Plural Category as a Structural Determinant in the Classification of Reduplication and its Appearance in Uzbek Turkish

Abstract

Reduplications, whose existence has been documented since the first written texts of the Turkish language, are in a stereotyped structure. Since a long process is required for the formation of its structures and the formation of the ordering rules, they present a common picture in all languages. The frequency of use in the plural function is an example of this common picture. The inclusion of reduplication elements in the plural category and their classification features constitutes the main problem of the research. This study aims to deal with reduplication in the historical dialects of Turkish and Uzbek Turkish, which has features of Arabic in its structure. The structure of reduplications such as haqhuquq, faqir-fuqara, hol-ohvol, sir-asror, qiz og’lan, yer-ko’klar, yeru osmon, atrof-joylar compiled from the texts belonging to the Uzbek dialect wasrevealed by the technique of document analysis. The findings of these reduplications, which can also be detected in the historical and contemporary dialects of Turkish, were evaluated by comparing them with diachronic examples. It was observed that only the second element or both elements of the detected reduplication groups consisted of reduplications in the plural category. Thus, it has been determined that the elements that make up the reduplication are in order as “singularsingular”; “singular-plural”, “plural-plural”, and plural category have been suggested to be a structural determinant in reclassifications. In the study, a proposal is presented to consider the plural category under a separate heading in reclassification according to its structures. © 2023, Turk Dil Kurumu. All rights reserved.