Re: THEORY: Reduplication

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Don Blaheta
> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 1:20 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG
> Subject: Re: 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 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.".
But in the case of "Well, I don't LIKE him like him!", the reduplication
"like [him] like [him]" refers to a kind of liking which is not just liking
as a friend; then again, it's not really love, so perhaps it's best
described as a crush or infatuation, which I hardly think is the original or
more literal meaning of "like."