Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Italian reduplication: Cross-cultural pragmatics and illocutionary semantics. Linguistics, 24(2), 287-315.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1986.24.2.287
Abstract:
This article (a study in ethnopragmatics avant la lettre) examines the use and function of syntactic reduplication in Italian. Syntactic reduplication belongs to a system of illocutionary devices that, jointly, reflect some characteristic features of the Italian style of social interaction. Subtle pragmatic meanings such as those conveyed in Italian reduplication can be identified and distinguished from other, related meanings if ad hoc impressionistic comments are replaced with rigorous semantic representations relying on a semantic metalanguage derived from natural language. Comparisons are made with some other intensification devices in Italian and in English, such as the absolute superlative.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 8 (pp. 270-299) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Into Russian:
Chapter 6 (pp. 224-259) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 7 (pp. 255-284) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
