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)

Sources and further reading

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