THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF REPETITION AS AN EXPRESSIVE PHENOMENON: EXPRESSIVE REPETITIVE PATTERNS IN ROMANIAN

Abstract

This paper aims to examine expressive phenomena from a morphosyntactic perspective. After delimiting how expressivity can be understood in terms of grammatical structures and functions, a subsection is dedicated to a particular family of morphosyntactic
processes – those that involve various types of morphological or lexical repetition. While some languages have grammaticalized repetition as a means to realize fundamental functions (plural, aspect marking, etc.), others are free to use repetition for a plethora of  expressive purposes. This can be seen in many European languages, which exhibit productive and dynamic expressive repetitive patterns. 
Romanian has a rich inventory of repetitive patterns spanning all lexical categories (adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and nouns). Many are common among SAE, yet some are rather rare. This is the case of patterns such as A-A.DIM (new-new.DIM, 'brand new') that have
double function: superlativization and expressivity (mainly hypocoristic). This pattern is also found in other Romance languages (i.e. Spanish), but otherwise it is isolated.
The inventory in this paper is not exhaustive, but it captures some of the most productive and frequently used expressive repetitive patterns in Romanian. Moreover, such a catalogue could never be complete, as expressivity is highly dynamic and relies on various factors, both linguistic and extra-linguistic.