Re: Negation

From: G&P
Message: 61902
Date: 2008-12-06

>I wonder if there is not another tendency to enlarge mono-syllabic words.
>Chinese "syllables" are most often used in two-syllable words.

In Chinese it is usually a matter of disambiguation.  You probably know that there are very few possible syllables, even with the distinction of 4 tones in Mandarin (or 7 in Cantonese).  For example, qiao in tone 3 has 14 distinct meanings, written with 19 distinct characters.    Yi in tone 4 has 38 distinct meanings.  Hence the creation of repetitive compounds, using two synonyms, which together point to the meaning they share.  The most famous of these has been calqued into English as a “look-see”.

 

Speaking more generally, I think there are so many factors involved that no generalisation about a tendency is possible.  There will be plenty of examples of monosyllables being replaced by longer versions, but plenty of examples where this does not happen.

 

Peter