Four Types of Reduplication in the Cha’palaa Language of Ecuador

Abstract

This chapter describes four major types of reduplication in Cha'palaa: full and partial repetition of ideophones, full reduplication of verbal elements adding iterative aspect to predicates, full reduplication of non-verbal elements to form verbal adjuncts, and partial reduplication as a derivational process for creating adjective-like attributive words. The Cha'palaa language of northwestern Ecuador is characterized by the relatively high functional load it places on processes of reduplication, applying a variety of distinct types of reduplication across different word classes and construction types. The chapter provides a first descriptive account of reduplication in Cha'palaa, a language which is largely undescribed except for a few limited sources. It organized Cha'palaa reduplication constructions into four major types, describing each of them and some additional minor types and subtypes to the extent possible in the space available. Keywords: adjective-like attributive words; Cha'palaa language; ideophones; non-verbal elements; northwestern Ecuador