Reduplication, a kind of vocabulary variation that enables writers and audio system of English to indulge within the wealthy potential for wordplay the language so usually gives, refers to any of three sorts of repetitive extension of sounds. (Many different languages additionally function reduplication, however this submit focuses solely on the English tongue.)
Rhyming Reduplication
After we discuss doing the hokey-pokey, or seek advice from a razzle-dazzle spectacle or a namby-pamby angle, we’re using rhyming reduplication, which normally serves to emphasise with a playful close to duplication of a significant phrase (fuzzy-wuzzy, itsy-bitsy), although generally each phrases have that means and the rhyming is a fringe profit that makes the time period catchier (“chick flick”).
Many reduplicatives are pairings of nonsense phrases (fuddy-duddy, hanky-panky), and their origin is obscure, however others with seemingly meaningless parts have a minimum of a possible etymology: Hurly-burly might stem from the kinetic time period hurl, and willy-nilly goes again a number of centuries to any considered one of a number of doable expressions similar to “Will he, nill he” (“Whether or not he’ll or he gained’t”).
Actual Reduplication
An analogous sort of building stems from efforts by adults to assist kids be taught by repetition — therefore child speak like bye-bye and choo-choo. However some precise reduplication is used disparagingly in grown-up contexts: Two widespread precise reduplicatives, blah-blah and “yada yada” (spelled and repeated variously and maybe stemming from the sooner British English slang time period yatter-yatter) mock boring or meaningless speech.
Ablaut Reduplication
A 3rd type, named for the phrase for change of vowel sounds, is exemplified by the phrases chitchat and dillydally, every of which has, in contrast to most rhyming reduplicatives, the substantial phrase within the second place relatively than the primary. Others, like crisscross and zigzag, extra transparently reveal that the majority ablaut reduplications seek advice from motion, particularly reciprocated actions or behaviors.
Notice that in these examples, and in most different ablaut reduplicatives, the primary vowel is at all times an i, produced by making an in depth, or excessive sound (that means it’s achieved by excessive placement of the tongue) and that the second vowel is at all times low.
Different Reduplicative Kinds
New reduplicative vocabulary is sluggish to emerge. Exceptions embrace occasional slang phrases (“boob tube,” hip-hop) or advert hoc coinages constructed like fancy-schmancy. (The latter sort really has a reputation: shm-reduplication.) Talking of fancy-schmancy, there’s additionally a proper title (contrastive focus reduplication) for precise reduplication employed to make clear the connection between a variation of an archetypal that means and the archetypal utilization itself, as in “Whenever you say ‘Dude, that’s unhealthy,’ do you imply good-bad, or bad-bad?”
Makes use of of Reduplication
Reduplicatives are useful little gadgets for injecting a notice of caprice or a pointy edge into fiction or nonfiction alike. They’ll convey humorous or sarcastic understatement (“It’s simply one other case of high-finance hocus-pocus,” “The wish-washy White Home flip-flops once more”) or serve to mock or belittle a goal (“The socialite’s hoity-toity hubris simply as she tripped was actually satisfaction coming earlier than a fall,” “Her eency-weency voice showcased her itsy-bitsy expertise”).
They’re additionally helpful, nonetheless, for optimistic or impartial language (“The pitter-patter of little ft on the hardwood flooring presaged the looks of my preschooler,” “My explosive sneeze prompted the birds to erupt from the bushes and flee helter-skelter”).
However don’t use a hodgepodge or a mishmash of reduplicatives pell-mell: Ensure you know their senses and connotations, and confirm whether or not they’re open, hyphenated, or closed compounds.
