Republic of the Philippines

Leyte Normal University

College of Arts and Sciences

LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE UNIT

Tacloban City

A Study of Morphological Reduplication in Waray-Waray:

An Exploratory Essay

Submitted by:

Jirahmae M. Diasanta

Submitted to:

Mr. Dean Carl Villacorte

Phonology and Morphology

December 9, 2019
 This paper is a study of reduplication in general and a description of types of

reduplication in Waray-Waray language, also known as Waray, Winaray, Lineyte-Samarnon,

Binisaya nga Sinamar-Leytenhon or variations of the names “Waray”, Leyte”, Samar” and

“Visayan” which is spoken mostly in one of the regions of the Philippines-- Eastern Visayas. It

has about three million native speakers and different variations in the languages not just from

province to province but in some cases, from town to town (Oyzon, 2005).

Reduplication has always attracted the attention of linguists perhaps especially because

speakers of Indo-European languages are not familiar with the phenomenon, but they can find it

in almost every non-Indo-European language (Graz Database on Reduplication, ND). The

Philippine languages are known to use reduplication in an outstanding degree. According to

Blake (1917), “perhaps is this linguistic principle more productive than in the Philippine

languages...”.

The general definition of reduplication states that it is neither the morphological property,

nor any restriction on productivity or on the number of copied units. Morphological Doubling

Theory (MDT) is adopted for description and analysis in this study. MDT was developed in 2005

by Sharon Inkelas and Cheryl Zoll who are both professors of linguistics. It was developed for

morphosemantic feature duplication or morphological duplication.

A fundamental claim of Morphological Doubling Theory is that reduplication involves

semantic, rather than phonological identity. The theory claims that reduplication results when the

morphology calls twice for a constituent of a given semantic description with possible

phonological modification of either or both constituents. In MDT, reduplication couples’

morphological constituents (affix, root, stem, or word) which agree in their semantic

specification. The two constituents, related morphosemantically, are not required to match
phonologically. In essence, one would say that MDT agrees that the two mechanisms are

involved, though it opts to lean on the side of morphological duplication (Inkelas and Zoll

2005:9).

In summary, we would say morphological reduplication in MDT is a double selection

(insertion) of morphological constituents such as stem or root. Words are reduplicated in Waray-

Waray language in various ways: Total Reduplication and Partial Reduplication. Total

Reduplication is the morphological process where the reduplicant and the base are identical at

the segmental level (Ngunga 2002). It is called full reduplication because the entire word is

repeated. The following example is an example of reduplication in Waray-Waray.

Syntax = Adverb

Semantics = “slowly by slowly or carefully”

Phonology = /hi-nay-hi-nay/

Syn = Adv Syn = Adv

Sem = “slowly” Sem = “slowly”
Phon = /hi-nay/ Phon = /hi-nay/

a) balay ‘house’ balay-balay (noun) ‘somewhat a house’

b) birik ‘turn’ birik-birik (verb) ‘continuously turn’

c) lakat ‘wander’ lakat-lakat (verb) ‘walk’

 Partial reduplication, on the other hand, is a form of reduplication where only part of the

base is reduplicated. This process in word formation is also common in Waray-Waray language.

The following are examples of partial reduplication:

a) dalagan ‘run’ darudalagan (verb) ‘continuously run’

b) maupay ‘good’ mauroupay (adjective) ‘much better’

c) mahusay ‘beautiful’ mahusayay (adjective) ‘gorgeous’

Prefixal Reduplication is a form of reduplication where the reduplicant is added before

the

root as a prefix. It is also called initial reduplication (Spencer 1991: 150). This type of partial

reduplication is evident in the words dalagan which means run in English and darudalagan

referring to continuously run. Infixal Reduplication is a form of reduplication where the

reduplicant is added in the middle of the base. An example of this reduplication is maupay which

means good in English and mauroupay which refers to much better. Lastly, Suffixal

Reduplication is the repetition of the end of the base. Reduplication takes place to the right of the

base as a suffix. This process is evident in the word mahusay meaning beautiful and mahusayay

as gorgeous.

In this paper, Waray-Waray language reduplication is discussed. Reduplication in Waray-

Waray as was established has certain semantic effects. This provides evidence of morphological

doubling. In most of the data analyzed, the base and the reduplicant corresponded semantically.

This means that the base and the reduplicant are equal semantically or have the same semantic

value as presupposed by MDT.

Choosing this topic under morphology is helping the native language speakers and the

non-native language speakers to understand the differences of words when it comes to

 duplicating its base and properties of affixes. This just implies that teaching this local language

will help speakers to be aware of the differences of words when added or reduplicated in terms

of its meaning.

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