A model is presented to characterize the class of languages obtained by adding reduplication to context-free languages. The model is a pushdown automaton augmented with the ability to check reduplication by using the stack in a new way. The class of languages generated is shown to lie strictly between the context-free languages and the indexed languages. The model appears capable of accommodati...

There is a universal component to the semantics of reduplication, which can be expressed as a radial category of concepts. I present this radial category, along with supporting evidence from a range of languages, and motivations for the links between the various senses. The structure of the radial graph gives rise to a number of predicted implicational universals. I also show that the radial ca...

This paper provides an analysis of the reduplicative patterns of Kavalan, an endangered Formosan plains tribe language spoken by fewer than one hundred people on the eastern coast of Taiwan. Kavalan reduplication is special in that the reduplicant takes several distinct shapes depending on the initial syllable of the base (Lee 2009). Within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky...

This paper investigates special tone sandhi in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), arguing that special tone sandhi in trisyllabic adjective reduplication in TSM is due to pragmatic factor rather than phonological factor, floating tone for example. It is proposed that a floating high tone appears between the first and second syllable of the trisyllabic adjective reduplication and it leads to the special...