Abstract
Bisyllabic, partially reduplicated words in classical Chinese fall under two major categories: i-words and r-words. An i-word consists of syllables which share the same initial (bi-ba), whereas an r-word consists of syllables which share the same rhyme (b uk-suk). Unlike partial reduplication of the more familiar type, partially reduplicated words in classical Chinese show no fixed segmental shape. An important property of such words is the tone pattern: if the two component syllables differ by only one segment, then they bear the same tone. The proper analysis of such data supports 1. The hierarchical structure of the syllable; 2. total copying in partial reduplication; and 3. the rime as the tone-bearing unit. In addition, the data show that the syllabic position of the medial glide in classical Chinese is indeterminate.
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Bao, Z. Syllable structure and partial reduplication in classical Chinese. J East Asian Linguis 4, 175–196 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731508
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731508