Reduplication in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese 「國語及台語重疊字之使用現象」 黃韻蓉 Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The reduplication of nouns in Mandarin Chinese 3. The reduplication of adjectives in Mandarin Chinese 3.1. The four patterns 3.2. The reduplication in the interrogative sentence 3.3. The constraints 4. The reduplication of classifiers, quantifiers, measure words inMandarin Chinese 5. The reduplication of verbs and its meaning in Mandarin Chinese 5.1. The data 5.2. The syntactic constraints 5.3. The meaning 6. Reduplications in Taiwanese 6.1. The patterns 6.2. The contrast between Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese 7. Final remark Reference 1. Introduction If we take a look at Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese, it is not hard to find that there exhibits the use of reduplication in both languages. Reduplication is a process of forming new words by doubling an entire free morpheme (total reduplication) or part of it (partial reduplication). Morphologically, reduplication is one of the word-building processes, and the reduplicated morphemes are different from the original morpheme in semantics and syntax sometimes. Mandarin Chinese makes use of reduplication very sporadically, and so does Taiwanese. In contemporary Mandarin Chinese, nouns, adjectives, verbs, or other content words have certain reduplication forms. In both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese, people usually reduplicate the same character to express more profound lexical meaning or semantic meaning. The following discussions are the phenomena of reduplication in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese. 2. The Reduplication of Nouns in Mandarin Chinese Nouns in Mandarin Chinese generally exhibit the reduplication form indicating ‘one by one’ or ‘the majority’ in semantic meaning as the following data, adopted from 黃宣範 (1988) illustrate: 人人 ren ren ‘every person’ 天天 tian tian ‘every day’ 家家 jia jia ‘every household’ 官官(相護) guan guan ‘the government officials’ 男男女女 nan nan nu nu ‘the men and the women’ 詹伯慧 (1991) observes that the appellation or the call of family members also uses the reduplication as the following data illustrate: 媽媽 ma ma ‘mother’ 妹妹 mei mei ‘sister’ 叔叔 shu shu ‘uncle’ 黃宣範(1983) further indicates that the reduplication of the call of family members cannot be applied to the disyllabic call of family members, including 祖父 ‘grandfather’, 堂弟 ‘cousin’, 女 婿 ‘son-in-law’, 姪女 ‘niece’,etc. be reduplicated. In other words, only monosyllabic call of family members can Mandarin Chinese also can use the reduplication of nouns to form adverbs or adjectives as the following data, adopted from 黃宣範 (1988) illustrate: 處處 chu chu ‘everywhere’ 時時 shi shi ‘always’ 條條(大路) tiao tiao ‘every road’ 朵朵(花) duo duo 3. ‘quantifier for a flower’ The Reduplication of Adjectives in Mandarin Chinese 3.1. The four patterns According to 盧福波 (1996) and 詹伯慧 (1991), the reduplication of adjectives in Mandarin Chinese can be classified into the following four patterns. (1) AA: Monosyllabic adjective reduplicates once. 紅紅 hong hong ‘red’ 大大 da da ‘white’ 慢慢 man man ‘slow’ (2) AXX: Two reduplicated characters follow one monosyllabic adjective. 紅通通 hong tong tong ‘very red in complexion’ 綠油油 lu you you ‘very greenish’ 冰冷冷 bing leng leng ‘very cold’ (3) ABAB: Disyllabic adjective reduplicates once. 