Form and Meaning in Word Formation

ThisstudyofreduplicationinAfrikaansprovidesaunifiedandprincipledanalysisofanunusualandhighlycomplexwordformationprocess,sheddingnewlightonthescopeandcontentofvariousfundamentallexicalistprinciplesofwordformation.Surprisingly,RudolfBothaconcludesthattheprinciplesinvolvedinAfrikaansreduplicationarenotuniquetoAfrikaans,ashasoftenbeenthought,andareusedbymanyotherlanguages.Moreover,theinterpretationofAfrikaansreduplicationsdependsonprinciplesofconceptualstructurethatarerestrictedneithertoAfrikaansnortotheinterpretationofreduplications,thussupportingrecentworkoncognitionandmeaningundertakenbyRayJackendoffandotherscholars.Inanalysingthedata,ProfessorBothahasalsoprovidedaconcreteillustrationofhowtheGalileanstyleoflinguisticinquirycanfruitfullybeappliedinthestudyofwordformationandmeaning.Thestudythusrepresentsanimportanttheoreticalandmethodologicaladvancewhichwillbeofasmuchinterestforitsmethodofinquiryandargumentationasforthefreshinsightsitprovidesforscholarsandresearchersinthefieldsofmorphology,wordformationandsemantics.