This thesis will be pided into five parts. First, a brief introduction of this paper will be made; secondly, describing Chinese reduplicated words and three expressive effects will be followed; thirdly, this paper is mainly about reception aesthetics, so two main theories of reception aesthetics will be illustrated in detail; next, this paper will put emphasis on using reception aesthetics to analyze three effects of reduplicated words, which is the soul of the text. Last but not least, a conclusion will be made at the end of the paper.

2. Reduplicated Words

2.1 Reduplicated Words in Chinese

Chinese is a tonal language and mainly formed by single syllables. Reduplicated words can represent the most prominent phonic or musical phenomena. Reduplicated words are a special Chinese rhetoric phenomenon and are largely and commonly used in Chinese literary works. They can be used to describe images of objects, or imitate sounds. In integrating translation models, each subtype carries the feature of vivid rhythm, for its repetition of the same sound rhymed to reinforce the sense of harmony. (Zhuo Xinlian, 2011:56) Therefore, both Chinese reduplicated words and integrating translation models have rhythm value on the formal level. 

In general, from the word-forming aspect, reduplicated words fall into three categories. They are mono-reduplication, such as (AA, AAA), “慢慢” (slowly), di-reduplication, such as (AABB,ABAB) “快快乐乐” (happily), “说道说道” (talk about), “白雪纷纷” (heavy snowing), and “天天快乐” (happy every day), and partial reduplication. From the property of words, they fall into seven groups. They are noun reduplicated words, such as “年年” (every year); adjective reduplicated words, like “慢腾腾” (slowly); adverb reduplicated words; number reduplicated words, like “一遍遍” (turn by turn); verb reduplicated words, such as “打打闹闹” (very noise) and onomatopoeia reduplicated words, like “哈哈” (the sound of smile). As Chinese reduplicated words have a wider popularity, they can perform more functions than the ones in English from the perspective of rhetoric effects. The first one imitates the sound of nature, like “滴滴” (the sound of water). The second one describes the emotions of someone, such as “愤愤” (angrily). The third one illustrates the appearance of something, like “干巴巴” (dull and dry). The fourth one depicts the colors, like “黄澄澄” (yellow). The fifth strengthens the meaning, the sixth moderates the tune, and the seventh adds connotation to the words. These words possess plentiful features, including depicting images, describing things, expressing feelings, imitating voice, making the sentence full of rhymes and enhancing the sentence’s beauty.

2.2 Expressive Effects of Reduplicated Words来.自/吹冰论|文-网www.chuibin.com/

Repeating the same word can strengthen the rhyme and form a pleasant auditory effect. The most striking characteristic of it is musicality, which can create a charming effect by creating and sharing the same rhymes. Reading reduplicated words, we can feel a soft and smooth tune produced by the repeating syllables. At the same time, the meaning that sentences transmit will be enhanced and got across to readers. Especially, onomatopoeia locate you in a real natural world as if it is you who experience the thing described when reading it. Chinese usually tend to use reduplicated words to present readers with the musicality of words. The musicality of reduplicated words in Chinese is shown in two aspects, one is the beauty in the repeated sounds, while the other is the beauty in their rhythms. (Zhuang Guoli, 2000:37)