雪白雪白 xuebai xuebai ‘snow-white’ 碧綠碧綠 bilu bilu ‘a shade of dark green’ 滾圓滾圓 gunyuan gunyuan ‘round’ (4) AABB: Two disyllabic adjectives reduplicate. a. 大大方方 da da fang fang ‘very generous or open-handed’ b. 漂漂亮亮 piao piao liang liang ‘very beautiful’ c. 整整齊齊 zheng zheng qi qi ‘very neat and tidy’ d. 清清楚楚 qing qing chu chu ‘very clear and distinct’ e. 明明白白 ming ming bai bai ‘very obvious and plain’ And I can think of some reduplicated adjectives that fit into this pattern as shown in f.-o.. f. 快快樂樂 kuai kuai le le ‘very happy’ g. 平平安安 ping ping an an ‘very safe’ h. 端端正正 duan duan zheng zheng ‘very proper and straight’ i. 乾乾淨淨 gan gan jing jing ‘very clean’ j. 古古怪怪 gu gu guai guai ‘very odd’ k. 骯骯髒髒 ang ang zang zang ‘very dirty’ l. 囉囉唆唆 luo luo suo suo ‘very wordy or troublesome’ m. 嘮嘮叨叨 lao lao dao dao ‘very garrulous’ n. 糊糊塗塗 hu hu tu tu ‘very muddled’ o. 荒荒唐唐 huang huang tang tang ‘very absurd’ 詹伯慧 (1991:65) argues that the pattern AABB of reduplication is usually used to represent the superlative degree of adjectives, for example, 漂漂亮亮 means “most beautiful” which has the equivalent meaning of 很漂亮 in Chinese, and 大大方方 means “most generous” which has the equivalent meaning of 很大方 in Chinese. However, I do not quite agree with this point of view. I think the pattern AABB of reduplication indeed means somewhat superlative degree but not absolutely superlative degree of adjective. 大大方方 and 很大方 are not exactly the same as 最 大方 in semantic meaning, whereby 最 means “most of all”. All of these four patterns have the function to reinforce the extent that the base adjectives denote. One phenomenon we can observe in the fourth type AABB above is that in j.-o. we can have the form of [A 裡 AB], cf. jj.-oo. below. Take 囉裡囉唆 for example, the word formation is supposed to have the following derivational processes. First, we have the base form 囉唆 and after reduplicating the first character and the second character once we get 囉囉唆唆. Second, we insert 裡 between 囉 and 囉 to get 囉裡囉唆唆. 囉裡囉唆 results after we delete the second 唆. Another word-formation of 囉裡囉唆 may be suggested to have derived from the third pattern, which reduplicates the base form 囉唆 once to get 囉唆囉唆 ABAB. Then the first B can be substituted with 裡 and 囉裡囉唆 can be formed. The last assumption seems to be easier and attractiver. However, it can not be the correct derivation. Because we can not apply it onto the other examples of the third pattern, cf. *雪裡雪白, *碧裡碧綠, *滾裡滾圓. aa. 大{大方/*裡大}方 bb. 漂{漂亮/*裡漂}亮 cc. 整{整齊/*裡整}齊 dd. 清{清楚/*裡清}楚 ee. 明{明白/*裡明}白 ff. 快{快樂/*裡快}樂 gg. 平{平安/*裡平}安 hh. 端{端正/*裡端}正 ii. 乾{乾淨/*裡乾}淨 jj. 古{古怪/裡古}怪 kk. 骯{骯髒/裡骯}髒 ll. 囉{囉唆/裡囉}唆 mm. 嘮{嘮叨/裡嘮}叨 nn. 糊{糊塗/裡糊}塗 oo. 荒{荒唐/裡荒}唐 According to 盧福波 (1996:32), one explanation that accounts for the difference between aa.- ii. on one hand and jj. to oo. on the other hand can be traced to the connotation of the adjectives. Only adjectives that are negative connotated can have the variant [A 裡 AB], those that positive can not. Based on this semantic differentiation, we can further classify the fourth type of reduplications in Mandarin Chinese into two subcategories, the one that can have the variant [A 裡 AB], and the other one that cannot. Moreover, 盧福波 (1996:33) points out that not every adjective can be reduplicated. Whether it can be reduplicated or not depends on the usual practice or habit, as demonstrated below. 