Showing posts with label Reduplication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reduplication. Show all posts
Aug 19, 2011
Reduplication
Computer Cookies comes close to some familiar nonsense words that have become part of the language called reduplication, such as, heebie jeebies, okey dokey, zig zag, fuddy duddy, hocus pocus, itsy bitsy, mumbo jumbo, and more. These repeat some sound from one word and make another. Most take on their meaning from usage. I have my bling bling, but I am not trying to be hoity toity.
Apr 23, 2010
Reduplication
Adding new words and phrases into English has been greatly enhanced by the pleasure we get from playing with words. There are numerous alliterative and rhyming idioms which are a significant feature of our language. We start in the nursery with choo-choos, move on in adult life to hanky-panky and end up in the nursing home having a sing-song.
The repeating of parts of words to make new forms is called reduplication. There are various categories of this: rhyming, exact and ablaut (vowel substitution). Examples, are respectively, okey-dokey, wee-wee, and zig-zag. The words that make up these reduplicated idioms often have little meaning in themselves and only appear as part of a pair. In other cases, one word will allude to some existing meaning and the other half of the pair is added for effect or emphasis. Is there anything other than a spider that is eency-weency? Is there anything other than a dance that is hokey-pokey?
During the 1920s, following the First World War, when many nonsense word pairs were coined, such as the bee's knees, heebie-jeebies etc. Willy-nilly is over a thousand years old. Riff-raff dates from the 1400s and helter-skelter, arsy-versy ( a form of vice-versa), and hocus-pocus all date from the 16th century. Now we have bling-bling, boob-tube and hip-hop. Just thought I would razzle-dazzle you with this one.
The repeating of parts of words to make new forms is called reduplication. There are various categories of this: rhyming, exact and ablaut (vowel substitution). Examples, are respectively, okey-dokey, wee-wee, and zig-zag. The words that make up these reduplicated idioms often have little meaning in themselves and only appear as part of a pair. In other cases, one word will allude to some existing meaning and the other half of the pair is added for effect or emphasis. Is there anything other than a spider that is eency-weency? Is there anything other than a dance that is hokey-pokey?
During the 1920s, following the First World War, when many nonsense word pairs were coined, such as the bee's knees, heebie-jeebies etc. Willy-nilly is over a thousand years old. Riff-raff dates from the 1400s and helter-skelter, arsy-versy ( a form of vice-versa), and hocus-pocus all date from the 16th century. Now we have bling-bling, boob-tube and hip-hop. Just thought I would razzle-dazzle you with this one.
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