Loanwords as Pseudo-compounds in Malagasy

Reduplication in Malagasy copies a two-mora-long section of the base (e.g., alíka ‘dog’ → alìkalíka ‘something like a dog’). Although the reduplicant is usually left-anchored to the main-stress syllable, there are two types of words in the language that place the reduplicant elsewhere (anchored to secondary stress): finally-stressed loanwords, and native compounds. I argue that loanwords behave like compounds in reduplication because they are in fact analyzed by speakers as compounds. This reanalysis is triggered by the fact that the stress pattern in these loanwords is otherwise found only in compounds.