Sentences using a Series of Verbs

[jiasen]

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering what it meant when, in a sentence, the person repeats the verb such as '逛逛‘，’玩玩‘ and '看看'. My textbook says 'the first verb indicates conditions such as tendency, trend, harmony and cooperation, while the second verb is the main verb'. However I have no idea what they are trying to say here =P.

[monto]

My textbook says 'the first verb indicates conditions such as tendency, trend, harmony and cooperation, while the second verb is the main verb'.

I can't quite agree to that. As I understand, the repeating makes the verb more vivid or emphasized, and sometimes adds a light mood to the sentence.

we can also have

逛一逛, 玩一玩, and 看一看 and so on.

Similar thing in English:

live a life, dream a dream, .....

[renzhe]

It just adds a bit of mood to the sentence, without changing the meaning much. It makes it a bit more casual, both in style (sounds a bit more casual) and in meaning (give something a try, do something a bit).

Example: 看 = to watch, to see; 看看 = to have a look

[Sam Addington]

Kinda like saying "look around" or "play around"

[SiMaKe]

Renzhe is correct. The various forms 看一看， 看一下，看看 are all virtually equivalent with the meaning of "give it go/try", an action of short duration, casual mood.

[monto]

Do you get any mood of "casual" or "try" in following sentences?

你的错误很严重，需要好好反省反省。

这样的场合下还骂骂咧咧，太不象话了。

[Sam Addington]

Intensification. Albeit slight.

[SiMaKe]

To recap, the reduplication of verbs can serve the following functions:

1. indicate an action of short duration (the delimitative aspect)

2. make the speaker's tone less formal/soften the tone

3. indicate things done in a casual or relaxed way， or

4. simply to emphasize the verb.

These functions should be distinguished from reduplicated adjectives, reduplicated measure words and reduplicated kinship terms.

[renzhe]

Do you get any mood of "casual" or "try" in following sentences?

It's an intensification in that case.

In my defense, 玩玩 and 看看 always have the casual connotation, not the intensified "play, dammit!!!"

An interesting bit about 看看, 看一看, 看一下 and the like was in my chinesepod lesson today. A duplicated verb, when used as an imperative is more direct and strong.

你等等! is much stronger than 等一下 or 等一等. In that case, the first case intensifies the verb (making it an order), and the second two are the casual, do something a bit form. Link: http://chinesepod.com/lessons/a-jizhou-childs-warning/discussion

[Sam Addington]

I lament the loss of my old Chao Yuan Ren grammar.

One day, thirty years ago, I made the gross error of relying on the US Post Office to deliver my valuable books from California to Ohio. I never saw them again.

A beautiful edition of 辞海 was among them