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The effect of reduplicating is to make it diminutive. It like adding -ito to the end of a Spanish noun.
by eloisius 1mo ago
The effect of reduplicating is to make it diminutive. It like adding -ito to the end of a Spanish noun.
- plucas 1mo agoAre you sure? I thought that's what "xiǎo" was doing here, with "rén" being repeated meaning "everyone".
- eloisius 1mo agoI would defer to a native speaker, but Chinese is extremely contextual, and even native speakers often can’t tell you the formal rules of usage for something like this. There’s a lot more listening to register and intuiting intent required than with English. The same phrase used in different way can have a different function. In this usage it does not sound like plural “people” to my ears. You can say something like 「你看！可愛的狗狗」 and it’s “look! A cute doggy” (reduplicating 狗 gǒu). On the other hand you could say 「人人都知道她是小三！」 and it means “everybody knows that she’s (his) mistress!” (reduplicating 人 rén).
- z2 1mo agoI think this first example is spot on. Though a sibling comment's Wikipedia link doesn't mention it, there is a diminutive or hypocorism use that I feel is best translated into English with the -y or -ie suffix. 狗狗 doggy 猫猫 kitty 鸟鸟 birdie 宝宝 baby And it kind of works for verbs too: 看看 [take a] looky
- eloisius 1mo agoYeah, I'm not sure what's going on with that Wikipedia page. > Reduplication is sometimes employed in verbs and adjectives to enhance the effect of them. > 胖胖的 pàng pàng de ('quite fat') from 胖 pàng ('fat') This is the exact opposite of how I'd understand it. Saying someone is 胖 is just calling them fat (rude), but 胖胖的 is teasing, cute, chubby, etc.
- throwaway_7274 1mo ago> teasing, cute, chubby, etc. gordito
- Eloissssss 1mo agoThe usual Chinese expression to describe the mushroom hallucinations is 见小人 (jiàn xiǎo rén), literally “see tiny people.” Usually there isn't a second 人 (rén) being reduplicated here. 人人 does mean “everyone,” but that's a different construction, and Chinese noun reduplication isn't generally equivalent to adding Spanish -ito. You may also see 小人儿 (xiǎo rénr), where 儿 is a colloquial/diminutive suffix.