Contrastive Focus Reduplication in Kuwaiti Arabic

Abstract

This study examines a case of total reduplication in Kuwaiti Arabic known as contrastive focus reduplication (i.e. complete copying of words or phrases). For example, tišrab čāy ḥalīb willa ČĀY–čāy? ‘Would you like to drink tea with milk, or TEA–tea’ [denoting black tea as opposed to karak chai]. The study explores the morpho-semantic properties of this construction in the dialect, shows the different meanings it allows and how it elucidates the permissible lexical units that can be reduplicated. The reduplication of a lexical item can be applied to a range of grammatical and lexical categories. Over 150 samples were collected by observing contrastive focus reduplication from participants’ (male and female native Kuwaiti speakers in their twenties and seventies) natural speech in everyday conversations. This study contributes to research on the prosody and grammar of the dialect and the theory of semantics, thereby enhancing understanding of reduplication and repetition in Semitic dialectology.1