Okey-dokey everybody I've got something super duper for you today because we are
going to get to the Nitty Gritty of reduplication. Now some of you
are no doubt saying to yourself this guy is speaking a lot of mumbo-jumbo no this is
not just tittle-tattle you know these are useful English words used every day
by English speakers they just sound a bit funny that's all. So chop-chop and
don't dilly-dally I promise you you will like it and it'll boost your English
vocabulary significantly today we've got 41 reduplicated words why 41? Because
that's the number and the good news is it's easy-peasy so stay tuned.
Hello and welcome to letThemTalk and today we are going to look at
reduplication that's a long and complicated linguistic term for
something quite simple and straightforward reduplicative words are
ones that either contain two repeating words or a first word followed by a
second part that is modified in some way so that it sounds slightly different to
the first. Native speakers use reduplication in english a lot to enrich
vocabulary and also to be playful with the language because they sound quite
funny and interesting. So let's look at some different forms and some
examples. So firstly you have words that repeat BYE-BYE that's an example of
reduplication. NO-NO which means it's forbidden or prohibited so for example
"even though using mobile phones in class is a no-no students do it anyway."
HUSH-HUSH which means be quiet "hush-hush everybody
don't you know that this is a library." instead of saying goodnight you could
say night-night "I'm tired night-night everybody". HAHA to say that something is
funny or usually not funny if you're using it sarcastically say for
example "I fell over in the street okay yeah yeah ha-ha why is that funny?"
GOODY-GOODY which is a pejorative term for someone who always follows the rules
"You do your homework on time, you don't stay up late, you never drink, you're such
a goody-goody Michelle." next you have rhyming reduplication for
example ARTY-FARTY which means involved in a lot of cultural things "look at you
with your books about Dostoevsky writing poetry of with your floppy hair you're so
arty-farty." WILLY-NILLY which means without planning
or haphazardly "Don't write things down willy-nilly you need a plan you need to
be methodical." HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY which means in a confused order "the books
on the shelf in the library were not in any order they had
just been placed there higgledy-piggledy and that's why the
librarian was fired" CHICK FLICK a chick is a colloquial word for a girl
sometimes it's a disrespectful term so do be careful I don't think it's
disrespectful in this context so a flick is a colloquial term for a movie and the
chick flick is a movie particularly appreciated by girls, romantic comedies
that type of thing so for example. "I wanted to see Fast and Furious 12 she
wanted to see Love Actually and in the end yeah we went to see the chick flick."
Next we have Ablaut reduplication this occurs when a vowel in the second word is
changed for example KNICK-KNACKS which means unimportant objects usually in a
house or a room "Her bedroom was filled with knick-knacks she had acquired on her
travels" RIFF-FAFF this is a word to talk about people who are socially
inferior it's a very disrespectful word not nice at all so be careful about
using it however I will give you an example "Mrs. Brown stayed in
her rich neighborhood and never ventured downtown because she didn't like to mix
with what she called the riff-raff." WISHY- WASHY and this means weak, unclear not
having a strong opinion. "They said the book was inspirational but honestly it
just had a few wishy-washy cliches about 'follow your dreams' and 'just do it.'"
so we are about halfway through our list so let's look at a few more
reduplicative words so that we reach the 41 words I promised you.
HOB NOB "I was invited to the mayor's garden party and I spent the
afternoon hobnobbing with local celebrities"
TEENY-WEENY I'm sorry I insulted your mother got into a fight with your brother and vomited in
the Christmas tree you see I was a teeny weeny bit drunk."
- "You had two bottles of wine and four beers that's not a teeny bit." - "yeah, sorry"
ARGY-BARGY if I don't get what I want there's gonna be some argy-bargy you know I mean?"
EVEN-STEVENS "My girlfriend ran away with my best friend but I did get a
fantastic new job so at the end of the week I would say that I'm even Stephens."
DOUBLE-TROUBLE "You were rude to me today but if you're
rude to my wife there will be double- trouble yeah."
BIGWIG "Nothing happens in town without Potter's permission he's the bigwig around here."
FAT CAT "Workers on the factory floor get paid almost nothing while the fat
cats in the boardroom earn millions."
WALKIE TALKIE "Hello yes I can hear you loud and clear on my
walkie talkie." LOVEY-DOVEY "When I walked in the room Harry and Betty were getting
all lovey-dovey on the couch." WAKEY-WAKEY "it's time to get up we are leaving in
20 minutes wakey wakey." MISHMASH "The town hall
building was a mishmash of mock tudor neo-gothic modern and classical styles."
FUDDY-DUDDY "In my day songs had a nice tune
modern music is terrible, it's just a noise." - "Oh you're such a fuddy-duddy
grandpa." TOPSY-TURVY "The topsy-turvy months after the Revolution were
eventually followed by order and calm once free elections were held." BOO-BOO
"All evening I was calling her Doris but her name is Sarah it was quite a boo-boo
and I don't think she will want to see me again" BOY-TOYS "He loved his
motorbike, his sports car, his games console his drone and all his boy toys."
TOY BOY you know her boyfriend is 20 years younger than her you might call
him her toy boy." CHITCHAT "So what did you talk about?" - "Nnothing interesting just
office chitchat mostly."
ZIGZAG the path Zig zagged through the forest." like that
you see. NITWIT "yes you find people who believe the earth is flat and others who
don't believe climate change is man-made these people are just nitwits".
HANKY-PANKY "I came back after the weekend and I find empty vodka bottles, cigarette butts and
the place is a mess what kind of hanky-panky has been going on here?"
CLAP-TRAP politicians promised if we left the European Union everything would be easy
and wonderful in this country now we know this is just claptrap."