Word structure

Potential content

• Affixes
• Reduplication
  • Of verbs: gives sense of 'a little' or 'a bit'. Can also insert 一 between reduplicated characters.
  • Of adjectives: becomes more vivid
  • Of nouns: 'all' or 'every'
  • Of measure words: 'all' or 'every'
    • Only single character measure words can be reduplicated
  • Reduplicated syllable is neutral tone
  • Reduplication structures:
    • AB, ABAB, AABB, ABB
  • Some disyllabic words cannot be reduplicated (need listing)
  • Many kinship terms are reduplicated (and can't appear as single characters)
• Compounds
  • Very difficult to define in Mandarin as lack of clear distinction between morphemes / words
  • Some compounds extremely idiomatic, little relation between component meaning and compound meaning, e.g. 花生
  • Others less idiomatic - compound source can be traced through components e.g. 矛盾
  • Finally, some compounds very obviously formed from components e.g. 洗澡
  • Compounds are formed frequently and creatively - can't be learned by rote
  • One interesting kind is a parallel compound - each component is equally important and has a similar meaning, e.g. 盗贼
  • Verbal compounds important in Mandarin
    • Result compounds
    • Direction compounds
    • Phase compounds
    • Metaphorical compounds
  • Verb-object compounds
  • Some words can be considered subject-predicate compounds e.g. 头疼

Sources and further reading

• Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (pp. 28 - 85) (needs Amazon code)
• Wikipedia: Chinese grammar