Re: THEORY: Reduplication

Quoth dirk elzinga:
> Actually, there is an emerging reduplication pattern in English
> that I call "genuine reduplication." It is total reduplication,
> and it is used to refer to a prototypical instance of the
> referent.
>
> I'm hearing this with increasing frequency. How many of you
> native English speakers have done this in the last 24 hours?
> (C'mon, raise those hands; I know you're out there.) Is this
> what you mean by exemplars, Boudewijn?
I find it's not just prototypical instances, but to refer to the
original or more literal meaning of a word where the word has in general
undergone some sort of semantic drift or polysemy and no other word
exists.  Some of these that I've used with reasonable frequency include
"Spanish Spanish", as opposed to Mexican or South American Spanish, and
"Indian Indian", as opposed to American Indian.  Also used generally
to correct when someone clarifies incorrectly, e.g. "I put it in my
notebook." "You have a notebook computer?" "No, a notebook notebook.".

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