A Study on Overlapping Words课程：英语词汇学专业：英语年级：2010级班级：2班姓名：刘波学号：2010090102262012年11月8号A Study on Overlapping Words Abstrict: In english compound words, one kind is called …reduplicated words‟, which is composed of two identical root word or syllable overlapping compound words. This kind of words have similar sounds. So we name this kind of words according to its phonological features. As a result of reduplicating expressions quite special, although the amount is little, it has its own unique charm. In order to let more people understand and learn how to use it, then to achieve the purpose of strengthen the expressive force of language, this discourse will express its Word Origins, characteristics and classification.Key words: Overlapping words; classification; characteristics; Word Origins1 IntroductionG.W. Fowler once said: we are able to enter the world of speech Perhaps it is through their reduplicating, from the initial experimental Mum-Mum and DAD-DAD to a more ambitious tootsy-wootsy (baby, baby) and piggy-wiggy (pig, dirty boy). Reduplicating is native English people into the world of words …a stepping-stone to success‟. But the current situation is not good,most people do not understand them, let alone using them. As an english major student, in order to achieve your language more native and improve your writing and translating level and some other comprehensive abilities, you must have a deep understanding on different lexicological phenomenon. So, this discourse will introduce overlapping words from different aspects. I hope english learners could appreciate those words‟ u nique charm and apply them to your english learning.2 Reduplicating classificationAccording to the feature of pronunciation and reduplicating in two components of the phonological structure. After careful analysis, it can be divided into four categories.2.1 Alliterative reduplicationsAlliterative reduplications are Using alliteration consists of overlapping words andsharing the same first letter words to constitute a semantic, formal equivalence compound expression. Such as: sea-saw(a kind of game equipment that two children sit two sides and it could be up and weight by the child‟s weight), shipshape(neat, well-organized), spick-span(new), hum and haw(hesitate to do something). Examples: Some commentators have tried to describe Mr. Brown as a Shakespearean character—a Hamlet who has hemmed and hawed in his rivalry with Mr. Blair. Another one is : I tell you your party is rotten and filled with grafters , and instead of flying into a rage you hum and haw and admit there is a great deal in what I say.2.2 Rhyming reduplicationsRhyming reduplications are through the words of consonant in the syllable and the replacement of the main phonological overlap. Two words have relevant meaning, the model is like this: C1 VC(etc.)-C2VC(etc.): this type of the first consonant or consonant clusters be replaced, such as: Hubble-bubble(bubbling sound), hi-fi(fidelity), hanky-panky(fool someone), fuddy-duddy(odd or something has a long history), razzle-dazzle(hilarity), willy-nilly(shilly-shally, whether you like it or not). I will give you some sentence examples:① I think there was some hanky-panky with the last election.② They are on the razzle-dazzle.③ After her boss fell sick, she willy-nilly found herself directing the project.2.3 Female rime reduplicationsTransform or take advantage of a double rhyme overlapping words in the English vocabulary vowel , its same dual sound before consonants and subsequent consonants are also the same , which is more to strengthen the flavor. V owel transform constitute word called overlapping words, Rhyme and alliteration, the first vowel is almost always the high vowels and transform of the vowel is low vowels, the first vowel is a vowel and before the first vowel as back vowels. The model is CV1C-CV2C, such as: coca-cola, fiddle-faddle(rats) , flip-flop(paidapaida), ping-pong, tittle-tattle(gossip), wishy-washy(empty) and so on. There are some sentence examples:① British showbiz writers searched for tittle - tattle on robbie williams ' love life and speculated endlessly about the demise of the hit girl band the spice girls ( news - websites ).② If silly sally will shilly - shally , shall sill willy - nilly shilly - shally , too.③ He hit me so i hit him back it was tit for tat.2.4 Exact reduplicated wordsTwo parts of word formation is the same morpheme overlapping which is like: baby-talk-like. I will give you some examples: chow-chow(p ickles), froufrou(r ustle of clothes), hush-hush(secret,especially describe the atmosphere), willy-willy(w hirlwind), wee-wee(piss), talky-talky(talk too much)3 C haracteristics3.1 The phonetic features of reduplicatingIt is not difficult to find that reduplicating around two components to each other or rhyme, alliteration and rhyme, or both, and overlapping sound word has a lot to exhale beginning with the letter H. For example: heebie-jeebies, handy-dandy, hocus-pocus, hotsy-totsy, hugger-mugger, hurly-burly, hoity-toity, hurry-scurry, holus-bolus, hoky-poky.3.2 The writing characteristics of reduplicatingGenerally speaking, it is general the same with other compound words, reduplicating has four kind of writing methods.3.2.1 The two components are putting together, the middle is no hyphens: wigwag(wave), rantan(happy), dillydally(killing time), froufrou(sounds of clothes)3.2.2 The two components have the hyphen,such as: flip-flap(the sound of pada), lardy-dardy(The pretending Playboy pose), twiddle-twadle(foolish words), tut-tut(having no patient on something)3.2.3 Two components separates by writing such as: teeny weeny(small or smallamount), silly Billy(foolish), ticky tacky(the same or having no differences), swish swash(beer).3.2.4 If there are more than two components,you could choose using hyphens or not, but such kind of words are not so much, for example: row-de-dow(quarrel or speak aloud), razzmatazz(pleasant spirit), chock-d-block (filled with staffed), tick-tack-toe(Triple chess , use the remote knocking device prank)3.3 The part of speech features of reduplicatingEnglish words strong part of speech conversion ability is being obvious to people, without the aid of affixes can be realized, so vocabulary words, compound words are more such, and reduplicating the part of speech conversion ability seems to be much stronger, a term of reduplicating has many examples: jingle-jungle(jingling sound or strike jingling sound), hocus-pocus(juggler with the spell or cheat someone), criss-cross(in a cross). There are some sentence examples:① The climbers zigzagged up the mountain.