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Is it okay to say both 冷清清 and 冷清冷清? Can adjectives that can be used into ABB be also used into ABAB or, in a certain case, AABB?

Haruto Nagasaki
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  • 冷清, 冷清清 and 冷冷清清 all in dictionaries, AABB is the usual form of duplication for adjectives (ABAB for verbs), cf. bkrs:冷清清 cold and dreary; cold and cheerless; desolate cold and cheerless fig. lonely unfrequented冷冷清清 cold and cheerless; desolate, see grammars for some adjectives with duplication ABAB, search Q&A for previous discussions at this site – user6065 Oct 28 '17 at 05:59
  • Would you teach me how I can duplicate 土气? – Haruto Nagasaki Oct 28 '17 at 06:02
  • @HarutoNagasaki, usually we don't duplicate 土气，just 土气. – dan Oct 28 '17 at 06:04
  • Is 土气土气 possible, though? – Haruto Nagasaki Oct 28 '17 at 06:04
  • That could be sort of idiolect, but it's not that common. It wouldn't change the meaning. – dan Oct 28 '17 at 06:07
  • Does duplication change meanings? – Haruto Nagasaki Oct 28 '17 at 06:08
  • yes, but not work for all the words. Maybe I should put an answer here. – dan Oct 28 '17 at 06:11
  • This might help you. https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/26231/how-can-i-tell-apart-which-two-syllable-adjective-forms-abab-to-emphasize-it – dan Oct 28 '17 at 06:17
  • compound 土气 consists of 2 nouns, and seems to be used mostly as a noun itself, whereas AB adjectives with duplication AABB usually are of the type A,B both adjectives (or verbs e.g. 拖拉-＞拖拖拉拉） – user6065 Oct 28 '17 at 06:25
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    土气 or 土里土气, I have never saw 土气土气. – sfy Oct 28 '17 at 11:47
  • @HarutoNagasaki 土土气气 is "ok"(not good) if you really want to use it, but 土气土气 is just wrong. – GongT Nov 01 '17 at 09:40

1 Answers1

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Simple answer: No, you can't.
Extended answer:
In this example, no. 冷冷清清 is the only right expression in common usage.
Most of the time, ABB words can't be converted to AABB form. However, there ARE some exceptions. Example: 大咧咧/大大咧咧.
Also, I can't think of an ABB word that can be converted to ABAB form.
土气 is so unnatural when you convert them to ABB, AABB or ABAB form. They're simply wrong. However, 土里土气 is a right expression.

Aurus Huang
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