NOV 20, singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM and SONG: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated  2017.

...

... in a fallout shelter?

EXPLANATION: This poem, consisting of a lesson on types of reduplication, evolved as a musical parody using the template of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer. Further exploration of this type of wordplay also progressed into the venture of 

Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications.

   Eventually, this poem was set to music, using the framework of Lehrer's patter-song framework, and became an intrinsic part of a series of nine songs devoted to musical Word-Pairs. This posting of The Lesson, and subsequent posting of a Lexicon of Reduplications contains a total of almost 300 examples of this fascinating and amusing linguistic form.

 UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", along with chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions; click HERE to proceed to this site.  

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: “The Elements”, Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the sixth in a series of ten dealing with Word-Pairs. The cycle started with “Pairs”, a spoof on the Bee Gees’ ‘Words’; and continued with the two parts of “Rhyming Binomials”, using the wonderably spoofable Tom Lehrer patter-song.

Readers might note that the most typical rhyming binomials are displayed in the lyrics with bold, italicized font; a few wannabe expressions, not characterized by two identical grammatical roles are less notably displayed. Also, we have tried to highlight the classic idiomatic expressions that are widely known, but have in a few necessary instances concocted our own specific versions.

1) INTRODUCTION
I’m so enthralled with lyrics – their inherent musicality;
I love the words I’ve heard, for both their quantity and quality.
And so I’ll share with you this recent lexic revelation –
My favorite word-device goes by the name “REDUPLICATION”.

This humble term is used for killer-diller innovations,
Some recent lulus: chick flick, boy-toy – marvellous creations.
For reverential chit-chat, others’ birth can date back centuries
Like hully-gully, boogie-woogie, riff-raff, and hurdy-gurdy.

These fuzzy-wuzzy friends are formed by vocal repetition,
With wi-fi you might find them in Wiki’s current edition;
The three important sub-types you will wiki-wiki* learn about
Are known as Rhyming, Exact, and the oddly German-named “Ablaut” *.

2) RHYMING REDUPLICATES
Hear hear! some fine examples start with “H”, like hanky-panky, see!
Hillbilly, hodge-podge, humdrum, hubbub, and higgledy-piggledy.
Although the showing’s not so glowing for some, like the letter “D”
Just ding-aling and Double-Bubble, and surname of H.-Dumpty.

3) EXACT REDUPLICATES
As toddlers we knew quite precisely what pee-pee and yum-yum meant:
They’re constituted by exact repeating of each element.
Extension into adult life – tsk-tsk! it doesn’t matter
For short-shorts, rah-rah! hubba-hubba, mahi mahi, yada-yada.

4) ABLAUT REDUPLICATES
Linguistic term that might put off, but don’t throw in the towel
To form the second tidbit, change a consonant or vowel.
Though prix fixe, laptop, whipper-snapper show some variation,
Criss-cross, splish-splash, King Kong, mish-mash give ample explanation.

5) BORROWINGS from other LANGUAGES
Some foreign words sound quite absurd, and might be greeted with yuk-yuks,
Like voodoo, tutu, tête-à-tête, and tse-tse, muu-muu and mukluks.

6) “SHM-REDUPLICATES”
And many word-shmerds are employed by speaker-shmeakers of Yiddish,
Like fancy-shmancy, choosy-shmoozy, horseradish (mmh!), gefilte-fish.

7) RELATED FORMS e.g. collocation
Dream Teams of partners grab primetime - in rhyming collocation;
These catchy terms, like kitty-cat, aren’t true reduplications.
For many wild-child pairs (Tut-tut!) there's no accord on how they're grouped,
Like true blue, smart cart, night-light, meal deal, grandstand, wiseguys, hula-hoop.

8) CONCLUSION
The lesson's sung, my cha-cha's done, we’ve reached our termination.
Night-night! boo-hoo! hip-hop! high fives! — we’ve viewed reduplication;
But while we bid our fond ta-tas, I leave this final message – “HI!”
These phrases love to start with “H”, and their initial vowel – “I”.

Bye-bye!

* German= “off-sound”, term coined in the 16th century to indicate a systematic change in the vowel of a word-root to convey a difference in meaning; rhymes with shout

* Hawaiian for quickly or  bus !!

And, for those interested, here's how you find the lyrics-only-version

of the nine songs that make up this cycle. 

1. PAIRS, to the tune of "Words" in the style of the Beegees

...  the following songs in the style of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer

2. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#1

3. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#2

4. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#1

5. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#2

6. A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS

7. REDUPLICATIONS, part#1

8. REDUPLICATIONS, part#2

9. LEGALISTIC DOUBLETS, in the style of "Supercalifragilistic..." from  the musical "Mary Poppins".

If you would like to  accompany yourself on ukulele or guitar, find relevant chord-charts by following the links that will take you to the versions in our blog "Silly Songs and Satire".