यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ़ विर्जिनिया
अपनी-अपनी
तक़दीर : Reduplication and its uses
Reduplication, the doubling or
partial doubling of syllables and words, is very frequent in Hindi-Urdu.
It may apply to full words of any kind: nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
verbs (but not auxiliary verbs), even pronouns:
0. क्या-क्या
सामान लाना चाहिए ?
'What (various) things should I bring?'
(from Chapter Twenty-four of गोदान. See context.)
From the general sense of plurality or
repetition inherent in reduplication emerge a number of specific meanings.
Discussion and examples of the most important of them follow:
A. Onomatopoeic:
1. वह . . . छत
पर चढ़कर दनादन बन्दूक़
चलाने लगे थे।
'He...had climbed onto his roof and begun
firing his gun: boom, boom, boom.'
(from कुसम
जैन's monolog दिल को दहला
देने वाले दिन. See context.)
2. ईंट औरर पत्थर के
टुकड़े चटाक-चटाक टूटकर उछल
रहे थे ।
'Pieces of stone and brick breaking with a
chataak-chataak sound went flying.'
(from Chapter Twenty-eight of गोदान. See context.)
B. Intensive or emotive uses:
3. पेट में दर्द
है। छटपटा रही है। यहाँ कोई दाई
है ?
'She's having labor pains. She's tossing
and turning. Is there a midwife here?'
(from Chapter Twenty-seven of गोदान. See context.)
4. धनिया औरर तीनों
लड़कियाँ ऊख के गटठे लिये गीली
साड़ियों से लथपथ, कीचड़ में सनी हुई आयीं,
औरर गटठे पटककर दम मारने
लगीं . . .
'Dhaniya and all three girls came lugging
bundles of cane, dripping in their wet saris, coated with mud, threw down
the bundles and started panting for breath...'
(from Chapter Twenty of गोदान. See context.)
C. Reduplication may also indicate extreme degree:
5. मैंने तो
अपने आदमी से साफ़-साफ़ कह दिया
था, अगर तुम इधर-उधर लपके, तो
मेरी भी जो इच्छा होगी वह करूँगी।
'So I told my man straight out, "If you
starting fooling around here and there, then I'll also do whatever I feel
like doing."'
(from Chapter Five of गोदान. See context.)
6. उसे ऐसा जान पड़ा कि उसकी
काली-काली सजीव आँखों
में आँसू भरे हुए हैं .
. .
'It seemed to him that there were tears
welling up in her lively deep black eyes . . . '
(from Chapter Eight of गोदान. See context.)
D. Reduplication of non-finite verb forms may express repetition of action
in itself (7) or continuous action that leads to a new state (8), (9):
7. धनिया का घमण्ड तो उसके
सँभाल से बाहर हो हो जाता है।
'Dhaniya's pride began exceeding her power to
keep it in check.'
(from Chapter Eight of गोदान. See context.)
8. शिशु रो-रोकर गला फाड़े लेता था,
क्योंकि ऊपर का दूध उसे
पचता न था।
'The baby would be on the verge of crying its
throat to shreds because it could not digest the extra milk (that was not
its mother's).'
(from Chapter Twenty-seven of गोदान. See context.)
9. बालक रोते-रोते बेदम हो जाता।
'The child would cry itself breathless.'
(from Chapter Twenty-seven of गोदान. See context.)
For more on the use of a reduplicated participle to express repeated
or continuous activity see notes on V-ते V-ते.
For discussion of the reduplication of finite verb forms, see notes on करूँ
तो करूँ.
D. Echoics. Like other South Asian languages Hindi-Urdu has a
productive (ie, generally applicable) way to form "echoics": In the
commonest pattern when reduplicated as an echoic the initial consonant of
the first syllable of the word to be echoed is replaced by व If the word begins with a vowel the
व is simply prefixed to the echo (13).
Sometimes ब is used instead
of the व (11). Another common pattern is
the substitution of a high vowel ( ऊ,
ई ) with an आ in the echo (12).
The meaning is usually 'X and the like' or 'X
and things associated with X':
10. पानी-वानी
देना है।
'Water and things have to be served.'
(from Chapter Seven of गोदान. See context.)
11. ब्याह भी बिना ख़रच-बरच के हो जायगा; औरर खेत भी बच जायँगे।
'"There'll be a wedding with no expense of any
kind and you'll be able to save the fields, too."'
(from Chapter Thirty-five of गोदान. See context.)
Echoics can be formed from just about any kind of word, even infinitives
(13) and participles (12):
12. सब टूट-टाटकर
बराबर हो गया।
'Smashing and crashing everything collapsed in
a heap.'
(from दो
बैलों की कहानी by प्रेमचन्द.)
13. आमीर् कहीं किसी को
आने-वाने-जाने नहीं दे रही थी।
'The army wasn't letting anyone come or go or
anything.'
(from monologue दिल
को दहला देने वाले दिन by
कुसुम जैन. See context.)
Echoics are sometimes used disparagingly or dismissively:
14. आलसी-वालसी
कुछ नहीं है।
'"Lazy"? No way is he lazy!'
(from Chapter Four of गोदान. See context.)
In the following exchange between husband and wife note the difference in
tone between the semantic reduplication
रस-पानी and
the echoic रस-वस :
15. कलसा ले जाओ,
पानी भरकर रख दो, हाथ-मुँह
धोयें, कुछ
रस-पानी पिला दो। . . .
