chapter 5 Reduplication in

Aline da Cruz

This paper provides the first in-depth look at reduplication in Nheengatu. Phonological analysis shows that reduplication in Nheengatu is either full or partial, has the prosodic foot as the reduplicant, and is prefixational. Like other Tupi-, the main use of reduplication in Nheengatu is pluractionality, and it is also used for intensification. Reduplication express- ing pluractionality can occur with all types of . With active intransi- tive verbs, reduplication indicates both repetition of the event on a single occasion or on different occasions. When reduplication occurs with transitive verbs, the NP object can be omitted. Analysis shows that reduplication express- ing pluractionality forces the event to be atelic, which in combination with plural indefinite NP objects leads to object omission. Reduplication express- ing intensification is restricted to stative verbs. In this latter class, the uses of reduplication have changed over time, leading to the emergence of new varieties of Nheengatu. In the conservative variety, reduplicated stative verbs indicate distributivity of an intensified property over multiple partici- pants; while in the progressive variety, reduplicated stative verbs only indicate intensification of a property. Nheengatu differs from other Tupi-Guarani lan- guages in that it combines reduplication with a morpheme of ‘reflexivity/reci- procity’ in order to partially distinguish reciprocal from reflexive construc- tions.

1 Introduction

This paper provides an analysis of reduplication in Nheengatu, the Tupi- Guarani language that descends from Tupinambá and was used as língua geral1 during the colonization of the Amazonian region. Nheengatu is currently used as native language of Baré, and Warekena groups in the Upper Rio

1 According to Rodrigues (1996, 6), the term ‘língua geral’ refers to the group of languages spoken as first language by the descendents of Portuguese men and women, speakers of a language from the Tupi-Guarani family. The languages recognized as língua geral were also

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272415_006 116 da cruz

Negro, Amazonia. The topic is discussed in a broad perspective by studying (i) the phonological characteristics of reduplication, which show that there is either full or partial reduplication with the prosodic foot as the reduplicant; (ii) the morphological properties, indicating the process as prefixational; (iii) the semantic properties, characterizing its functions as expressing pluractionality and intensification. This paper presents a classification of verbs in Nheengatu, in order to dis- cuss reduplication within each type of verb. Furthermore, it shows some exam- ples of noteworthy uses of reduplication and discusses the interaction between reduplication and object omission. The paper also shows that the use of redu- plication in Nheengatu has changed over time, leading to the emergence of new varieties of Nheengatu. More specifically, with regard to reduplication of stative verbs two varieties of Nheengatu can be observed: the conservative Negro- Içana variety and the Middle Negro variety. Finally, the use of reduplication in reciprocal constructions, which allows them to be distinguished from reflexive constructions, is discussed. The majority of the data used for this study was collected during fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2009. It was obtained from indigenous commu- nities along the Negro and Içana Rivers in the Amazon region. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 gives a brief introduction of the history of Nheengatu and its sociolinguistic situation. Section 3 provides a phonological description of the reduplication process. Section 4 gives an overview of the different types of verbs that can be distinguished in Nheen- gatu, and section 5 describes the semantic interpretation of the reduplication process when applied to each type of verb. Section 6 deals with the syntactic effects of reduplication in transitive, active intransitive, and stative intransitive verbs. Section 7 deals with the use of reduplication to indicate reciprocity. The paper concludes with an overview of the main characteristics of reduplication in Nheengatu.

2 A Brief History of Nheengatu

In the 16th century Portuguese colonizers landed on the northern coast of , where they established contact with Tupinambá people. Some colo- nizers fathered children with local Tupinambá women. These children, their

used as língua franca by the population formed by African descendants and other indigenous groups who were incorporated into the colonial population.