1.3. Willy-Nilly

King Kong
Image by Tron+ in Flickr. CC.

You know the order of adjectives before nouns (opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose), but sometimes we come across an exception. While Little Red Riding Hood may be perfectly ordered, the Big Bad Wolf seems to be breaking all the laws of linguistics. Why does Bad Big Wolf sound so very, very wrong?

In fact, the Big Bad Wolf is just obeying another great linguistic law that every native English speaker knows but doesn’t know that they know. And it’s the same reason that you’ve never listened to hop-hip music.

If somebody said ‘zag-zig’ or ‘cross-criss’ you would know they were breaking a rule.

All four of a horse’s feet make exactly the same sound. But we always, always say clip-clop, never clop-clip. Every second your watch makes the same sound but we say tick-tock, never tock-tick. You will never eat a Kat Kit bar. The bells in Frère Jaques will forever chime ‘ding dang dong’.

Reduplication in linguistics is when you repeat a word, sometimes with an altered consonant (lovey-dovey, fuddy-duddy, nitty-gritty), and sometimes with an altered vowel (bish-bash-bosh, ding-dang-dong). If there are three words then the order has to go I, A, O. If there are two words then the first is I and the second is either A or O (tip top, hip-hop, flip-flop, tic tac, sing song, ding dong, King Kong, ping pong).

Why this should be is a subject of endless debate among linguists, it might be to do with the movement of your tongue or an ancient language of the Caucasus. It doesn’t matter. It’s the law, and, as with the adjectives, you knew it even if you didn’t know you knew it. And the law is so important that you just can’t have a Bad Big Wolf.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

 

Objetivos

Play it by ear: If a word sequence sounds wrong, it probably is wrong.

Rellenar huecos

Match the examples of reduplication with their meanings. Write the number. 

0

flip-flop 01. A rapid succession of light sounds or beats.
chit-chat 02. Very straightforward and easy.
willy-nilly 03. Rapid and excited speech that is difficult to understand.
nitty-gritty 04. A type of sandal with a Y-shaped strap.
zig-zag 05. Small worthless objects, especially household ornaments.
pitter-patter 06. A line or course having sharp turns first to one side and then to the other.
easy-peasy 07. Trickery. Also a dance performed in a circle.
jibber-jabber 08. Inconsequential conversation.
hokey-pokey 09. The most important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation.
knick-knack 10. Whether one likes it or not.

Habilitar JavaScript