② The path runs zigzag up the hill.③ We went up long zigzag before we came to the top of the mountain.3.4 T he meaning features of the reduplicating3.4.1 Jointly by the two components of the original meaning of expression , that is, the sum of the two meanings implied obtained manifestations : First, two of the same or similar ingredients constitute an original two components of meaning is basically the same stack of sound words: drip-drop(drip means dropping and drop means dropping down) , creep-crawly(creep=crawly means creepy), tip-top, tip-tap3.4.2 The original meaning of a composition by which alone expressed or implied obtained: chit-chat(chit means young kid, chat means gossip), super-duper(super means very big, duper means cheater), nid-nod(nid has no meaning and nod means down your head), whimsy-whamsy(whimsy means very strange idea while whamsy has nonsense). This kind of words‟ meaning depends on the first part or second part, not from all. Only play a supporting role or set off , the two components to each otherrhyming , read catchy sounds sweet .3.4.3 Two of their own are meaningless composition , which is given a unique meaning: geegaw(the surface is very beautiful but indeed it is nonsense), niminy-piminy(posturing), ning-nong(foolish people), ping-pong(a kind of sport ball), chiff-chaff, hoky-poky(cheap ice-cream).3.4.4 A combination of two inclusive sense of ingredients , but the sound of the word meaning extended from the stack unique new meanings , the two components of some or all express literal: never-never( forever do not do something), ragtag(rag means broken clothes), hanky-panky(hanky means handkerchief), ram-stam(ram means hit something violently).4 Word OriginsOverlapping words can temporarily constituted apart from a few onomatopoeia , most can be found in the dictionary. Overlapping origin of the word can be broadly divided into the following categories:4.1 Own development and changeImitation of natural sound onomatopoeia: Hubble-bubble(boiled), rat-tat, hush-hush, yum-vum(sounds like zizizizi especially express someone eat some delicious food). In order to rhyme with the secon d part: fiddle→fiddle-faddle. If someone does not know what should he do, he can ask himself “Shall I, Shall I?” and then comes another word: shilly-shally to express someone have no idea what he will do or hesitate to do something.4.2 From our societiesLanguage is the crystallization of human wisdom, and it comes from life and reflect life. For example, yo-yo and yo toys both brand names describe repeated up and down and the rise and fall of things. Many overlapping words appear with the progress ofhuman society and the development of technology of Lee. For example: ping-pong, handle-talkie, coca-cola, hasty-tasty4.3 From the traditional cultureOur human has a long history,and we create many proper words to express our feeling,beautiful things and some special objects. Such as: humpty-dumpty(chunky), this word comes from a children‟song named Humpty-dumpty, heeble-feeble(neuroticism), hotsy-totsy(good),which comes from American cartoonist Billy DeBeck‟ works.5 C onclusionIn a word, no matter from the morphological characteristics, pronunciation features and characteristics or its part of speech, word and character, reduplicating differs from other compound words, it has unique characteristics. From grammatical perspective, reduplication is composed of two words, the word form is called "two words" or "combined with the word" English reduplicative words or morphemes using syllable overlapping overlapping, constitute overlapping sound compound words, it mostly nouns, also can be converted into adjectives, verbs or adverb.From the perspective of rhetoric, English reduplicative words can express different additional meaning and emotion, it and Chinese double or assonance word are very similar to. Although the number of overlapping words in English than Chinese similar word are small, word-building ability than Chinese reduplication words also has a little, but because of its obvious forms in speech, word formation and rhetoric expressive has rich express. As the English rhetoric means, English reduplicative words appearing in the spoken language, and when the articles that appear in this word, it can often cause a fresh and lively language effect and the charm infinite.参考文献：[1] 高等学校外语专业教学指导委员会．高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲[M]．上海：上海外语教育出版社，2000．[2] 胡壮麟．语篇的衔接与连贯[M]．上海：上海外教育出版社，1994．[3] 张正东．外语教学法发展的新趋势（上）[J]．师范英语教学与研究，2002，（1）：15-20．[4] 刘辰诞．教学篇章语言学[M]．上海：上海外语教育出版社，1999．[5] 尚媛媛．语境层次理论与翻译研究[J]．外语与外语教学，2002，（7）：28-32．[6] 王佐良、丁往道．英语文体学引论[M]．北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1987．[7] 康光明．语篇语言学与语篇例析[J]．外语与外语教学，2002，（7）：39-41．[8] Kramsch，C．Context and Culture in Language Teaching [M]．Oxford：Oxford University Press，1993．[9] Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-semiotic Perspective [M]. Australia: Deakin University, 1985.[10] Short, M. Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose [M]. London: Longman, 1984．。