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Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics

On theories of reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics

Thomas Schwaiger

Department of Linguistics, University of Graz thomas.schwaiger@uni-graz.at

THOSST2014, Dijon, 20–21 February 2014

THOSST2014, Dijon, 20–21 February 2014 Thomas Schwaiger 1/8

Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Wilhelm von Humboldt

Humboldt (1822) The repetition of syllables derives from a dim feeling aroused by certain grammatical relationships. Where this feeling involves repetition, intensification and extension of the concept, the repetition of syllables seems entirely appropriate. Where this is not the case, as so often in some American languages and in all third conjugation verbs in Old Indian, the repetition of syllables arises

• nly from a peculiarity of phonetics. The same applies to the

mutation of vowels. In no other language is this as common, as important or as regular as in Sanskrit, but only in a minority of cases does it possess the characteristics of a grammatical form. It is linked with a number of such forms, but then usually with more than one at the same time, so that what is characteristic in each case must be sought elsewhere. (Harden & Farrelly 1997: 37)

THOSST2014, Dijon, 20–21 February 2014 Thomas Schwaiger 2/8

Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Wilhelm von Humboldt

Humboldt (1836) Of like nature [i.e. ‘(sound-)symbolic’ as, for example, the formation of collectives by lengthening a vowel in Arabic; TS] is the direct repetition of the same syllable for multiple reference, and also to indicate the majority, or time past. It is remarkable to see, in Sanscrit, and partly also in the Malayan family of languages, how superior tongues cope with the doubling of syllables by weaving it into their sound-system, altering it by laws of euphony, and thereby depriving it of the cruder, symbolically imitative jangle of syllables. (Humboldt 1999: 75)

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Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Wilhelm von Humboldt

Humboldt (1836) The difference between raw natural sound and regulated tone is far more clearly evident still in another sound-form that makes an essential contribution to the inner verbal development, namely

• reduplication. The repetition of the initial syllable of a word, or

even the whole word itself, either to reinforce significance for variety

• f expression, or as a mere sound-habit, is typical of the languages
• f many uncultured peoples. In others, such as some of the

Malayan family, it already betrays an influence of the feeling for sound, that not always the root-vowel, but sometimes a related

• ne, is repeated. In Sanscrit, however, reduplication becomes

modified with such exact appropriateness to the internal word-structure on each occasion, that one may reckon five or six different patterns of it, distributed throughout the language. (Humboldt 1999: 121; original emphasis)

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Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Heymann Steinthal

Steinthal (1860: 160–161) (. . . ) still it is all too likely that doubling is just contracted repetition and that the former thus originally had the same meaning as the latter. (. . . ) it still has to be assumed that in the community spirit the original meaning of repetition and doubling, namely intensification, often must have changed into its opposite, and only then did the community spirit use the double sound form to express this shift also phonetically, as it so often happens in languages that by accident two sound forms develop for the same meaning, which are then used to express a newly formed differentiation. (. . . ) thus comprehensible, in that physically and mentally repetition in general can have the double effect of intensifying as well as weakening the

• impression. By habituation the body as well as the mind are made

more receptive or more indifferent.

THOSST2014, Dijon, 20–21 February 2014 Thomas Schwaiger 5/8

Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Wilhelm Wundt

Wundt (1900: 592) As in general verbal forms originally express the objective temporal characteristics of events and states rather than the subjective relationship the speaker bears to the latter, so does the meaning of the perfect particularly also lie in the fact that it denotes the lasting state resulting from a preceding action. However, it thus seems

• nly marginally different from the idea of constant duration. Now

that, after a further conceptual shift in the perfect, this originally

• nly secondary relation to the past has turned into the main

concept, it is, however, exactly this application of sound repetition which is removed furthest from its more common forms and hence just again of limited distribution.

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Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics Wilhelm Wundt

Wundt (1900: 594) From this point of view the two forms in the middle column of the above scheme [English version taken from Stolz et al. 2011: 93; TS], characterized by their distribution over all kinds of language areas, seem like two genetically independent phenomena that point back to equally primordial features of the human consciousness, regarding which one can thus not really determine with any safety whether one was there before the other.

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Reduplicative iconicity in 19th century linguistics

Merci!

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