密歇根新闻广播 reduplication是否重复了

Recently, English Professor Anne Curzan was giving a talk in Washington about reduplication. In reduplication, a form is repeated in a straightforward¹ way, like "no-no" or "boo-boo," or with a vowel² change like "flip-flop" or "mish-mash."

During Curzan's talk, someone in the audience raised their hand and said, "You keep using the word reduplication. Isn't that redundant³? Why don't you just say duplication?"

Fair question.

The answer is yes, reduplication is redundant. It is exactly synonymous with "duplication." They both mean to double or do something again.

Both of these words come into English from classical Latin in the 15th century. "Reduplication," which can mean the act of doubling over or folding, also shows up in anatomy⁴ or zoology⁵, so it's not just a linguistics⁶ term.

Today, "reduplication" is almost entirely⁷ an academic term. When Curzan looked it up in databases, she found it shows up a lot in areas like art, philosophy, linguistics, and genetics. Outside of that, "duplication" seems to be the preference.

The prefix⁸ re in reduplication seems to have lost its meaning of back or again. This was lost even in the Latin from which English borrowed the term. It's possible re is functioning as an intensifier, but we really don't know.

"Reduplication" got us thinking about another seemingly redundant term: "redouble." When "redouble" first comes into English around the 15th century, it really did mean to "redouble."

Around this time, we see phrases like, "We doubled, and then redoubled." In other words, we did it four times. These days though, the meaning of "redouble" has been generalized as “to increase" or “to intensify⁹.

Are there other words that seem redundant to you? We've talked about "irregardless," "misunderestimate," and "dethaw" before. Can you think of others?

1 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

2 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

3 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

4 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

5 zoology   

n.动物学，生态

参考例句：

• I would like to brush up my zoology.我想重新温习一下动物学。
• The library didn't stock zoology textbooks.这家图书馆没有动物学教科书。

6 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

9 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。