整齊 ‘neat’-整整齊齊 漂亮 ‘pretty’-漂漂亮亮 美麗 ‘beautiful’-*美美麗麗 方便 ‘convenient’-*方方便便 嚴肅 ‘solemn’-*嚴嚴肅肅 3.2. The reduplication in the interrogative sentence In Mandarin Chinese, we can insert 不 ‘bu’ between the reduplicated adjectives to form a question as shown in the following examples adopted from 盧福波 (1996) . 多不多? duo bu duo? ‘Is something much?’ 重不重? zhong bu zhong? ‘Is something heavy?’ 高不高? gao bu gao? ‘Is something or someone tall?’ 暖和不暖和? nuanhuo bu nuanhuo? ‘Do you feel warm?’ 乾淨不乾淨? ganjing bu ganjing? ‘Is it clean?’ The first syllable of disyllabic adjectives will be reduplicated when inserting 不 ‘bu’ to form the inquire as illustrated below. 聰不聰明? cong bu cong? ‘Is someone smart?’ 熱不熱鬧? re bu renao? ‘Is it thronged?’ 清不清楚? qing bu qingchu? ‘Is it clear?’ In 盧福波 (1996:33), the reduplication of adjectives intensifies the extent that it describes. Thus, it is not allowed to accept any degree adverbs to further modify the reduplication of adjectives, demonstrated below. 非常高 feichang gao ‘very tall’ *非常高高的 十分漂亮 shifen piaoliang ‘extremely beautiful’ *十分漂漂亮亮的 特別馬虎 tebie mahu ‘particularly careless’ *特別馬馬虎虎的 In my point of view, I do not quite agree with 盧福波’s statement in that we still have 有點 youdian ‘a little bit’ to modify the reduplicated adjectives as 有點高高的 youdian gaogao de ‘a little bit high’, 有點馬馬虎虎的 youdian mamahuhu de ‘a little bit careless’. 4. The reduplication of quantifiers, classifiers and measure words in Mandarin Chinese 盧福波 (1996) observes that the numeral 一 ‘yi’ can be reduplicated indicating “one by one”, for example: a. 我把這裡的情況一一向大家做了介紹。 Wo ba zheli de qingkaung yiyi xiang dajia zuole jiezhao. ‘I make the introduction about the situation here for everybody one by one.’ b. 對於大家的發問,他一一做了回答。 Duiyu dajia de fawen ta yiyi zuo le huida. ‘He replied to every question raised by everybody.’ 黃宣範 (1983) also points out that the majority of monosyllabic quantifiers or classifiers can be reduplicated representing ‘every’. He raises the following examples to indicate this phenomenon. c. 磅磅肉都要查。 Bangbang rou douyao cha. 磅 ‘bang’ is the classifier, when it is reduplicated, it means every pound. d. 條條新聞。 Tiaotiao xinwen. ‘條’ is the classifier of news which means a piece of news. When it is reduplicated, it means every piece of news. e. 件件衣服。 Jianjian yifu. ‘件’ is the quantifier of clothes. When it is reduplicated, it means every piece of clothes. Other examples can also be found in 盧福波 (1996:71). f. 天氣突變,刮起陣陣狂風。 Tianqi tubian guaqi zhen zhen kuangfeng. ‘The weather suddenly changed and blowed puffs of wind.’ g. 過春節的時候,家家戶戶都放鞭炮。 Guo chunjie de shihou jiajia huhu dou fang bianpao. ‘Every household set off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year's Day.’ h. 這幾年糧食年年都是大豐收。 Zhe jinian liangshi doushi da fengshou. ‘We have a plentiful harvest of grain every year.’ In addition, the quantifier phrase can also be reduplicated as shown in the following examples illustrated in 盧福波 (1996). It has the meaning of ‘frequency and/or repetition’ . To the extent, reduplication is even necessary, when repetition is expressed, as shown in i. and m. i. 一支一支的救援隊伍奔向災區。 Yizhi yizhi de jiuyuan duiwu benxiang zaiqu. ‘Branches of rescue team rushed into the disaster area.’ j. 她一遍一遍地囑咐我,生怕我忘記了。 Ta yibian yibian de zhufu wo shengpa wo wangji le. ‘She advised me several times for fear that I may forget.’ k. 他仔細一筆一筆地畫著。 Ta zixi yibi yibi de huazhe. ‘He carefully paint one after another.’ l. *她一遍地囑咐我,生怕我忘記了。 *Ta yibian de zhufu wo shengpa wo wangji le. m. *他仔細一筆地畫著。 * Ta zixi yibi de huazhe. Further, 黃宣範 (1983) notices that the multisyllabic measure words cannot be reduplicated, such as 公里 gongli ‘kilometer’, 星期 xingqi ‘week’, 加侖 jialun ‘gallon’,etc. Moreover, there are some other monosyllabic time measure words that can be reduplicated such as ‘天’ and‘年’ whereas ‘月’ and ‘秒’ cannot, as illustrated below. n. 天天 tian tian ‘every day’ o. 年年 nian nian ‘every year’ p. *月月 yue yue ‘every month’ q. *秒秒 miao miao ‘every second’ 5. The reduplication of verbs and its meaning in Mandarin Chinese 5.1. The data There are two types of verb reduplication in Mandarin Chinese. The examples are partly adopted from 盧福波 (1996): (a) AA: Monosyllabic verb reduplicates once. ‘to read’ 讀讀 dudu 走走 zouzou ‘to walk’ 跑跑 paopao ‘to run’ 跳跳 tiao tiao ‘to jump’ (b) ABAB: Disyllabic verb reduplicates once. 休息休息 xiuxi xiuxi 練習練習 lianxi lianxi ‘to take a rest for a while’ ‘to practice’ 比較比較 bijiao bijiao ‘to compare’ 嘗試嘗試 changshi changshi ‘to take a try’ 5.2 The syntactic constraints There are two constraints with respect to insertion of 了 ‘le’ and 一 ‘yi’. 了 ‘le’ can be inserted between the reduplicated monosyllabic verbs as well as between the reduplicated disyllabic verbs. 了 ‘le’ is not allowed to attach the verb reduplication, cf. (1) vs. (2). (1) a. A 了 A 聽了聽 ting le ting “ to listen” 做了做 zuo le zuo “ to do” b. AB 了 AB: Insert 了 ‘le’ between the reduplicated disyllabic verbs. “ to learn and learn” 學習了學習 xuexi le xuexi 研究了研究 yanjiu le yanjiu “ to study and study” We have another example similar to this pattern as shown below. 重覆了重覆 zhongfu le zhongfu (2) a. *AA 了 *他畫畫了圖 Ta hua hua le tu. *她學學了菜 Ta xue le xue cai. b. *ABAB 了 “to repeat many times” Monosyllabic verbs differentiate from disyllabic verbs in that the later do not allow to insert 一 ‘yi’, cf. (3) vs. (4). (3) A 一 A: Insert 一 ‘yi’ between the monosyllabic verb 想一想 xiang yi xiang “ to think for a while” 唱一唱 chang yi chang “ to sing casually” 跑一跑 pao yi pao “ to run casually” 吃一吃 chi yi chi “ to eat casually” 跳一跳 tiao yi tiao “ to jump casually” (4) *AB 一 AB *學習一學習 *xuexi yi xyexi *研究一研究 *yanjiu yi yanjiu *重覆一重覆 *zhongfu yi zhongfu 5.3 The meaning The verb reduplication can express ‘an attempt’ or ‘a temporarily completed act’. In (1) and (2) the verb reduplications are used to indicate the action that has been done already. They can according to 盧福波 (1996:23) also be followed by 就 ‘jiu’, as shown in (3) and (4). (1) 這個計劃我們研究了研究,覺得還可以。 Zhege jihua women yanjiu le yanjiu, juede hai keyi. ‘After considering this plan for a while, we think it is practicable.’ (2) 他想了想說: “還是你去吧!” Ta xiang le xiang shuo haishi ni qu ba. ‘After thinking for a while, he said, “it’s your chance.”’ (3) 這個計劃我們研究了研究就放棄了。 (4) 看看就給你,不要你的。 Kankan jiu geini, buyao nide. ‘After taking a look at it, I will return to you at once.’ The verb reduplication with the meaning of “trying” can according to 盧福波 (1996:23) be followed by 看 ‘kan’ , cf. (6) and (7). (6) 商量商量看,去哪而更好? Shangliang shangliang kan, qu naer genghao? ‘We can discuss and think of other suggestion.’ (7) 怎麼?修理不好了?來,我修理修理看。 Zenma xiuli buhao le wo xiuli xiuli kan. ‘What’s the problem? Doesn’t it work? Let me try to fix it.’ Interestingly, we find out that the verb reduplication can also be followed by 看看 ‘kankan’, whereby 看看 indicates the temporary accomplishment of the act. (6-1) 商量商量看看 shanglian shanglian kankan (7-1) 修理修理看看 xiuli xiuli kankan The verb reduplication can have the function of restrained tone when it is used in the imperative sentences, cf. (8)-(10). If not, the tone may become impolite or gruff, cf. (11)-(12). (8) 老師,您休息休息吧! Laoshi, nin xiuxi xiuxi ba. ‘Professor, please take a rest.’ (9) 我的書本不見了,你幫我找找! Wode shuben bujian le, ni bangwo zhaozhao. ‘My book disappears, please look for it for me.’ (10) 你再幫我看一看還有什麼需要改進的。 Ni zai bangwo kan yi kan haiyou shima xuyao gaijin de. ‘Please check it for me to see if there is something to be improved.’ (11) 他不懂這段文章的意思,你給他解釋。 Ta budong zheduan wenzhang de yisi, ni gei ta jieshi. ‘He did not understand the meaning of this article. Please explain for him.’ (12) 那是什麼東西,給我看。 Nashi shima dongxi, gei wo kan. ‘What’s that? Let me see.’ Both 黃宣範 (1983) and 盧福波 (1996:23) observe that the reduplication of verbs can be interpreted as “slightly doing something”, cf. (13)-(15). (13) 我早晨習慣來這裡跑跑步、做做操。 Wo zaochen xiguan lai zheli paopaobu zuozuocao. (14) 假日時我喜歡看看電影、逛逛街。 Jiarishi wo xihuan kankan dianying guangguang jie. (15) 請你嚐嚐這道菜。 Qing ni chang chang zhedao cai. ‘Please taste this dish a little.’ 6. The Reduplications in Taiwanese The reduplication of word-building process is common in Taiwanese especially in the application of adjectives. There are two reduplication forms in Taiwanese, one is double-reduplication word and the other is triple-reduplication word. The following example in Taiwanese can illustrate this classification. 幼幼 [iu331 iu331] (It is used to express delicate and fragile appearance.) 幼幼幼 [iu322 iu31 iu11] (It is used to express more delicate and fragile appearance.) This reduplication is used to indicate the comparative function by repeating the same word. This is the evidence that the reduplication of word-formation affect the word meaning. In addition, the semantic meaning of the double- reduplication word varies with the place or environment that it occurs. There are four forms of the double-reduplication word as illustrated by 洪惟仁 (1996). (1) XX: X can be verb that denotes tentative or casual action, for example, ‘食食咧’(eat at one’s pleasure or casually), ‘行行咧’(walk tentatively or casually) in Taiwanese. X can be an adjective or an adverb that modifies the lower extent than monosyllabic word does, for example, ‘黑黑’ means a little bit dark in Taiwanese. In 黃宣範 (1988:135), it is argued that 黑黑 is used to weaken the extent of being black, while 黑黑黑 reinforce the extent. surprised at the first sight of their opposite meanings. We may be But if we compare Taiwanese with English, we can easily see that 黑黑 is actually not different to English comparatives. is 黑黑”, we mean someone is in some degree of being black. If we say “someone Instead of referring to someone’s property of being black, we use 黑黑 to relativize the property. Moreover, if we take a look at the morphological form of the comparative in English and Taiwanese we may find that there exists much difference in word-formation. English uses suffixation to represent the comparative or superlative form of adjectives. Taiwanese uses reduplication of word-formation to represent comparative or superlative form of adjectives. In other words, 紅 in Taiwanese is equivalent to “red” in English, 紅紅 is equivalent to “redder” in English , and 紅紅紅 is equivalent to “reddest” in English. This evidence shows that the word-formation process of comparative and superlative is different. However, their meaning is parallel. 