What is the term for repeating the same word twice or more to create a new meaning altogether?

Question

For example, "rabbit rabbit" is a phrase to be uttered first thing in the morning on the first day of the month for good luck all month long. The origin of the phrase has to do with rabbits bringing good luck. Directors on set instruct extras to say "rhubarb rhubarb" to one another during a party scene because of its lack of distracting, sharp phonemes. The repetition of the same word creates a new, unexpected, and unrelated meaning.

Would it be related to the term used to describe repeating the same word twice to create a new word? Dancing the can-can (or cancan) has nothing to do with cans though it might be an abbreviated version of scandal-scandal.

Epizeuxis is more like repeating the same word over again for emphasis or vehemence, like 'location location location!' to imply that the success of a business depends on where the shop is located.

Are the above examples different enough to merit distinction and a term of their own or would they be considered examples of epizeuxis?

(Not interested in grammatical repetition of words although the sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo," is really fascinating both grammatically and sensically.)

Answer 1

A type of Reduplication

This linguistic term for saying the same word twice in succession is "reduplication". (Alternative terms less commonly encountered include "duplication" or "doubling".)

You are correct that the term "epizeuxis" is used only for cases where repetition is used for emphasis or to intensify meaning ("Never never never give up!")

For the case where reduplication is used to form a new meaning, I am not aware of a specific word. We could describe it as neologistic reduplication.

Reduplication has many functions depending on which language you are speaking. In English, it is very often epizeuxis. Interestingly, in Malay, for example, it is how plurals are formed (orang = man, orang-orang = men).

In English it can be used to to cute effect in creating words that might be considered kidspeak: mama, dada, nana, boo-boo, wee-wee, tum-tum, etc.

It is also quite common in English to form reduplicatives where one vowel changes: riff-raff, sing-song, ding-dong, tip-top, wishy-washy, dilly-dally, chit-chat, mumbo-jumbo, namby-pamby, roly-poly, and so on. These are usually considered to be a type of reduplication.