CONVERSATIONS WITH BANJO THE DOG

Banjo the Dog: "What is it that you've got on that slide?"
Me: "Reduplications. My student in Germany and I are doing reduplications today."
Banjo the Dog: "Aren't you missing one?"
Me: "Yes, smartass. I cover ablaut reduplication in painful detail in the previous slides. This is just showing a quick overview of the OTHER reduplications that exist in English."
Banjo the Dog: "Oh. Why are you covering ablaut reduplication in detail and not these in detail also?"
Me: "Well, if you must know, we're talking about the order of adjectives and ablaut reduplication is the only reduplication that affects the order of adjectives."
Banjo the Dog: "Oh." [Thinks.] "Are you sure that about that? I can't think of an example."
Me: "'The big bad wolf.' The order of adjectives says it should be 'bad big wolf,' because opinion comes before size, but the adjectives are reversed because of the ablaut reduplication rule, that says an 'i' vowel sound comes before an 'a' vowel sound in similar-sounding words of one syllable."
Banjo the Dog: "Oh, yeah, that's right. Like 'clip clop.'"
Me: "Well, yes. There, an 'i' sound is coming before an 'o' sound, but same same."
Banjo the Dog: "Pitter patter."
Me: "Well, that's two syllables, but yeah, 'i' before 'a,' that's good."
Banjo the Dog: "Zig zag."
Me: "Yeah. There are a bunch of them."
Banjo the Dog: "Okay, well, I'm going back to sleep now."
Me: "Okay, then."
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#conversationswithbanjothedog