Re: Plurals via reduplication in Japanese (was Re: Adopting a plural)

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 16:25:00 -0400, Pascal A. Kramm <pkramm@...>
wrote:

> On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:25:45 -0400, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
> wrote:
>> Aren't there also some small number of plural nouns in Japanese formed
>> by
>> reduplication?
>
> I don't think so. The only instance I know where reduplication is
> actually
> used is not for plural, but for representing sounds, e.g. "dokidoki" to
> present the sound of heart beating. Probably it was a list of these sound
> words you remember, there's a good amount of them.
> Other than that, "moshomoshi" is generally used when answering the
> telephone.
Others have already replied with Hitobito and Shimajima, among others, and
I'm sure the list I originally saw was several items longer than those few
thusfar presented. I feel that the conception of Japanese as lacking
plural marking is simply erroneous. It may lack a productive plural
marker, but the -en plural marker in English is not productive (aside from
jargon uses in such terms as Vaxen, Linuxen, and Boxen), yet that does not
negate the fact that it is indeed a plural marker.




Paul

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