When learning languages such as te reo Māori and Gagana Sāmoa, I cannot help but notice that there are a bunch of words that feature some form of duplication in them. For example, in Samoan, several colour terms are reduplicated, such as uliuli (black) and pa’epa’e (white). In Māori, there are words such as huihui (to assemble) and awaawa (valley). Such a pattern of word formation is not particularly unique to these languages alone, as we see similar forms of duplication in slightly more distantly related languages such as Malay and Indonesian. Think agak-agak (to estimate) and langit-langit (ceiling).

Other notable languages that feature this pattern of word formation include Japanese, as seen in the wide range of onomatopoeia and other kinds of words such as kirakira (sparkling, shining) and dokidoki (heart pounding). And so today, out of pure curiosity, I want to focus on how reduplication is used in some of the Malayo-Polynesian languages I have started learning or am somewhat familiar with, and perhaps try to make comparisons across these languages.

But first, I want to start by defining what reduplication is. Briefly put, it is the repeating of a root word or a word stem (or part thereof), which may or may not occur with a slight change. The element that is subject to repetition is called the base, while the repeated element is called the reduplicant. There are two general types of reduplication, which are full and partial reduplication.

Full reduplication is when an entire word is reduplicated. Remember awaawa and agak-agak? These are all words that have been subjected to full reduplication from awa and agak respectively. Meanwhile, partial reduplication features the reduplication of only a part of the base. This may be subject to certain restrictions in syllable structures and other things, but in the Malayo-Polynesian languages, they are quite often (C)(V)(V). An example is kikimo (Māori for ‘to keep the eyes firmly closed’), where the ki has been reduplicated from the word kimo (Māori for ‘to blink’).

These reduplicants may be placed in different parts of the resulting word. If they are attached to the start of the word, the reduplicants are considered to be a prefix, and this is called an initial reduplication. If the reduplicant occurs at the end of the word, this would be a final reduplication. There are also cases where reduplicants can occur within a word, in which the reduplicant is considered an infix, and this category of reduplication is called internal reduplication. Reduplicants may also be subject to changes in vowel or consonant, and both kinds of changes can occur in full reduplications.

In the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a combination of these types of reduplications may occur, reflecting various grammatical or semantic functions from plurality to verbal accentuation of something. And so, we will discuss the general grammatical and semantic functions reduplication have in common amongst the Malayo-Polynesian languages, drawing examples from 4 (or 5) languages, Malay, Indonesian, Samoan, and Māori (and one from Tagalog).

Indicating plurality

Perhaps this is the most well-known function of reduplication when it comes to languages like Malay and Indonesian. However, nouns are not usually marked for plurality, and would differ from context to context. Sometimes, the plural construction may be used to indicate a variety of something as well, such as barang-barang to indicate a wide range of items in Malay.

In Malay and Indonesian, the plural or variety is constructed by full reduplication of the base, and are usually linked by a hyphen in writing. So the plural of book, buku, becomes buku-buku. This construction is also the same for nouns that have suffixes or prefixes, as the reduplication would treat the entire word as a base. For example, the word society, persatuan, is derived from the root word satu. However, ‘societies’ would translate to persatuan-persatuan, a full reduplication.

Looking into the Polynesian branch though, we do not really see a widespread application of marking nouns for number. Māori, for instance, does not really mark for number for many of its nouns. However, for nouns describing general people or some family relations, there are different forms between singular and plural. These differing forms have been described as a form of internal reduplication, usually as a lengthening of a vowel.

For example, compare the singular and plural words for the word ‘woman’, wahine and wāhine respectively. The vowel in the initial syllable wa is duplicated, resulting in the lengthening of the vowel to ā. This pattern also extends to the word for an older sibling, tuakana. Here, the a is also lengthened to ā in the plural, giving us tuākana. However, the word for book and books in Māori are of the same form, pukapuka, which in itself, already is a full reduplication of puka. However, this is reflective of another function, which we will discuss later.

In Samoan, though, almost none of this occurs. Perhaps one exception I can think of is the words for ‘man’ and ‘men’, which are tamaloa and tamaloloa respectively, which features an internal reduplication. Instead, plurals may be marked using suffixes -ga or -lau. However, what Samoan uses its reduplication for verbs that agree with number. Think about phrases like “they walk” compared to “I walk”. In Samoan, to say “I walk”, that would be ou te savali. But for “they walk”, that would translate to latou te sāvavali. The syllable va has been reduplicated and used as an infix to agree with number. But this does not seem to work with all verbs. Verbs that are already reduplicated do not seem to adopt this pattern of agreement, such as patipati (to clap, applaud). However, sources do not seem to agree on if reduplication applies at all. This Samoan lesson suggests that the verb ‘to love’, alofa, does not reduplicate to agree with the plural, suggesting O latou alofa as a translation. However, grammar sketches suggested latou te alolofa as a translation for ‘they love’.

Indicating intensity (and lack thereof)

There are two ways in which reduplication can alter the intensity of a noun, an adjective, or a verb, although how these lines are drawn is somewhat inconsistent. Reduplication may intensify a certain action, transforming it to something that could mean “more intensely” or “in greater numbers”, but the opposite direction goes too. Sometimes, reduplication may result in a diminutive form of a certain base word. Interestingly, most of these reduplications occur for stative verbs and adjectives.

