On the Reduplication in Kurdish language

Abstract

Reduplicated words are a fascinating, and fun aspect of language. In many languages (nearly 85%) reduplication has been observed. Reduplication, as Charles Kauffman (2015) points out is a morphological process that through doubling a morpheme enhances, emphasizes, amplifies, enlarges, diminishes, adds number or changes verb tense – to bring about significant meaning changes or shades of meaning. In general, there are two basic forms – full reduplication and partial reduplication that each of them includes several forms. In this research, our purpose is identifying and introducing a variety of reduplication patterns in Kurdish language. For this purpose we explored more than 700 samples of reduplications in Kurdish language and categorized them in several sets. We noticed that frequentative, increased action, and plural action as the most common semantic categories marked by reduplication in the samples. The studies show that this morphological process especially partial type causes some changes in the meaning of resulting combinations. What is added to the reduplicant (base or root), in most cases, is meaningless. It also seems this kind of words especially partial ones are used in informal language and an ironic meaning is inferred by them.