The functions of full nominal reduplication in Jakarta Indonesian: A corpus-based examination

Abstract

Existing literature on full nominal reduplication in Indonesian describes the process as marking plurality or variation of type/kind (Sneddon et al. 2010). There are conflicting claims in the literature as to whether fully reduplicated nouns can cooccur with numerals and/or classifiers (Chung 2000; Dalrymple & Mofu 2012). This paper presents a corpus study of full nominal reduplication (FNR) in Jakarta Indonesian (JI), a recent variant of Malay which emerged as a blend of Jakarta Malay (JM) and Standard Indonesian (SI). In particular, I examine the cooccurrence and linear ordering of other nominal elements with fully reduplicated nouns (FRNs), including quantifiers, numerals, classifiers, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, and the definite article -nya. The corpus study found no instances of FRNs cooccurring with numerals, but one potential instance of an FRN cooccurring with a classifier. FRNs can cooccur with all other nominal elements. The linear ordering of these elements in JI more closely resembles the ordering in JM than in SI in that the FRNs may either precede or follow demonstratives. The corpus study also explores the interpretation of FNR as it pertains to plurality and variation of kind. It presents evidence that an additional function of FNR in JI is contrastive focus.