IS THERE LIFE AFTER REDUPLICATION?

( to be presented by the first author) The main purpose of this paper is to examine the status of descriptive categories such as ‘Triplication ’ and ‘Quadruplication’, categories often used in conjunction with Reduplication to describe patterns of morphological markings that resemble but seem to go beyond Reduplication. We shall argue that these categories are NOT needed for what they describe is always better described as Serial or Iterative Reduplication. Several analyses of lexical patterns in which morphological complexity is marked by multiple repetitions of an identifiable part of the corresponding shorter word invoke notions such as “Triplication ” and “Quadruplication ” (cf. Lim and Wee 2001 and Blust 2001(contra Elbert and Pukui 1979), for example)). These analyses either assume or explicitly state that Triplication and Quadruplication are processes the results of which must be distinguished from what they refer to as Serial Reduplication. We shall argue that the distinction is NOT a sustainable one and that all examples of Triplication, for instance, must be analyzed as iterative reduplication. We will argue that both Serial or Double Reduplication and Triplication must be assigned the same structure, nested withi