Irma Szikszai-Nagy:
Spezifische Charakteristika der Zwillingswörter
Abstract:
The Origin and System of Hungarian Reduplicated Compounds
In Hungarian reduplication is a method through which words of inner genesis are created. It brings about double-part word-forms, reduplicated compounds: the first or the last part of which semantically is a word of independent meaning, but sometimes neither part has an independent meaning. From a morphological aspect, the meaningful part is a free morpheme, while the other part which is formed as a result of reduplication is a bound morpheme. It is a playful phonological variation of the basic constituent that induces reduplication. With reduplicated compounds originating from words of independent form and meaning in the first part, the most frequent reduplication method comes from consonant-labial consonant opposition (cserebere); while with reduplicated compounds originating from words of independent form and meaning in the last part, reduplication is based on front and back vowel change (licseg-locsog). The palatal-velar change of vowels is dominant with reduplicated compounds that become meaningful from parts which are slightly imbued with notional meaning (tik-tak).
