Enhancing Contrasts in Reduplication

Suzanne Urbanczyk
University of Victoria

The enhancement of contrasts has been related to the functional goal of maximizing the
distinctiveness of segments (Stevens and Keyser 1989; Flemming 1995). This paper presents
evidence that a similar enhancement strategy occurs with reduplicative morphemes. First it will
be shown that enhancement provides a nice account of a range of unexpected phonological
processes which accompany reduplication. Then it will shown that the same functional goal is
behind these ancilliary processes, maximizing distinctiveness. Finally, some of the striking
parallels between enhancement of contrasting segments and contrasting reduplicative morphemes
will be discussed.
Evidence that there is enhancement of contrasts in reduplication comes from examining
languages with multiple reduplicative morphemes, where two morphemes have the same shape.
In some cases shape alone is insufficient to distinguish the reduplicative morphemes. For
example, in Mainland Comox (Northern Coast Salish) there are two reduplicative morphemes
with CV- shape:
'diminutive' and 'imperfective' (Watanabe 1994). Observe in (1a) that syncope of post-tonic full
vowels occurs with 'diminutive', but not 'imperfective' (1b).
(1) a. ‘diminutive’
supayu ‘ax’ su-spayu ‘small ax’
w w
atx ‘room’ a-tx ‘small bed’
b. ‘imperfective’
uqwu ‘dig clams’ u-uqwu ‘digging clams’
agaut ‘to sneak away’ a-agaut ‘sneaking away’

In other cases the reduplicative morpheme has the same shape, but differs in terms of its position
in the word. In Nxa'amxcin (Southern Interior Salish), there is a CVC- reduplicative prefix
meaning 'augmentative' and a -CVC reduplicative suffix meaning 'characteristic' (Czaykowska-
Higgins 1993). Observe that in this case the reduplicants differ segmentally; a schwa occurs with
'augmentative' (2a), but a full vowel occurs with 'characteristic' (2b). Unexpectedly, a widespread
process of unstressed vowel reduction doesn't affect the 'characteristic' vowel.

(2) a. 'augmentative' q'l-q'íl-t lx 'they're all sick'

b. 'characteristic' q'íl-q'il-t 'it hurts bad'

A final situation is two reduplicative morphemes that have similar form and function. Nuu-
chahnulth (Southern Wakashan) has a great many words formed by affix-triggered reduplication
(Rose 1981). Interestingly, total root reduplication occurs with two very similar aspectual
morphemes which have an iterative meaning: 'repetitive' and 'intermittent'. Observe that in the
Ahousaht dialect 'repetetitive' /-a/ triggers vowel lengthening in (3b).

(3) a. wat-q-ši ‘swallowed’

b. waat-waat-q-a ‘swallowing’ <repetitive>
c. wat-wat-q-š ‘swallowing off and on’ <intermittent>

1
In each case there is no purely phonological reason for the process to occur or be blocked. They
are all instances of morphologically triggered (or blocked) processes. A question arises as to
whether there is any explanation for this ancilliary phonological activity. What is striking is that
the basic shapes of the reduplicants are the same. In all cases, the differences in segmentism serve
to enhance the phonological differences between stems with different meanings. As one can see
by examining the results in (4), the reduplicants have similar forms; the process serves to enhance
the difference between them. A contrast in meaning is correlated with a phonological divergence.

(4) a. Mainland Comox 'diminutive' CV- syncope

'imperfective' CV-
b. Nxa'amxcín 'augmentative' CC-
'characteristic' -CVC no vowel reduction
c. Ahousaht 'repetitive' Root- -a long vowel
'intermittent' Root- -š

In addition to the functional goal of maximizing distinctiveness, there are other similiarities
between segmental and reduplicative enhancement. First, phonological enhancement only occurs
when segments are similar along a particular dimension. For example, Flemming (1995) shows
that rounding of palato-alveolar sibilants only occurs when there is another contrasting sibilant
(English [s] vs. [w]). In sibilant enhancement the dimension is fricative noise; in reduplication
the dimension is shape. Second, the enhancement feature is not as salient as the contrasting
feature itself. The auditory effect of rounding is to lower the spectral energy; there is no audible
off-glide with [w]. In reduplication, the enhancement feature is likewise a less salient an indicator
of meaning. For example, in Nuu-chah-nulth, the aspectual distinction is made by different
suffixes (/-a/ and /-š /), with vowel lengthening triggered by the first suffix. It should be noted
that adjusting vowel length is more marked a strategy of indicating meaning than suffixation.
This paper extended the examination of enhancement to reduplication and found that there
are parallels. Unexpected phonological activity enhances differences between contrasting
reduplicative morphemes.

References
Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa: 1993b. The phonology and semantics of CVC reduplication in
Moses-Columbian Salish. in Mattina and Montler (eds) American Indian Linguistics and
Ethnography in Honor of Laurence C. Thompson. University of Montana Occasional Papers in
Linguistics 10: 47-72.
Flemming, Edward. 1995. Auditory Representations in Phonology. Ph.D. thesis, UCLA.
Rose, Suzanne. 1981. Kyuquot Grammar. Ph.D. thesis, University of Victoria.
Stevens, Kenneth, and Samuel J. Keyser. 1989. Primary features and their enhancements in
consonants. Language 65: 81-106.
Watanabe, Honoré. 1994. A Report on Sliammon (Mainland Comox) Phonology and
Reduplication. MA thesis, Hokkaido University.