Form and Meaning in Word Formation: A Study of Afrikaans Reduplication

by Rudolf P. Botha

Overview

This study provides a unified analysis of reduplication, a highly complex word formation process, in Afrikaans. Botha concludes that the reduplication principles at work in Afrikaans are not unique to that tongue and, in fact, that they are used by many other languages. Furthermore, Botha shows that neither special conceptual structures nor even standard reduplication procedures are needed to interpret Afrikaans reduplication, thus supporting recent work in cognition by Ray Jackendoff and other scholars. The book's analysis provides concrete illustration of Galilean linguistic inquiry at work in the study of word formation and meaning. Botha's study is theoretically and methodologically advanced and will be as interesting for its arguments as for its findings in the fields of morphology, word formation, and semantics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521352604
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/24/1988
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Linguistics
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Formation; 3. Semantic interpretation; 4. Link-up; 5. Metascientific retrospection; Notes; References; Index.