Pleonastic/Redundant Compounds: More Examples in Chinese

WU Xiaojing
Peking University

Chinese can be considered as a language that likes redundancy or pleonasm in making compound words. More examples of redundant or pleonastic compounds are given below.

weixiao (very small): wei very small, xiao small
juda (huge): ju huge, da big
pangda (collosal): pang collosal, da big
yanxia (blind): yan eye, xia blind
erlong (deaf): er ear, long deaf
tuique (lame): tui leg, que lame
huoshao (burn): huo fire, shao burn
shuiyan (drown): shui water, yan drown
jiaoshui (water tv.): jiao water vt., shui water n.
xiru (inhale): xi inhale, ru enter/into
huchu (exhale): hu exhale, chu come out/out of
routi (body): rou corporal, ti body
pashou (pickpocket): pa pick pocket vp., shou hand
xiaoyan (dimple): xiao smile, yan dimple
shangang (small hill): shan hill/mountain, gang small hill
paobu (run): pao run, bu step
huangyan (lie): huang lie, yan speech
lengdong (freeze): leng cold, dong freeze
shasheng (kill): sha kill, sheng life
meimao (eyebrow): mei eyebrow, mao hair

One thing that deserves mentioning is that sometimes different features of the same word are sent onto the surface level by semantic copying. Take shi for example, it serves as the duplicatum for three synonymous variants.

shi: dead body.　
shiti (dead body): shi (dead body) + ti (body).　
sishi (dead body): si (dead) + shi (dead body)　
shishou (dead body): shi (dead body) + shou (head)

The three compounds are synonymous because they all refer to the same thing as the duplicatum shi does. The mere difference between them is that their respective duplicants cause different features of the same duplicatum to be more salient.

II
There are thousands of four-zi-idioms [1] in Chinese. Some of them share the XY Structure and one of the major types contains a negative element bu ‘not' or wu‘without/not' (Wu 2002) [2] . Examples are given below.

1) y beginning with wu:
changtongwuzu (going smoothly—unimpeded)
chunjiewuxia (pure/clean—without flaw)
yingyongwuwei (brave—no timid)
jijingwusheng (quiet—no sound heard)
zhigaowushang (the highest—having none above)
anranwuyang (safe/healthy—without ailment)
pinganwushi (safe—without mishap)
pingdanwuqi (plain/dull—not interesting)
pifawuli (tired—without strength)
chenmowuyu (silent—speechless)

2) y beginning with bu:
zhiyanbuhui (speak straightforwardly—speak without reservation)
yumengbule (sad—not happy)
tantebuan (upset—uneasy)
chengmobuyu (being silent—not speaking)
wunibuxiao (disobedient to parents—not filial)
kankebuping (rough/bumpy—not smooth)
weimibuzheng (listless—not in a high spirit)
fenmenbuping (resentful—indignant)
guaobuqun (proud/aloof —not unproud)
manbujiangli (rude—unreasonable)[3]

One of the consequences of semantic copying is that a new sense may be derived from the duplicatum within the XY Structure. Take manbujiangli for example, reanalysis has turned man (rude) into an adverb meaning ‘very’ and the whole idiom has undergone a non-pleonastic shift——a shift from ‘rude—unreasonable’ to ‘very unreasonable’ (Wu, ibid.). Manhao (very good) [4] can serve as a piece of evidence that shows a new meaning has been derived from man (i.e. rude) within manbujiangli (cf. manzi ‘a rude/unresanbale person’).

Notes:
[1] zi, roughly equivalent to morpheme(s).
[2] a paper for the seminar on Dec. 18, 2002, Peking University.
[3] Here man (i.e. rude) is the duplicatum.
[4] hao means ‘good’.
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