Article published in:
The Why and How of Total Reduplication: Current Issues and New Perspectives
Edited by Daniela Rossi
[Studies in Language 39:4] 2015
► pp. 836–872

Areal perspectives on total reduplication of verbs in Sinitic

| University of Milano-Bicocca
| Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
| University of Verona
The topic of reduplication in Sinitic languages has attracted much attention in the literature, but studies adopting a comparative and areal perspective are still lacking. This paper aims to analyse the correlations between form and function in reduplicating constructions in a sample of twenty Sinitic languages, representing eight branches of the family, comparing them to a set of fourteen non-Sinitic languages of the East- and Southeast Asian area. We will show that the various semantic nuances conveyed by reduplicated verbs could be argued to derive from the core meaning of verbal reduplication as iteration of an event, either over a bounded or an unbounded timespan. On the structural level, a pervasive feature of reduplication lies in its compliance to strict requirements on the morphological makeup of the base. This holds especially in the case of the reduplication of disyllabic and bimorphemic verbs with increasing semantics, a consistent pattern across our sample.
Keywords: Reduplication, Sinitic, total reduplication, East- and Southeast Asian languages, iconicity
Published online: 03 March 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.39.4.01arc
References
Abbi, Anvita
1992 Reduplication in South Asian languages: An areal, typological, and historical study. New Delhi: Allied Publishers.Google Scholar
Ansaldo, Umberto & Lisa Lim
2004 Phonetic absence as syntactic prominence. Grammaticalization in isolating tonal languages. In Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde & Harry Perridon (eds.), Up and down the cline – the nature of grammaticalization, 345–361. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Arcodia, Giorgio F., Bianca Basciano & Chiara Melloni
2014 Verbal reduplication in Sinitic. Carnets de Grammaire 221. 15–45.Google Scholar
Banker, Elizabeth M
1964 Bahnar reduplication. The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal 11. 119–134.Google Scholar
Burenhult, Niclas
2005 A grammar of Jahai. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Chang, Shiu-Fang
1998 台灣四縣客家話構詞研究. Taipei: National Taiwan University MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A Grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary, Ming Li & Alain Peyraube
2007 Chinese linguistics and typology: The state of the art. Linguistic Typology 11(1). 187–211. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Bijia
2001 漳州话单音动词重叠形式及其表达功能. In The research lab on Southern Min dialects of Zhangzhou Normal University (eds.), 闽南方言 - 漳州话研, 229–235. Beijing: Zhongguo Wenlian Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Chi, Changhai & Chun Wang
2004 温州话动词重叠式分析. Zhejiang Daxue Xuebao 34(5). 149–157.Google Scholar
Chuang, Hui-Ju
2007 Verbal reduplication in Taiwan Southern Min. Minxiong: National Chung Cheng University MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Committee for the drafting of the local gazetteer of the City of Nanjing
1993 南京方言志. Nanjing: Nanjing Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Dai, Zhaoming
2006 天台方言研究. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Ding, Yongshou
2010 A complete guide to teaching Chinese as a second language − 对外汉语教学参考. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M.W
2004 Adjective classes in typological perspective. In Robert M.W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Adjective classes: A cross-linguistic typology, 1–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick
2005 Areal linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia. Annual Review of Anthropology 341. 181–206. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 A grammar of Lao. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fu, Xinqing & Haijin Hu
2012 汉语方言单音节动词重叠式比较研究. Nanchang Daxue Xuebao 43(5). 143–150.Google Scholar
Goddard, Cliff
2005 The languages of East and Southeast Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haiman, John
2011 Cambodian – Khmer. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
He, Weiguo
2007 浅谈《祝福》中的说说清楚. Yuwen Jianshe 31. 45.Google Scholar
Hou, Jingyi & Duanzheng Wen
1993 山西方言调查研究报告. Taiyuan: Shanxi Gaoxiao Lianhe Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Hu, Songbai & Zhiya Lin
2008 铅山方言研究. Beijing: Wenhua Yishu Chubanshe & Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Hu, Xiaobin
2006 动词重叠AABB式的语法化. Hanyu Xuexi 8(4). 18–25.Google Scholar
Huang, Borong
1996 汉语方言语法类编. Qingdao: Qingdao Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Huang, Yingqionq
2006 梅县方言语法研究. Chongqing: Southwest University MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Khin Khin Aye, Daw
2005 Bazaar Malay: History, grammar and contact. Singapore: National University of Singapore dissertation.Google Scholar
Kurpaska, Maria
2010 Chinese language(s). A look through the prism of the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy & Chenglong Huang
2003 A Grammar of Qiang. With annotated texts and glossary. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lay, Khin
1978 A study of reduplication in Burmese. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Li, Bin
2006 闽东古田方言动词的重叠式. Fujian Jiaoyu Xueyuan Xuebao 7(7). 67–72.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Rulong
2007 闽南方言语法研究. Fuzhou: Fujian Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Li, Yuming
1998 动词重叠的若干句法问题. Zhongguo Yuwen 21. 83.Google Scholar
