INVITED SPEAKERS

This paper discusses reduplication as a quotative marking mechanism in Panjabi, colloquial
Urdu, and other South Asian languages. It explores the implications of this function of
reduplication, which, to the author's knowledge, has not yet been discussed in the substantial
literature on reduplication.

In many Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, there is a well-developed quotative marker
developed from a form of SAY. In Panjabi, on the other hand, there is neither a quotative
marker inherited from OIA (iti) nor (a newly-developed) one from SAY. Panjabi and colloquial
Urdu do, however, have a distinct grammaticized quotative strategy, which utilizes reduplication
(repetition).

In Panjabi, full reduplication (complete repetition of an entire word, phrase, or even sentence)
functions as a quotative marker, in the same sense and in some of the same functions as the
quotative markers iti in Sanskrit and the quotative markers which have developed from SAY in
many Dravidian and IA languages. An typical example of this usage in the NAMING function
in Panjabi is shown in (1).

(1) ó-d ~ n ~̃ s § màbat màbat - ón ãN màbat aunde san
his name was Muhabbat-REDUP him M. they.called
'His name was Muhabbat. They called him Muhabbat.'

The naming usage is also found in colloquial Urdu in Pakistan (2).

(2) ek hindū-ne mujh-se pūchā thā, "yār yeh pākistān pākistān kyā hai
one Hindu-ERG me-from asked, friend this Pakistan REDUP what is
'A Hindu asked me, "Friend, what is this (thing called) Pakistan?"' [Pakistan Television
interview 2/23/1991]

Example (3), illustrates a straightforward quotative function in Panjabi.

(3) tū̃ mænū̃ æ̃vī̃ Darāt ̄a pulswāle pulswāle kar ke
you me for.nothing scared police REDUP saying
'You scared me for nothing (by) saying, "The police (have come)."

A reduplicative quotative in Urdu is shown in (4).

(4) agar kabhī Dārling Dārling bolā to dekho
if ever Darling REDUP say then watch.out
'If you ever say "Darling" (to me), watch out!' [Pakistan Television drama "Guest House"
12/14/1991]

Additionally, it has been observed (rarely) in Khowar, a NWIA language spoken in
Chitral District of the Northwest Frontier Province in Pakistan (example 5).

(5) hẽẽ rétai ki, i án-a ta pažal behcǐ asuúr i án-a ta pažál behcí asuúr,
so he.said that, one mountain-LOC your shepherd remains REDUP
teγáar háttan saf ganí bíi asús
that-ABL them all take(CP) you.have.gone
'"So", he said, "(Only) one shepherd is left on the mountain. You have taken all the rest
away with you." [oral folk tale]

This paper argues that in these functions, reduplication operates at the metalinguistic, rather
than at the object level. That is, reduplicative structures (can) refer not only to things, qualities,
or states of affairs in the world, but to objects or states of affairs in the linguistic event: the
sound, the word, or utterance, itself.