Several theories of reduplication have attempted to accommodate the typologically rare option of syllable copying, arguably attested in Yidiɲ (mu.la-mu.la.ri ‘initiated men’, ŋa.lal-ŋa.lal ‘big ones’). We revisit the pattern, concluding that it does not support the traditional characterization. Rather, Yidiɲ reduplication targets morphological roots most of the time, and truncates roots longer than two syllables after the second vowel. The theory of reduplication best suited for this type of pattern is Serial Template Satisfaction, which we modify to allow only segmental and morphological copying. The shape of templates is mediated partly by prespecification at the UR level and partly by markedness constraints. This theory is compared with two alternatives: Base-Reduplicant Correspondence Theory (BRCT) and Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT). We argue that BRCT has difficulties with opacity in Yidiɲ reduplication, while MDT cannot characterize the basic phonological generalizations about the shape of the reduplicative affix or the bracketing paradoxes in verbal reduplication.
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