A Contrastive Study Of Chinese And English Reduplicatives

Reduplicative words are linguistic morphological representations shared by most parts of speech in both Chinese and English lexical systems,demonstrating various forms and types and generating a considerable concern to the academic world,such as renren,kankan,gaogao,fangfangmianmian,kaolükaolü,ganganjingjing in Chinese,and zig(-)zag,diddle-diddle,criss(-)cross,mumblejumble,teeny-weeny,go(-)go in English.Although there exist similarities and differences as well,the differences between them are far greater than the similarities.Total/full reduplications are more commonly used in Chinese which emphasize the increase or decrease of the quantities or degree of things,while partial reduplications are more usually used in English which stress the changes or the enhancement of the action or state of things.Hence,we believe that the reasons for the differences between them are worth exploring.Currently,the researches on Chinese and English reduplicatives focus on the general discussion of the phenomena and lack the specific attention and analysis of their typical members,and the contrastive studies also concentrate on the discussion of their commonality correspondingly.Although these analyses are helpful to find some attributes they share,such as the "(in)complete" forms and the meanings of"quantities",the different characteristics between Chinses and English are often covered up.However,the previous researches on the differences are mostly limited to the linguistic aspects individually such as sounds,forms and meanings,stagnating at the descriptive level,and lacking the interface interaction between them and the explanations of the root cause.Most of the researches are unable to overcome the constraints of the language itself with shallow interpretation,and lack a systematic and effective theoretical framework to produce the reasonable explanations.Based on the above problems and deficiencies,the present study intends to focus on three main questions:1)What are the typical members of Chinese and English reduplicatives in different parts of speech(including nouns,verbs,adjectives and classifiers)?2)What are the similarities and differences between forms,meanings and their interrelationships?What are the hidden causes of these differences?3)What is the relationship between the linguistic differences and the different ways of thinking in Chinese and English nations?What are the essential differences in thinking between these two peoples?Taking the "usage-based" language view,the theory of iconicity and the theory of spatial-temporal differences between English and Chinese,this study attempts to make a comprehensive contrast between the typical English and Chinese reduplicative forms by the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,and looks into the underlying motivation behind them.It tries to reveal the essential differences between Chinese and English so as to explore the differences in the ways of thinking between these two nations.There are five main findings in this study.First,the typical members of Chinese and English noun reduplicatives are AA-type/AABB-type and ablaut/rhyming reduplicatives respectively.The iconicity of Chinese noun reduplications has the tendency of imagic iconicity between forms and meanings,chiefly revealed in the positive correlation between formal copies and numbers of objects,and displaying the pro-spatial trait of its chunkiness,discreteness and reversibility by emphasizing the extension and expansion of space and scope,which can be defined as strong spatiality in Chinese in substance in the light of its mode of thinking,while the iconicity of English ones has the tendency of metaphorical iconicity between sounds and meanings,mainly manifested in the positive correlation between vocal changes and "objects"(treated as "actions or state"),and showing the pro-temporal trait of its movement,change and development by stressing its changes and enhancements,which can be characterized as strong temporality in English in nature in terms of its way of thinking.2)Second,the typical members of Chinese and English verb reduplicatives are AA-type/ABAB-type and ablaut/rhyming reduplicatives respectively.The iconicity of Chinese verb reduplicatives has the tendency of metaphorical iconicity between forms and meanings,chiefly revealed in the positive correlation between formal copies and numbers of "actions"(treated as "objects"),highlighting the cross-domain transfer and the physical property of verbs that embodies the boundness and segmentation of action,signifying the materialization of actions and behaviors as its essence,and displaying the pro-spatial trait of its chunkiness,discreteness and reversibility,which can be defined as strong spatiality in Chinese in substance in terms of its mode of thinking,while the iconicity of English ones has the tendency of imagic iconicity between sounds and meanings,mainly manifested in the positive correlation between vocal changes and degrees of action or state,demonstrates the original attribute and the dynamic property of verbs that