The Acceptability of Adjective and Verb Reduplication in Cantonese

Abstract

Reduplication is a morphological process involving the repetition of elements for a change in semantic or grammatical meaning. This study explores the influence of frequency, formality, and semantic content on the acceptability of reduplication in Cantonese adjectives and verbs.

Thirty native Cantonese speakers completed an acceptability judgement task, in
which they evaluated the acceptability of the reduplicated forms on 5-point scale from ‘totally unacceptable’ to ‘totally acceptable’. The stimuli were 32 reduplicated forms of Cantonese adjectives (AABB) and 32 reduplicated forms of Cantonese verbs (AAB), which varied in their frequency (high vs. low), formality (colloquial vs. formal), and semantic content (positive vs. negative for adjectives and physical action vs. abstract for verbs).

The results suggested several patterns. First, for word frequency, high-frequency
words had a higher acceptability across adjectives and verbs. Second, for formality, the reduplication of colloquial verbs had a higher acceptability, though the pattern was not clear for adjectives. Third, regarding semantic properties, the reduplication of negative adjectives had a higher acceptability than positive adjectives; the reduplication of physical action verbs had a higher acceptability than abstract verbs.

Keywords: reduplication, Cantonese, adjective, verb, productivity, acceptability

Date of Award	9 Jan 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Hong Kong Baptist University
Supervisor	Mingxing LI (Supervisor)