{"id":6352,"date":"2020-11-01T21:46:58","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T21:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2024-11-30T16:01:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:01:55","slug":"fun-facts-85-reduplication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/11\/01\/fun-facts-85-reduplication\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About English #85 &#8211; The Big Bad Wolf"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kinneybrothers.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"702\" width=\"702\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/085.jpg?resize=702%2C702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ablaut reduplication Kinney Brothers Publishing\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve just started a new Youtube channel called, Speaking of Language, and this blog post was my first topic! Take a look, give me a like, and and please subscribe!<br><br>To understand this anomaly, we&#8217;ll need to review a few grammar points. Bear with me and you&#8217;ll come to a sparkling revelation by the end of the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adjectives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An adjective is a word or phrase that describes a noun, e.g., <em>small<\/em>, <em>red<\/em>, or <em>awesome<\/em>. When using multiple adjectives in a sentence, there are two orders: coordinate and cumulative adjectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coordinate adjectives are in the same category and require a comma between each one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>My dog is brown, black, and white. (color)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This is a Spanish, English, and French dictionary. (purpose)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He&#8217;s intelligent, handsome, funny, and a great dancer! (opinion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Cumulative adjectives come from various categories and don&#8217;t require commas, but must be &#8216;stacked&#8217; in a specific order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Opinion<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Size<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Age<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shape<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Color<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Origin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Material<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Purpose<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is a cute little blue bag.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We rode two gorgeous big black Arabian horses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I have a tiny 10-week-old brown beagle puppy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reduplicates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Reduplication is when a word or part of a word is repeated and sometimes modified to make a longer term, like <em>hush-hush<\/em> or <em>boogie-woogie<\/em>. There are two types of reduplicates: exact and rhyming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Exact:<\/strong> goody-goody, choo-choo, bye-bye, wee-wee, yum-yum, aye-aye, boo-boo, so-so, tut-tut, no-no, night-night, poo-poo, yada-yada, ta-ta<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rhyming:<\/strong> okey-dokey, itsy-bitsy, arty-farty, razzle-dazzle, fancy-schmancy, walkie-talkie, raggle-taggle, super-duper, boo-hoo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, there are a large number of &#8216;h&#8217; words in the rhyming group: hocus-pocus, hanky-panky, hokey-pokey, hoity-toity, higglety-pigglety, harem-scarem, helter-skelter, holy-moly, honey-bunny, hum-drum, Handy Andy, Humpty Dumpty, and Henny Penny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ablaut Reduplication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ablaut<\/em> is a term introduced by the 19th-century German linguist, Jacob Grimm, the elder of the Brothers Grimm duo. <em>Ablaut<\/em> refers to a vowel change which, in reduplicates, often follows a particular vowel pattern, such as <em>zigzag or sing-song<\/em>. If there are two words, the first vowel is <em>I<\/em> and the second is usually either <em>A<\/em> or <em>O<\/em>. If there are three words then the order is often <em>I<\/em>, <em>A<\/em>, <em>O<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Two-Word:<\/strong> flim-flam, knick-knack, mingle-mangle, dilly-dally, pitter-patter, chit-chat, Tic Tac, wishy-washy, criss-cross, flip-flop, tick-tock, ping pong, clippity-cloppity, bibbity-bobbity, King Kong<br><strong>Three-Word:<\/strong> bing-bang-bong, ding-dang-dong, bish-bash-bosh, splish-splash-splosh, clink-clank-clunk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have our Germanic\/Old English heritage to thank for this familiar vowel pattern. A similar vowel shift occurs with verb conjugations like <em>drink, drank, drunk<\/em> (trinken, tranken, getrunken) or <em>sing<\/em>, <em>sang<\/em>, <em>sung<\/em> (singen, sang, gesungen).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Anomaly of The Big Bad Wolf<\/h3>\n\n\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Three_Little_Pigs_poster.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Three_Little_Pigs_poster.jpg?w=702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Disney The Three Little Pigs\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>If we understand that cumulative adjectives are stacked in a specific order, a sentence with the words <em>bad<\/em> (opinion), <em>big<\/em> (size), and <em>wolf<\/em> (noun) should read, &#8220;bad big wolf.&#8221; This logic holds true for &#8220;cute little kittens,&#8221; &#8220;scary old house,&#8221; or &#8220;nice long drive.