Comparative Study On Reduplication Between Chinese And Thai Language

Chinese and Thai belong to Sino-Tibetan language family, so they have the same linguistic features. The repetition is common means of expression for both languages. This article will study on the comparison in Chinese and Thai repetition to find out the similarity and differences. This research will focus on the categories, patterns and grammatical meanings.1. Categories: For nouns, there are little noun reduplication in Chinese, like the monosyllable nouns and parallel nouns. In Thai, they are the words to express kindred relationships or time unit.For verbs, there are a lot of verbal reduplication in Chinese, except those tendency verbs and relative verbs. And it is quite similar in Thai, except those monosyllable verbs.For pronouns, there are little pronoun reduplication in Chinese, like the interrogative pronouns and demonstrative pronouns. But all pronouns can be reduplicated.For adjectives, there is a lot of adjective reduplication in Chinese like character adjectives, for Thai, they are the state adjectives.2. Patterns: For nouns, there are AA, AABB, AXX, XAA and AAX in Chinese, while AA, AABB and ABAB in Thai.For verbs, there are AA, A-A A_A, A_AB, AABB, ABAB, XAA and AAX in Chinese, while AA, AABB and ABAB in Thai.For adjectives, there are AA, AABB, ABAB, XAA, AAB and A_AB in Chinese, while AA, AABB, ABAB and AAB in Thai.3.Grammatical Meanings: Both Chinese and Thai can express quantity, order, attempt, degree. But Chinese can express enumerate and description, while Thai can express indefinite and emphasis.