User Comments - kencarroll
kencarroll
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 17, 2007 at 6:00 AMAs I mentioned earlier, there's a lot more to reduplication. You have noun and adjective reduplication, as well as the addition of 'yi' - kan yi kan, for example. Actually, there's a ton of of stuff we didin't cover. I'd like to hear good suggestions for Qing Wen. It turned out to be more difficult to select the right stuff for Qing Wen than I'd thought. We try to take real questions, but some things don't lend themselves to the format we hope to create - a native spealkerspeaking only Chinese, Amber in between, and me making it accessible to even a newbie - I hope! (The medium is the message, after all.) If you're interested I'll tell you the challenges with that. In the meatnime, let's hear your suggestions.
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 16, 2007 at 3:09 PMLantian, You're right - it's not just verbs. I talk about this in the blog post. The term 'reduplication' is perhaps a bit technical, but I don't think it's above anyone's head around here. I can see the point of your suggested description, "Why are verbs repeated twice in Chinese?*" In fact, however, they are spoken twice, not repeated twice. (This also poses the question of why we say RE-duplication, as opposed to duplication, but hey, I just use the ternms I've been told.) I just can't think of a more efficient description than reduplication. Through this discussion, we're making it part of our common lexicon - remember when the term 'lexis' was regarded as technical around here?
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 16, 2007 at 12:30 PMIt seems from the muted response that people have not noticed that this is the new show! Last week we had dozens of comments on the blog as well as over here.
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 16, 2007 at 6:20 AMDave, I agree. Also, it doesn't indicate in the Connect section that it is the Qing Wen show. That new icon indicates that it's added premium content. We're just getting started on this feature. I'm convinced we can do a lot with it.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 16: It's Over
June 13, 2007 at 12:53 AMI'm startign to believe these characters are real.
Posted on: Where Children Come From
June 12, 2007 at 6:34 AMrash, On one hand, I don't see a huge level of cruelty in telling kids they were born in a garbage can, but I would not do it to my own daughter. And I definitely would not joke to some child, when her parents had left the room, that she had just been abandoned. There may or may not be a kind of wisdom in doing that sort of thing, but I wouldn't go looking for it. I guess it would depend on your values.
Posted on: Requesting a Napkin
June 4, 2007 at 5:04 AMPeterm, Thx. I'm always on the lookout for ways to make words/phrases more memorable. If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to post them here. Rajat, If you type 'soccer' in the search box you'll find a couple of lessons. They are, however, pretty basic, so we may need to add something more substantial.
Posted on: Where Children Come From
June 3, 2007 at 3:55 AMJuileQuebec, Are u still having problems downloading? No problems over here.
Posted on: Where Children Come From
June 2, 2007 at 9:25 AMThe parents in the dialog are not overly cruel - they respond on seeing the kid's discomfort. In real life, however, some parents will respond a lot slower. The question is, when does this become cruel?
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 18, 2007 at 5:28 AMFrank, Thx for this. I can tell you that Amber/Aggie/Connie work very hard to make this sound as effortless as it does!