresponding languages or peoples; see Russian jokes about Georgians for examples of this phenomenon
• As an expression of a frequentative or of a prolonged action
  • "Russian: Тянут-потянут, вытянуть не могут" (pronounced as /[ˈtʲanut pɐˈtʲanut ˈvɨtʲɪnutʲ nʲɪ ˈmoɡut]/; "They are pulling and pulling, but cannot pull it [the turnip] out") - a phrase from the classical fairy tale Repka ("Russian: Репка", "The Turnip")
  • "Russian: Смотрит, смотрит" (pronounced as /[ˈsmotrʲɪt ˈsmotrʲɪt]/; "[he] is looking and looking")
  • "Russian: Шёл, шёл" (pronounced as /[ʂol ʂol]/; "[he] went and went")
• Onomatopoeic reduplication
  • "Russian: Кап-кап-кап" (pronounced as /[kap kap kap]/; the sound of the droplets of water)
  • "Russian: Тик-так" (pronounced as /[tik tak]/) or "Russian: тик-тик-тик" (pronounced as /[tik tik tik]/); the sound of a clock ticking
  • "Russian: Гав-гав" (pronounced as /[ɡav ɡaf]/); bowwow, barking of a dog
• Frequentative, often combined with ideophonic/onomatopoeic derivation
  • "Russian: Чик-чик" (pronounced as /[tɕik tɕik]/), from "Russian: чикнуть", "to slash with a knife"
  • "Russian: Прыг-прыг" (pronounced as /[prɨk prɨk]/), from "Russian: прыгать" ("to jump", "to hop"). A similar derivation in English would be "When the red red robin/Comes bob bob bobbing along").

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]

• Affectional diminutives:
  • "Russian: Подру<u>г</u>а" (pronounced as /[pɐˈdruɡə]/)→"Russian: подруж<u>к</u>а" (pronounced as /[pɐˈdruʂkə]/)→"Russian: подруж<u>ень</u><u>к</u>а" (pronounced as /[pɐˈdruʐɨnʲkə]/ "girlfriend"). Here, "Russian: г"→"Russian: ж" is an example of consonant mutation, and "Russian: -к-" and "Russian: -ень-" are two diminutive-generating suffixes. This kind of word formation is especially productive for given names: "Russian: Екатерина" (pronounced as /[jɪkətʲɪˈrʲinə]/, "Catherine")→"Russian: Катя" (pronounced as /[ˈkatʲə]/, hypocoristic)→"Russian: Катюша" (pronounced as /[kɐˈtʲuʂə]/ "Katyusha")→"Russian: Катюшенька" (pronounced as /[kɐˈtʲuʂɨnʲkə]/)→"Russian: Катюшенечка" (pronounced as /[kɐˈtʲuʂɨnʲɪtɕkə]/, sounds intentionally ridiculous)
• Another example:
  • "Russian: Забыть" (pronounced as /[zɐˈbɨtʲ]/, "to forget")→"Russian: <u>при</u>забыть" (pronounced as /[prʲɪzɐˈbɨtʲ]/, "to forget for a while")→"Russian: <u>по</u><u>при</u>забыть" (pronounced as /[pəprʲɪzɐˈbɨtʲ]/)

See also

• Amredita
• Babbling

Notes and References

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