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Reduplication in Russian

Linguistic reduplication is a distinct grammatical feature in Russian, where it can be used to derive reduplicated forms from existing stems to intensify their meanings in different ways.

Syllabic/root/stem reduplication
There is virtually no productive syllabic or root/stem reduplication in the modern Russian language. An ancient lexical stratum of the Russian language provides examples such as "" (; mommy), "" (; daddy), "" (; granny)—a phenomenon common to many languages. It is argued that these words originated in the reduplicated babbling of infants. ==Word reduplication==
Word reduplication
Word reduplications are mostly the feature of the colloquial language and in most cases do not constitute separate dictionary entries. • "" or "", ()—a general-purpose urge to do something, literally "give it, give it!", meaning "Come on!" or "Let's do it!" • "" (; "Run, run!")—a specific urge to run: to run fast or to run right away. • "" ()—an enhanced agreement: "Of course, of course!" • "" ( "Yes, yes")—an utterance used in dialogs to indicate either constant attention ("yes, yes, I am listening") or agreement ("yes, yes, of course") • Shm-reduplication and m-reduplication, to express irony, borrowed from Yiddish and Central Asian cultures respectively, sometimes used as a mockery of the corresponding languages or peoples; see Russian jokes about Georgians for examples of this phenomenon • As an expression of a frequentative or of a prolonged action • "" (; "They are pulling and pulling, but cannot pull it [the turnip] out")—a phrase from the classical fairy tale Repka ("", "The Turnip") • "" (; "[he] is looking and looking") • "" (; "[he] went and went") • Onomatopoeic reduplication • "" (; the sound of the droplets of water) • "" () or "" (); the sound of a clock ticking • "" (); bowwow, barking of a dog • Frequentative, often combined with ideophonic/onomatopoeic derivation • "" (), from "", "to slash with a knife" • "" (), from "" ("to jump", "to hop"). A similar derivation in English would be "When the red red robin/Comes bob bob bobbing along"). ==Affixal reduplication==
Affixal reduplication
A peculiarity of Russian language is synonymic affixal reduplication, whereby a root may acquire two productive suffixes or prefixes, different, but of the same semantics, with the corresponding intensification of the meaning: • Affectional diminutives: • "" ()→"" ()→"" ( "girlfriend"). Here, ""→"" is an example of consonant mutation, and "" and "" are two diminutive-generating suffixes. This kind of word formation is especially productive for given names: "" (, "Catherine")→"" (, hypocoristic)→"" ( "Katyusha")→"" ()→"" (, sounds intentionally ridiculous) • Another example: • "" (, "to forget")→"" (, "to forget for a while")→"" () ==See also==
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