Chinese, Indonesian Verb Overlap Comparison Study

The processes of reduplication in word formation exist in many languages, such as German, Dutch, English, Chinese, and Indonesian. In English, for example, we can find the reduplications like chit-chat, pooh-pooh, etc. In Chinese as an isolating language, and in Indonesian as an inflecting language, there are various forms of reduplications in the word classes of noun, verb, adjective, etc. The reduplication processes have received a great deal of attention from the grammarians for a long time. The processes of reduplication happen both on the morphological level and syntactic level . The means of the reduplication has been widely used in Chinese and Indonesian, especially in colloquial style. The verb reduplication in Chinese is rather complex, for the verb is the core of a sentence, is closely related to subject, object, temporal aspect and quantifier, and has to do with semantics and pragmatics.The paper deals with the similarities and differences between Chinese and Indonesian in the verb reduplication with AA pattern, ABAB pattern, AAB pattern, and AABB pattern, in the respects of voices, structures, semantics, and pragmatics. Base1 or root in the two languages have differences in syllables, diathesis and transparent words, opaque words.We base our analysis on the findings of researches on verb reduplication in each language under the guidelines of the Three Dimensions Linguistic theory, Contrastive Linguistics, and Cognitive Linguistics, using verbs from HSK grade A for analysis. The paper consists of five chapters:Chapter I. The research on verb reduplications in Chinese and Indonesian. Verb reduplications in Chinese and Indonesian perform many grammatical functions. In comparing verb reduplication functions, we found 13 meanings and aspects are identical and 10 un-identical in Chinese and Indonesian. We discovered pejorative aspects, non-single agents , non-single patients, reciprocal aspects with similarities and differences between the two languages, which we shall continue to discuss in chapter III and IV.Chapter II. Typological comparison between Chinese and Indonesian. Based on chapter I, this chapter further examine typology of the two languages in such respects as language system, word orders and affixes, and tries to analyze the similarities and differences between the two languages in the typological and temporal respects.Chapter III. Pattern and Meaning Comparisons in verb reduplication in Chinese and Indonesian. More systematic comparisons are made on verb reduplications in Chinese and Indonesian, to find out various similarities and differences in morphemic reduplications and grammatical functions in verbs. We focus on the AA pattern, ABAB pattern, AABB pattern, AAB pattern and A了A pattern. The comparisons of temporal aspect in verb reduplications are made between the two languages. The temporal aspect in Chinese is expressed with"V+ time aspects +VR", whereas The temporal aspect in Indonesia is expressed with"time aspects + diathesis + V +VR". From the three dimensions linguistic point of view, we go on comparing the constrains of verb reduplications of both languages in semantic features, and comparing the distributions of verb reduplications in sentences, verb reduplications functioning as subjects, predicates, objects, modifiers, adverbials and complements.Comparisons are made thoroughly on transparent words, opaque words, content morphemes and grammatical morphemes. In the comparison, we discovered that imperfect marker + VVR+了gives rise to future perfect aspects and the imperative mood. It is proved that in Chinese verb reduplication without the co-occurrence with words"试"or"看"can express'trying aspect'.Chapter IV. The semantic and pragmatic analysis on verb reduplications in corresponding and non-corresponding forms between Chinese and Indonesian. Here we discuss correspondence and non-correspondence in verb reduplications in Chinese and Indonesian languages with the three dimensions linguistic theory, using verbs of HSK of grade A as a comparison media, regarding: the comparison of transitive verb reduplications and intransitive verb reduplications, the comparison of volitional verb reduplications and non-volitional verb reduplications, the comparison of continuous verb reduplications and non-continuous reduplications. In these comparisons , we found verb reduplications of AABB pattern contain pejorative aspect, and from this aspect it is also found that AABB pattern gives rise to diminutive aspect and augmentative aspect. Hence we now can explain some contradictions that have been around all this while. Some people assume that AABB pattern has a meaning of'relax', and some others tend to think that AABB pattern has a meaning of dislike. In the reciprocal meaning comparison, we found the AABB pattern and"V来V去"form can give rise to the reciprocal meaning in Chinese. We also found AABB pattern can give rise to non-single agents , non-single patients,With comparisons above and the previous chapters, we conclude that verb reduplication in the two languages has 31 aspects and which consists of 19 identical aspects and meanings, 12 un-identical aspects and meanings in verb reduplication.Chapter V. Pragmatic functions of Verb reduplication. With a deep analysis in the previous four chapters, we now look further on the verb reduplications in the spoken Chinese (Han) and Indonesian languages. Based on the economy linguistic principle, people tend to regard verb reduplications as an absolute construction2 of a sentence. Now we can draw a conclusion that speakers of Chinese and Indonesian languages have one same view with regards to verb reduplications. The view is that verb reduplications are used to convey politeness in imperative sentences and economical value in verb reduplications sentences as an absolute construction. Comparing the similarities and the differences of the two languages makes he speakers of both languages better understand each other in culture and language, and it is also beneficial for the teaching and studying of each other's languages.