Timeline for What does "small small" mean in Indian English?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
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| Jun 16, 2017 at 21:58 | comment | added | English Student | @sumelic That certainly seems to be the intention and it is good policy in general to wait for more answers, but in this particular case there is only one answer and nobody could write it again without appropriating Hamilton: I should think we don't want any more answers to complicate the situation!The amount of reckless guesswork on this particular question was unprecedented because ELU answers are usually thoroughly systematic. In my respectful opinion, this question does not need any more answers, though nothing stops users from answering even after you award John Hamilton the bounty! | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 21:37 | comment | added | English Student | @sumelic since these expressions are mainly colloquial (spoken), and written instances are nearly nil, finding references would be extremely challenging. Therefore John Hamilton's latest references are pure gold and make it a brilliant answer. SO I APPRECIATE your prompt reaction to kindly set a bounty that John Hamilton's answer now richly deserves! I earnestly request you not to wait, but to award the bounty at the earliest opportunity. | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 19:25 | comment | added | herisson | @sgroves: Did you see the three sources linked at the end of John Hamilton's answer? | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 19:21 | comment | added | user428517 | @sumelic That's my whole point. A good answer should post relevant links to evidence that Indian English speaker us this construction in a different way from standard English. I don't doubt they do, but we need sources. | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:40 | comment | added | herisson | @sgroves: This question isn't about the meaning of "big, big mountains" in standard English! It's specifically about the meaning of expressions like "big big mountains" (no comma) in Indian English. First sentence: "There is a type of 'double adjective' expression in colloquial (mainly spoken) Indian English" -- title: "What does “small small” mean in Indian English?" An answer based only on knowledge of standard English cannot be adequate as a response to this question. | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:35 | comment | added | user428517 | @sumelic The OP is asking the question and providing a guess. An OP's guess shouldn't be used to formulate an answer ... and yes, all the quoted examples are plural, but that's irrelevant. "Big, big mountains" in standard English still means "multiple mountains that are all very big". | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:28 | comment | added | herisson | @sgroves: all of the quoted examples in the OP use plural nouns. The OP (who seems to be an Indian English speaker) guesses that it is used to "express a plural form" and another Indian English speaker made a comment saying this construction is only used with plural nouns. That seems like a lot of evidence to me | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:27 | comment | added | user428517 | @sumelic That's just a guess though. I don't see any evidence in the quoted statements that "big big" or "small small" are meant to express a plural form. | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:26 | comment | added | herisson | @sgroves: The OP says "My guess is that this is merely used to express a plural form." "a big, big ego" wouldn't be the same thing because "ego" is not plural. Also see this comment from an Indian English speaker: english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10264/… | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 18:09 | comment | added | user428517 | @sumelic I don't see how this is any different from the usage in standard English of reduplication for emphasis. He has a big, big ego is perfectly standard English. The Indian usage is the same (except without a comma), no? If not, how does it differ? | |
| May 25, 2017 at 13:23 | review | Low quality posts | |||
| May 25, 2017 at 14:32 | |||||
| May 23, 2017 at 19:10 | comment | added | ab2 | Downvoted because I have become convinced that this answer is not correct. See my comment under the answer by Eureka. | |
| May 23, 2017 at 16:44 | comment | added | herisson | The question is not about repetition in general. It is about how to express the meaning of a particular repetitive construction that is used in Indian English, but not in other forms of English. Since repetition doesn't seem to be used for this purpose in standard English, "big, big" would still be wrong. | |
| May 19, 2017 at 12:09 | comment | added | Dan | Not forgetting "in a dark, dark town there was a dark, dark street" of Funnybones fame ;-) | |
| May 18, 2017 at 13:10 | comment | added | 1006a | Also, "There's so much that we share / that it's time we're aware / it's a small, small world" | |
| May 18, 2017 at 5:23 | history | answered | Javed Ahmed | CC BY-SA 3.0 |