SPECIFICITY OF CONTRASTIVE FOCUS REDUPLICATION (CR) IN MODERN ENGLISH

Abstract

The article explores a relatively new and understudied phenomenon of contrastive focus reduplication (CR), its essence and typical features as well as specificity of its use in a language regarding socio-linguistic and socio-cultural aspects. The author clearly distinguishes between the notions of “pure” reduplication and CR, as the latter refers us to a certain “default” category to which an object belongs. In writing CR is represented as one word, reduplicated items can be spelt with a hyphen or capital letters, CR instances can be given in quotation marks, or any of the above-mentioned graphical means can be combined. Structurally, CR targets nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns and lexicalized expressions or whole phrases.
The paper has determined that the prototypical understanding of the objects mentioned in such constructions may differ in various cultures, bordering with the stereotypical perception of these objects. Sometimes it proves impossible to find out the exact difference between the prototype and stereotype. It has been established that CR gradually transgresses the bounds of usage exceptionally in the colloquial language, and now is more and more used in the written sources. In perspective, it seems promising to single out socio-cultural and structural differences of this phenomenon in English and Ukrainian, as well as to specify its pragmatic potential in both languages.