Bare-consonant reduplication without prosodic templates: Expressive reduplication in Semai

Many analyses of reduplication within Optimality Theory have relied upon th e use of a prosodic template constraint to determine the surface shape of a reduplicant. Semai, a language spoken in Malaysian, presents an interestin g challenge for such an analysis. The surface form of the reduplicant in th e phenomenon presented here is a string of two consonants. This type of red uplication fits in with the classification of bare-consonant reduplication, where a surface reduplicant is either a single consonant or a string of tw o consonants. In this paper, I discuss the difficulties in applying a proso dic template analysis to this data, and I propose an alternative account. T his alternative account is formulated under the Compression Model, a model in which the shape of a reduplicant is determined by the satisfaction of mo rphological alignment constraints, not by the use of a prosodic template.