pilikpilik

Semantic Domain:
Body actions; Physical condition; Animals

Morphology:
Monomorphic lexical root.
Do not segment as pilik + pilik. The form pilik has no independent lexical meaning in Boie’nen.

Usage

Nipilikpilik pa ana manok.
“The chicken is still thrashing.”

Pominilokpilik sana yo ayam nyo pinekpek sa payo.
“The dog simply thrashed violently when it was pummeled on the head.”

I would correct the English of the second example from “trashed violently” to “thrashed violently.”

Semantic Note

Pilikpilik is stronger than a general verb meaning shake. It denotes severe, uncontrolled, involuntary bodily movement, typically involving rapid jerking, flailing, kicking, or convulsive whole-body motion.

It may describe:

• an animal violently struggling after a fatal or severe injury;
• a fish flopping uncontrollably out of water;
• an injured animal in its death throes;
• a person or animal undergoing similarly violent involuntary bodily movements.

I would still avoid making “seizure” part of the Translation field unless Boie’nen speakers confirm that pilikpilik conventionally names that medical event. The visible motion may be similar, but the lexeme itself appears to encode the manner of bodily movement, not necessarily its medical cause.

Lexicographic Note

The repeated-looking phonological form should not automatically be analyzed as morphological reduplication. In this case, pilikpilik is synchronically monomorphic because no productive or meaningful base pilik exists in Boie’nen.

That last point is important enough to retain in the Morphology or Notes field, because it prevents future editors from imposing a false reduplicative analysis on the word.