The semantics of complete reduplicative words with the rhyme -ăm

Abstract

Reduplicative words in Vietnamese have a special formation. The phonetic relations between the syllables forming reduplicative words are able to create different meaning impressions resulting in their sound, image and emotion expressiveness. This is why their meanings are quite ambiguous and hard to catch.. This article focuses on just one group of complete reduplicative words, namely those with the syllable “-ăm” . It is hoped that through a careful analysis, some semantic structures of these reduplicative words could be detected. Based on the findings,  some suggestions for teaching and learning Vietnamese reduplicative words will be offered.