shows the changes and duration of action,reflecting the mobility of actions and behaviors as its nature,and unfolding the pro-temporal trait of its change,adhesion and development,which can be characterized as strong temporality in English in nature in terms of its way of thinking.3)Third,the typical members of Chinese and English adjective reduplicatives are the same as noun ones,which are AAtype/AABB-type and ablaut/rhyming reduplicatives.The iconicity of Chinese adjective reduplicatives has the tendency of diagrammatic iconicity between forms and meanings,primarily shown in the positive correlation between formal copies and numbers of "degrees"(treated as "objects"),relying on the visual and dimensional aspects and their descriptive meanings,expressing the shape of things and the boundedness of the characters,revealing the materialization of degrees it refers as its essence,and also displaying the pro-spatial trait of its chunkiness,discreteness and reversibility,which can be defined as strong spatiality in Chinese in substance in the light of its mode of thinking,while the iconicity of English ones has the tendency of metaphoric iconicity between sounds and meanings,mostly exhibited in the positive correlation between vocal changes and highest degrees,emphasizing the dynamics and extremes in meaning,expressing the boundless changes and extreme measure of things,embodying the increases in degree,and displaying the pro-temporal trait of its change,linearity and irreversibility,which can be characterized as strong temporality in English in nature in terms of its way of thinking.4)Forth,the prototypical members of Chinese classifier redupicatives include three types:CCtype,yiCC-type and yiCyiC-type,and they are mainly shape-based classifiers,in which shape-expressing classifiers are in the core position and individual classifiers in the important position.Shape-based classifiers possess the strongest tendency to spatiality,focusing on the physical forms and the three dimensions of things,which can be considered to be the strong spatiality in the light of the language.For those reasons,the essence of the classifier reduplication is the strong spatiality in classifiers,which is one of the very important demonstrations of strong spatiality in Chinese.However,there does not exist the English classifiers.There are often morphological changes in the so-called English "quasi-numeral classifiers",whose grammar presents the high dependency and connectivity in structure,which are regularly modified by non-spatial adjectives and collocate with words such as uncountable nouns,abstract nouns,collective nouns and plural countable nouns.Therefore,they do not possess the characteristics of strong spatial tendency,which reflects the essential differences between Chinese and English classifiers.5)Contrasting the Chinese reduplicatives with their translation and the two English versions from different Chinese and English translator,which are extracted from the first twenty-five chapters in Journey to the West,this research discovers and verifies the essential attributes of the two languages,and finally peep into the character of the relationships between languages and modes of national thought.The research finds that the lack of the "reduplicatives" and "equivalences" in English translation and their dominance in the original Chinese embody the trait of strong spatiality in Chinese,reflecting the strong spatiality of the Chinese people.To sum up,it is the tendency differences of spatiality and temporality between the Chinese and English nations that lies behind the Chinese and English reduplicatives,which stems from the differences between ideogram and phonography.The ideographic and subjective nature of Chinese and the imagery and concrete way of thinking held by the Chinese nation,the analytic and repetitive nature of Chinese and the holistic and convergent thinking of the Chinese people,the emphasis on nouns and nominals and the View of Objects,are all consistent with the of strong spatiality of the Chinese people,while the synthetic and hypotactic nature of English and the logical and precise thinking of the English nation,the substitutive and changeable nature of English and the divergent and distinctive mode of thinking,the focus on verbs and dynamics and the View of Changes of the English people,are all in line with the of strong temporality of the English thinking.This research helps to promote the theoretical construction and improvement for the contrastive theory of the temporality of English and the spatiality of Chinese in the field of lexicons.The research breaks through the constraints of traditional lexical semantics by interpreting the differences between Chinese and English reduplicatives from the perspective of national thinking.The essential analyses of Chinese and English reduplicative words are also instrumental to both teaching Chinese as a foreign language and teaching translation,which can improve the teaching strategies for teachers,thereby raise students' abilities of the manipulation of reduplicative words when they study Chinese or English.