Comments on: Fifth & William http://annarborchronicle.com/2011/11/07/fifth-william-16/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fifth-william-16 it's like being there Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:56:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2 By: Dave Askins http://annarborchronicle.com/2011/11/07/fifth-william-16/comment-page-1/#comment-76966 Dave Askins Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:23:05 +0000 http://annarborchronicle.com/?p=75515#comment-76966 In English, most plural nouns get formed adding some sort of /s/-like sound to the end of the singular noun [e.g., singular – book; plural – books]. In Indonesian, many plurals are formed by making a second copy of the whole noun (reduplicating it). [e.g., buku saya (my book); buku-buku saya (my books)].

Knowledge of English also seems to include the ability to make reduplicative patterns, even if they do not entail repetition of an entire word. For example, there’s a 2008 conference paper [link] that analyzes the language game from the Simpson’s TV show, which involves repetition of a word chunk after insertion of “diddly”.

Diddly-infixation
welcome → wel-diddly-elcome
action → ac-diddly-action

]]> By: Ruth Kraut http://annarborchronicle.com/2011/11/07/fifth-william-16/comment-page-1/#comment-76963 Ruth Kraut Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:43:44 +0000 http://annarborchronicle.com/?p=75515#comment-76963 Only a linguist would note a reduplicative plural formation (translation for the non-linguists, please?)

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