Firstly, let us discuss the use of reduplication as a means of intensifying something. This can include marking some form of a progressive or repetitive aspect, or an increased intensity of the action being performed. Examples of these verbs include those in Malay, like meminta (to request) and meminta-minta (to beg), the latter of which is an intensified version of a request. Similarly, there is the word tikam (to stab), which when reduplicated, as tikam-tikam, would translate as ‘to stab repeatedly’, expressing the repetitive aspect of the verb.

There are some unusual examples as well. In Indonesian, the verb menjadi (to become) may be reduplicated as menjadi-jadi, which translates to ‘to worsen’, marking a deterioration of someone or something. Synonyms of menjadi-jadi include memburuk, while antonyms, that is, words that have the opposite meaning, include membaik (to improve), which morphologically speaking, follow a similar structure to memburuk. Why menjadi-jadi depicts a intensified, worsened form from menjadi is beyond my level of comprehension, however. Other examples may be found in languages like Samoan, which includes the word pairs milo (to twist) and mimilo (to twist repeatedly), and masofa (to collapse) and masofasofa (to collapse utterly).

Conversely, there are examples in Indonesian and Malay, with verbs like duduk (to sit) and duduk-duduk (to sit around), or berjalan (to walk) and berjalan-jalan (to stroll), which convey a less intense, or more casual form of the original verb. These functions that serve to tone down the intensity, or empahsise on the small size of entities, and perhaps even demonstration of imitation or pretense may be grouped together under the diminutive umbrella. These examples raised from Malay and Indonesian often convey the expression of doing an action in a casual or leisurely manner, or perhaps a lack of seriousness as well.

One interesting case that has gained some interest is the use of game-name reduplication, where games are seen as repetitive and imitative activities played amongst children rather frequently. These games or toys would be given names that are reduplicated forms of the original words, such as bahay bahayan (literally house-house, could mean a doll house or the game playing house) in Tagalog, from bahay (house).

Changing word classes

Word classes are basically categories of words that are of a similar form, or serve a similar function. You might also hear the term ‘parts of speech’. These include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and can be extended to cover words like interjections, conjunctions, and prepositions and postpositions. For purposes of this introduction, we will mainly cover the four word classes, namely, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Reduplication may be used to change such a word class, and has been demonstrated in some words of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. However, it must be noted that many words straddle rather blurry lines between these word classes, such as the Malay and Indonesian word makan, which can translate to ‘food’ or ‘to eat’.

Nevertheless, we can encounter examples such as matapihi (window) in te reo Māori, which is partially reduplicated to matapihipihi to mean ‘to open up’. This shows a change of word class from a noun to a verb. This function may also be seen in adjectives, such as pisapisaō (noisy) in Samoan, derived from pisa (noise). Similarly, the Malay and Indonesian word tiba (to arrive) may be reduplicated as tiba-tiba (suddenly), changing the word class from that of a verb to an adverb.

Demonstrating conceptual similarity

This is perhaps the most notable or widespread semantic function reduplication has in the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Some words like tunu (to cook, in Māori) may be altered to create words related to cooking, cooking methods, and instruments. For example, a full reduplication of tunu, tunutunu, changes the meaning from ‘cook’ to ‘grill’, a cooking method, reflecting a conceptual similarity.

Similarly, the word wai (water, or fluid, in Māori) may be reduplicated to waiwai to mean ‘to steep’ or ‘to soak’ in water, demonstrating some form of conceptual similarity when it comes to expressing things to do with water. Another interesting example I found in te reo Māori is the word ngō. On its own, it is used to express a grunting or wheezing sound, or the act of making such a sound. When reduplicated to ngongō, it would mean an inhaler. But shorten the last vowel, as ngongo, and this would translate to words related to things like sucking and inhaling, such as straws and siphons. In a way, it could be argued semantically that these would make some form of wheezing sound, and there would be some relations to such words.

Accentuation

It must be noted, however, that in these languages discussed, there are also many words that are reduplicated in morphology, but if its base just exists on its own without reduplication, it does not really carry any close meaning to it. A prominent example includes verbs like ‘to pretend’ in Malay, pura-pura, nouns like cumi-cumi (squid) in Malay and Indonesian, and some colour terms in Samoan like lanu samasama (yellow). Yet, you might still see their base forms used with other words, such as cumi bakar (grilled squid). It is unclear what the unduplicated versions of these words mean, as with their relation with the reduplicated forms. Perhaps it reflects a linguistic function that remains to be dissected.

Reduplication in the Malayo-Polynesian languages could convey more grammatical and semantic functions beyond those we have discussed today, but these are the general similarities shared between the languages used in the comparison. This feature certainly deserves a greater look at, to better grasp on the extent or diversity of functions reduplication typically serves.

Further Reading

Finney, J. C. (1999) ‘The context of Polynesian reduplication’, Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 16(2), pp. 161-179.

Mattes, V. & Schwaiger, T. (2024) ‘Reduplication’, in Alexander Adelaar, and Antoinette Schapper (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia, Oxford Academic, pp. 749 – 771.

Meyerhoff, M. & Reynolds, B. (1996) ‘On reduplication and its effects on the base in Maori’, Manuscript, University of Pennsylvania and University of the Witwatersrad, Rutgers Optimality Archive 125.

Nur, H. A. (2012) ‘Reduplication in Malay’, Final year project report, Nanyang Technological University.