Four Types of Reduplication in the Cha’palaa Language of Ecuador

The Cha’palaa language of northwestern Ecuador is characterized by the relatively high functional load it places on reduplication; it applies a variety of distinct types of reduplication across different word classes and construction types. This paper describes four major types of reduplication in Cha’palaa: full and partial repetition of ideophones (not a fully grammaticalized reduplication type), full reduplication of verbal elements adding iterative aspect to predicates, full reduplication of non-verbal elements to form verbal adjuncts, and partial reduplication as a derivational process for creating adjective-like attributive words. Because these types of reduplication apply to a range of different constructions with largely unrelated semantics, it appears most likely that Cha’palaa independently developed reduplication at several different times in its history. Cha’palaa illustrates how a language can come to increase the functional load placed on reduplication and how languages can organize anddistinguishmultiple interacting reduplicationprocesseswithin their grammatical systems.