Lidz, Liberty
2010 A descriptive grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo). Austin: University of Texas dissertation.Google Scholar
Long, Yaohong & Guoqiao Zheng
1998 The Dong language in Guizhou province, China [Translated from Chinese by D. Norman Geary]. Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.Google Scholar
Luo, Kangning
1987 信宜方言志. Guangzhou: Zhongshan Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Luo, Zhaojin
1984 四縣客語語法研究. Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University dissertation.Google Scholar
Ma, Chongqi
1995 漳州方言重叠式动词研究. Yuyan Yanjiu 11. 124–131.Google Scholar
Mattes, Veronika
2014 Types of reduplication: A case study of Bikol. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, Stephen & Virginia Yip
2011 Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Edith A
(1978) Reduplicative constructions. In Joseph H. Greenberg, et al. (eds.), Universals of human language. Volume 3: Word structure, 297–334. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nguyen, Dinh-Hoa
1997 Vietnamese. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Norman, Jerry
2003 The Chinese dialects: Phonology. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 72–83. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Paul, Waltraud
2010 Adjectives in Mandarin Chinese: The rehabilitation of a much ostracized category. In Patricia Cabredo Hofherr & Ora Matushansky (eds.), Adjectives: Formal analyses in syntax and semantics, 115–152. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rubino, Carl
2013 Reduplication. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.Google Scholar
Shi, Yuzhi
2002 The establishment of Modern Chinese grammar: The formation of the resultative construction and its effects. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 汉语方言中动词重叠的语法意义和功能的差别. Hanyu Xuebao 4(20). 59–63.Google Scholar
2009 汉语动词重叠式产生的历史根据. In Guosheng Wang & Xiaoming Xie (eds.), 汉语重叠问题, 500–506. Wuhan: Huazhong Shifan Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Sneddon, James Neil
1996 Indonesian: A comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Soe, Myint
1999 A Grammar of Burmese. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon dissertation.Google Scholar
Sookgasem, Prapa
1997 A complicating distortion of syntactic categories: The case of reduplication in Thai. In Arthur S. Abramson (ed.), Southeast Asian linguistics studies in honor of Vichin Panupong, 253–272. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press.Google Scholar
Stolz, Thomas, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze
(2011) Total reduplication: The areal linguistics of a potential universal. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, Rint
(1999) The Mandarin VP. Dordrecht: Kluwer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi
1988 國語形容詞的重疊規律. In Ting-Chi Tang (ed.), 漢語詞法句法論集, 29–57. Taipei: Student Book.Google Scholar
Thu, Dinh Le
1998 Reduplication in the M’nong language. In Mark Alves, Paul Sidwell & David Gil (eds.), SEALS VIII. Papers from the 8th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1998, 57–65. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Tsao, Feng-fu
2004 Semantics and syntax of verbal and adjectival reduplication in Mandarin and Taiwanese Southern Min. In Hilary Chappell (ed.), Chinese grammar: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives, 285–308. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Fang
2011 A Study of reduplication of verbs and adjectives in Wenzhou dialect. Singapore & Beijing: National University of Singapore & Peking University MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Wang, Guosheng & Xiaoming Xie
(eds.) 2009 汉语重叠问题. Wuhan: Huazhong Shifan Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Wang, Hongmei
2005a 吉林洮南方言的持续体范畴. Xueshu Jiaoliu 131(2). 148–151.Google Scholar
2005b 汉语方言表持续的动词重叠. Yuyan Yanjiu 31. 50–53.Google Scholar
Wang, Ping
2011 苏州方言研究. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Wei, Qingwen
1985 壮语语法研究. Nanning: Guangxi Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Wu, Yunji
2005 A synchronic and diachronic study of the grammar of the Chinese Xiang dialects. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, Richard & Tony McEnery
2004 Aspect in Mandarin Chinese: A corpus-based study. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Xin, Yongfen
2006 浚县方言语法研究. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Xu, Dan
(ed.) 2012 Plurality and classifiers across languages in China. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Ling
2005 成都话动词重叠格式的句法和语义特征. Chengdu Daxue Xuebao 21. 84–86.Google Scholar
Ye, Ruizhen
2011.客家話重疊詞研究. Zhongli: National Central University MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Yue, Anne O
2003 Chinese dialects: Grammar. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla, (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 84–125. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yumei
2001 湘潭方言语法研究. Changsha: Hunan Daxue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhu, Xiaonong
2003 A Grammar of Shanghai Wu. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

No author info given
2019.  In Typology of Pluractional Constructions in the Languages of the World [Typological Studies in Language, 125], Crossref logo
Arcodia, Giorgio Francesco & Bianca Basciano
2018.  In The Construction of Words [Studies in Morphology, 4], ► pp. 219 ff. Crossref logo
Lin, Jingxia & Yong Kang Khoo
2018. Singapore Mandarin Chinese. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 9:2 ► pp. 109 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.