CF-reduplication in English: Dynamic Prototypes & Contrastive Focus Effects

Abstract

CF-reduplications refer to three different levels of a category: the prototype of a category, the subcategories in a category or a category itself. The CF-marked modifier receives the intension of a base word and produces a contingently determined denotation of CF-reduplications, on the basis of dynamic prototypes in the minds of speakers. The Contrastive Focus exhaustively selects the denotation of the CF-reduplications out of immediately relevant alternatives in the discourse with the exclusive implication that only the denotation of the reduplicated expression is intended by speakers. CF-reduplications semantically have dynamically changing denotations and pragmatically facilitate the communication between speakers with contrastive focus effects.