Monday, April 23, 2007

Dude, what the #*{@ is reduplication?!

As noted in my post below on this week's upcoming quizzes, the Frank's quiz this week will feature a round of reduplication (link to scholarly explanation) questions, in which all correct answers will have a reduplicative element. This is the result of me having taken too many undergrad linguistics classes.

Simply put I'll be looking for answers that round in which there's a repeated linguistic element. Think Walla Walla, Washington or Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down. Or think of it as the spoken equivalent of this photo I took in Mexico City a few years back.

Sometimes I wonder if the word isn't an in-joke from some linguist. I should think duplication covers the issue and reduplication might mean "repeated thrice."

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