Reduplicative Toasting

Let's drink to that...twice.

Everyone grows up with particular words and phrases that are not necessarily common to the masses. I have a dear friend, who uses the expression "chin-chin" as a toast whenever we get together to catch up.

I was not familiar with this phrase and never gave it much though. I attributed it to the wonderful lingo this friend has shared with me that I assumed was part of her idiolect; she often uses unusual words and expressions that she credits to her father.

I just recently learned that it is an interjection from the Chinese language.

Origin: 1785–95; < Chinese qǐng-qǐng please-please

So let's have a toast to Mexico for tomorrow's holiday...Chin-chin.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Interpreting a Foreign Idiomatic Reduplication

I recently watched the Argentine movie The Secret in Their Eyes and I can see why it won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I absolutely loved it. The reason I mention the movie is a particular line of dialog that intrigued me.

The phrase "pata pata".

I immediately thought of the reduplicative, idiomatic English expression "chop chop", which to me means "hurry up". The way it was used in the movie seemed to go along with my interpretation. Then I looked it up and the confusion set in.

SpanishDict gives the following definitions for pata:

feminine noun

1. leg (pierna de animal)

• las patas delanteras; the forelegs


• las patas traseras; the hindlegs


• pata negra (cooking); = type of top-quality cured ham

2. foot (pie de animal); paw (de perro, gato); hoof (de vaca, caballo)

3. leg (informal) (de persona)

• a pata; on foot


• ir a la pata coja; to hop


• a cuatro patas; on all fours


• pata de palo; wooden leg

4. leg (de mueble); arm (de gafas)

5. (expresiones) (informal)

• estirar la pata; to kick the bucket


• meter la pata; to put one's foot in it


• poner algo patas arriba (también figurative); to turn something upside down


• tener mala pata; to be unlucky


• pata de gallo; hound's-tooth check material (tejido)


• patas de gallo; crow's feet (arrugas)

And msn encarta Dictionary gives the following for pata pata:

noun South Africa 1. dance sensual dance style: a dance style in which couples feel each other's bodies with their hands 2. music music for sensual dancing: urban South African dance music kwela which people dance to in pata-pata style 3. sex: sexual intercourse ( slang ) [Mid-20th century. < Xhosa and Zuluphatha "feel, touch"] ??? So apparently the reduplication of a word that appears to primarily reference an animal's foot or leg turns it a type of sexual dancing. Interesting. I welcome any explanations. P.S. As previously defined here on this blog "reduplication" is a morphological process that occurs in many languages to different degrees and for different purposes. Basically, it is the repetition of all or part of a word.

Restaurant Reduplication

Food Network has a fun show called Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The show visits restaurants that fall under the aforementioned category and shares some of the restaurants' recipes.

A recent episode was titled "You Can Say That Again", and included visits to the following restaurants:

Tap Tap Restaurant in Miami Beach, Florida
Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon
Niko Niko's in Houston, Texas

While the food looked very tasty at each of the restaurants, I had more fun with the reduplicative restaurant names.

Linguistically speaking, "reduplication" is a morphological process that occurs in many languages to different degrees and for different purposes. Basically, it is the repetition of all or part of a word. In some languages reduplication has a grammatical function (inflecting for plurality or intensifying) and in others it is used primarily for phonological word play (rhyming, baby talk, etc.).

For more about reduplication check out this Wikipedia article.

On a side note: Does anyone else find the word "reduplication" to be slightly redundant?

If you are duplicating something you are essentially re-doing what has already been done; hence, reduplicating is akin to re-re-doing. I know it is possible to re-re-do things but there has to be a limit. Additionally, linguistic reduplication generally only repeats the word or word part one time so the word "duplication" should suffice.

###

And on a completely separate note (for those who cannot tolerate apostrophe abuse): What the heck is that at the top right corner of the "s" at the end of "drive-ins" on the publicity photo for the show?

I hope it is just the funky font and it is really supposed to be a part of the "s", but on a quick glance it look like an apostrophe.

Rhyming Word Pairs, Reduplication and Idioms, e.g., Tramp Stamp and Roach Coach

A recent episode of the television show "Bones" happened to include two rhyming word pairs: roach coach and tramp stamp. This phenomenon of rhyming word pairs is often considered a form of reduplication. Reduplication is the linguistic process of repeating all or part of a root word. Reduplicative or not, I believe there is more to this type of rhyming word pair than is apparent in the initial semantic interpretation. The more I am referring to is idiomaticity.

Take the rhyming word pair tramp stamp for example; each word in the pair can stand alone, and when the words are paired the meanings of the individual words are still included in the semantic interpretation of the pair; however, there is more to the meaning of the whole than the combination of the meanings of the parts.

tramp = woman of loose morals
stamp = a lasting imprint
tramp stamp = a tattoo on a woman's lower back

Additionally, this type of rhyming word pair should be considered idiomatic because if an aspect of either of the individual words is changed it will lose the meaning of the whole, in other words its idiomatic meaning.