La reduplicación léxica como mecanismo metalingüístico

The aim of the present article is to analyse the metalinguistic function of the nominal reduplication in Spanish. The lexical reduplication is a mechanism that consists in repeating a lexical unit within one phrase. The study shows that the nominal reduplication presents metalinguistic functions that reveal the interest of the speakers in a number of semantic issues related to the linguistic categorization and the concept of prototype. What is more, the metalinguistic aspect of the reduplicative constructions play a crucial role in a variety of situations as it entails some intersubjective meanings that are of a great importance for the interaction.