楊秀芳 (1991:157) points that not only verbs but also nouns, time phrases, qualifiers, numerals, adjectives, and adverbs can be reduplicated as shown below: (a) 儂儂#去泅水,kan1 lan1 阿英# m7 去。(人人都去游泳,只有阿英不去) ‘Everyone goes to swim except A-ying.’ (b) 日日#消磨,無趁錢#be7 用 le0.(消磨:siau1 bon5,趁:than3,每天花費,不賺錢也不 行) ‘We spend money everyday, it’s essential for us to earn money.’ (5) xxV: V denotes the main verb; xx denotes the adverb that modifies V. The examples are illustrated below: 沖沖滾 [chiang11 chiang11 kun31] 金金看 [kim22 kim22 kkkhuann11] ‘to see carefully’ 削削叫 [sia31 sia31 kio11] 怫怫跳 [phut3 phut3 thiau11] (6) Axx: A denotes the main adjective; xx denotes the adverb that modifies A. The examples are illustrated below: 幼麵麵 [iu31 mi11 mi22] 粗爬爬 [choo22 pe22 pe12] ‘very delicate’ ‘very thick’ 紅絳絳 [ang22 kong31 kong11] 白雪雪 [pe11 sut3 sut2] ‘very redish’ ‘very white’ We must notice that xx has the function that weakens the extent it modifies. However, if xx is used to modify V to form xxV or modify A to form Axx, it has the function that reinforces the extent it modifies. (7) Xxx: This is the triple-reduplication word. x represents adjective or adverb. The triple-reduplication word is very common in Taiwanese; however, it is uncommon in other dialects of Chinese. The semantic meaning of triple-reduplication word is much more intense than the single word. It is used to represent ‘very’ or ‘to great extent’. Since triple-reduplication word involves the semantic meaning of ‘very’, it cannot be added any qualifiers as 真 ‘extremely’ or 非 常 ‘very’ before the triple-reduplication word otherwise it may become wordy. The following examples can illustrate these phenomena: 金金金 [kim231 kim22 kim33] ‘very smooth’ 霑霑霑 [tam231 tam22 tam12] ‘very wet’ 長長長 [tng231 tng22 tng12] ‘ very long’ 俗俗俗 [siok231 siok1 siok3] ‘very cheap’ 對對對 [tui322 tui31 tui11] ‘very correct’ 肉肉肉 [ba322 ba32 bah2] ‘ very plump’ 圓圓圓 [inn231 inn22 inn12] ‘very round’ 恬恬恬 [tiam231 tiam11 tiam22] ‘very silent’ 楊秀芳 (1991) further classify the reduplication in Taiwanese into the following forms. (8) AAB: Verbs usually has this kind of reduplication. ko1 ko1 纏 (糾纏不清) ‘to become embroiled in’ (9) AABB a. AB can be compounding. ching1 ching1 cho2 cho2 (清清楚楚) ‘very clear’ lan5 lan5 san1 san1 (零零星星) ‘very fragmentary’ b. AB can be qualifiers. siang1 siang1 tui3 tui3 (雙雙對對) ‘in couples’ c. AB can be adjectives. kau2 kau2 kkuai3 kuai3 (狡狡獪獪,彆扭的樣子) ‘uncomfortable or awkward’ d. AB can be verbs. lai5 lai5 khi3 khi3 (來來去去) ‘to come and go’ (10) ABAB: The reduplication of disyllabic compounding adjectives. gong7 tit8 gong7 tit8 (憨直貌) ‘honest and straightforward’ (11) ABCC: lau7 liat8 kun2 kun2 (鬧熱滾滾) ‘very thronged and populous’ (12) ABAC bo5 li2 bo5 iu5 (無理無由) ‘no excuses’ bo5 iau3 bo5 kin2 (無要無緊) ‘not hurry’ bo5 juan5 bo5 lo2 (無煩無腦) ‘not worry’ (10) ABCB chi3 chio3 bak8 chio3 (喙笑目笑,眉開眼笑的樣子) ‘joyful or jubilant’ 7. Conclusion The reduplication in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese is abundant in word forms or semantic meaning. The words that are being reduplicated generally have different semantic meaning. Because of reduplication, we can have our language more vividly and profoundly. There are still more insights in the studying of reduplication in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese. Reference 1.Cheng, Robert L. and Huang, Shuanfan. (1988). The Structure of Taiwanese: A Modern Synthesis. Vol. 1. 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