होरी
बोला -- रस-वस का काम नहीं है, कौन कोई पाहुने हैं
!
'"Fill the pitcher. Put out some water.
Wash up a bit. Serve some sugar-cane juice and things."
'Hori said, "There's no need for sugar-cane
juice and all that. Who is he? Some sort of guest?"'
(from Chapter Three of गोदान. See context.)
E. Totalizing. One of the characteristic uses of full (as opposed to
partial or rhyming) reduplication is to indicate that an action applies
fully to every single member of a class:
16. मरद-मरद सब एक
होते हैं।
'All men are the same (each and every one of
them).'
(from Chapter Twenty-three of गोदान. See context.)
17. फूल खिले हैं
गुलशन-गुलशन
'Flowers have bloomed in every garden...'
[See example (24) below.]
Compare the totalizing meaning of the complete
reduplication घूम-घूम 'combing' in (18) with the
approximating meaning of the partial reduplication of घूम-घाम
'wandering' in (19):
18. वह शहर के एक बड़े महाजन
के एजेंट थे। उनके नीचे कई आदमी
औरर थे, जो
आस-पास के देहातों
में घूम-घूमकर
लेन-देन करते थे।
'He was the agent of a big money-lender from
the city. Under him there were a number of others who combed the
nearby villages making loans and collecting debts.'
(from Chapter Eight of गोदान. See context.)
19. एक दिन वे सेमारी पहुँच
गये औरर घूमते-घामते बेलारी जा निकले।
'One day they arrived in Semaari and while
wandering here and there came out in Belaari.'
(from Chapter Thirty of गोदान. See context.)
It should be noted that the totalizing sense
of reduplication can overlap with the intensive sense. Thus, the
phrase सुबह-सुबह in (20) can mean either 'every
morning' or 'first thing in the morning':
20. सुबह-सुबह काम पर निकल जाती है औरर देर
रात गये घर लौटती है.ाम्प्ऌ.ाम्प्ऌ.ाम्प्ऌ
'Every morning (or 'first thing in the
morning') she goes out to work and comes back home late at night...'
(from चिड़िया
औरर चील by सुषम
बेदी. See context.)
F. Mapping. In addition to the intensification and approximation,
there is a third general function of reduplication: Repetition of a
manner adverb or a numeral may be co-ordinated with a second reduplication
(sometimes implicit) to express a correlation of degree (21), (22) or the
distribution of some set x among the members of set y (23),
(24):
21. जैसे-जैसे मुटठा घुमाते थे
तेसे-तैसे वह फाटक
ज़मीन में घुसता जाता था।
'The more they turned the handle, the further
the gate sank into the ground.'
(Sentence 6 from Section 21 of Part Four of
चन्द्रकान्ता.)
(In contemporary Hindi-Urdu वैसे-वैसे is more likely than तैसे-तैसे.)
22. वह आगे-आगे कोठी की ओर चले,
होरी पीछे-पीछे चला।
'As he went ahead toward the bungalow, Hori
came along behind.'
(from Chapter Two of गोदान. See context.)
23. एक-एक बाछा
सौ-सौ का होगा।
'Each calf will fetch a hundred rupees.'
(from Chapter N of गोदान. See context.)
24. अपना-अपना धरम
अपने-अपने साथ है।
'To each his own duty.'
(from Chapter Twenty-four of गोदान. See context.)
25. फूल खिले हैं
गुलशन-गुलशन
लेकिन अपना-अपना
दामन
'Flowers have bloomed in every garden but
each has been spoken for.'
(suggested by मेहर फ़ारूक़ी from a poem by जिगर मुरादाबादी. See context in
Urdu.)
G. Semantic reduplication. In addition to phonological reduplication
it is necessary to recognize semantic reduplication. Examples of
semantic reduplication are paired words like शादी-ब्याह 'wedding
and marriage' and सोच-विचार 'thinking and considering' whose members
have no detectable formal resemblance but which have meanings similar to
echoics and reduplicates like शादी-वादी and सोच-साच that
do:
26. शादी-ब्याह
में पीली साड़ी पहनी जाती है . . .
'You wear a yellow sari to weddings and
marriages...'
(from Chapter Three of गोदान. See context.)
27. एक बड़े क़बीले का सरदार है।
उसे फाँसी देते हुए सरकार भी
सोच-विचार करेगी।
'He's the chief of a large tribe. Even
the Government would think long and hard before hanging him.'
(from Chapter Six of गोदान. See context.)
It seems that most instances of semantic reduplication involve
approximation (rather than intensification or distribution). In some
instances the members are mutually complementary, as in the pair
खा-पी in
(28):
28. कुछ आराम कर लो,
कुछ खा-पी
लो।
'Take some rest. Have something to eat
and drink.'
(from Chapter Twenty of गोदान. See context.)
For more on reduplication in Hindi-Urdu and
other South Asian languages see publications by Anvita Abbi.
To conversion exercise on reduplication.
To translation exercise on reduplication.
To index of grammatical notes.
To index of मल्हार.
Drafted and posted 25 Oct - 3 Nov 2002. Linking to texts begun 13 Nov
2002. Augmented 14 Mar 2003.