Definition

– The formation of compound words by repeating the same element with little or no change.

– Words made in this way are known as reduplicatives.

Classification

semantically, there are four kinds of reduplicatives:

Words to imitate sounds (onomatopoetic words): tick-tuck (of clock)

Words to suggest alternating movements: ping-pong

Words to disparage by suggesting “instability, nonsense, insincerity, vacillation”: hocus-pocus

Words to intensify: tip-top