Consonant Identity and Consonant Copy: The Segmental and Prosodic Structure of Hebrew Reduplication

The article addresses two issues regarding Hebrew reduplication: (a) the distinction between reduplicated and nonreduplicated stems with identical consonants (e.g., minen ‘to apportion’ vs. mimen ‘to finance’), and (b) the patterns of reduplication (C 1 VC 2 VC 2C , C 1 VC 2 C 3 VC 3C ,C 1 VC 2 C 1C VC 2C , and C 1 C 2 VC 3 C 2C VC 3C ). These issues are studied from a surface point of view, accounting for speakers’ capacity to parse forms with identical consonants regardless of their base. It is argued that the grammar constructed by the learner on the basis of structural relations (base – output) can also serve for parsing surface forms without reference to a base.