&#8221; So, why are the two adjectives in &#8220;big bad wolf&#8221; flipped? The writer, Mark Forsyth, explains this phenomenon in his title, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Elements_of_Eloquence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Elements of Eloquence<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The reason &#8220;big bad wolf&#8221; is reversed is that the phrase skips the stacked-order rule to follow the ablaut reduplicative <em>I-A<\/em> scheme where <em>big-bad<\/em> acts like <em>zig-zag<\/em>!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would be easy to assume this anomalous ordering is the way it&#8217;s always been said, until you look at early versions of <em>The Three Little Pigs<\/em>. In <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.authorama.com\/english-fairy-tales-16.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jacob&#8217;s English Fairy Tales<\/a><\/em> (1890), the story includes &#8220;not by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin&#8221; and lots of huffing and puffing, but not the phrase &#8220;big bad wolf.&#8221; In the much older <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bths.enschool.org\/ourpages\/auto\/2009\/9\/6\/63453212\/three%20little%20pigs%201001.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grimm&#8217;s Fairy Tales<\/a><\/em> version, you&#8217;ll find the piggy threesomes&#8217; &#8220;Tra-la-la!&#8221; refrain, as well as the agreeably-ordered &#8220;wicked black wolf,&#8221; but no &#8220;big bad wolf.&#8221; So, when did this happen?<\/p>\n\n\n<figure>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"702\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mPs6_0g8RHA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<p>In 1933, the song, &#8220;Who&#8217;s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,&#8221; was featured in Walt Disney&#8217;s Silly Symphony rendition of <em>The Three Little Pigs<\/em>. The theme song was a Depression-era hit and continues to be one of Disney&#8217;s most well-known songs. So successful was the animation, the studio spun several sequels. The theme song was repeated in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e4Lx5Bmpojw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Big Bad Wolf<\/a><\/em> with Little Red Riding Hood, and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WnIa0goWzjA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Li&#8217;l Bad Wolf<\/a><\/em>, the son of Big Bad Wolf. Unsurprisingly, the wolf pup inherited his father&#8217;s ablaut reduplication, further cementing the adjectival reversal in our collective memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, now you know! (I was going to say &#8220;That&#8217;s all folks!&#8221; but remembered that&#8217;s a different pig altogether.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might also be interested to learn about the <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/05\/13\/fun-facts-5-adjectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most common adjectives<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/10\/30\/fun-facts-82-stacked-adjectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">test your own knowledge<\/a> of stacked adjectives, or <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2018\/07\/01\/teaching-stacked-adjectives-in-the-esl-classroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how to begin teaching stacked adjectives<\/a> to your youngest ESL students!&nbsp; Read more on the Kinney Brothers Publishing blog!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color has-background\">Go the <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/11\/05\/fun-facts-84-that-that\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/12\/19\/fun-facts-86-language-academy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">next<\/a> <strong>Fun Facts About English<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\/Category\/ESL-Textbooks-92662\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/HEADER_GIF.gif?w=702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Donald's English Classroom\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Did you know that all of the textbooks from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kinneybrothers.com\/books-esl-textbooks-kinney-brothers-publishing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kinney Brothers Publishing<\/a> are also available as pdf downloads? Plus, you can choose between color and black &amp; white! Check out all the full-textbook downloads in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\/Category\/ESL-Textbooks-92662\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald&#8217;s English Classroom<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve just started a new Youtube channel called, Speaking of Language, and this blog post was my first topic! Take a look, give me a like, and and please subscribe! To understand this anomaly, we&#8217;ll need to review a few grammar points. Bear with me and you&#8217;ll come to a sparkling revelation by the end [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94],"tags":[372,45,815,804,816,812,370,104,112,11,811,814,813],"class_list":{"0":"post-6352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fun-facts-about-english","8":"tag-ablaut-reduplication","9":"tag-adjectives","10":"tag-big-bad-wolf","11":"tag-capitonyms","12":"tag-coordinate-adjectives","13":"tag-cumulative-adjectives","14":"tag-donalds-english-classroom-4","15":"tag-english-language","16":"tag-grammar","17":"tag-kinney-brothers-publishing","18":"tag-language-quirks","19":"tag-reduplicates","20":"tag-word-order","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/085.jpg?fit=1252%2C1252&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GlQB-1Es","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6352"}],"version-history":[{"count":104,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11716,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions\/11716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}