Three Registers behind two Characters: an Analysis of the Words’ Formation and their Registers

Abstract

Three Registers behind two characters, or Two-Character-Three-Register, is a special phenomenon in Chinese word formation, which mainly means that on the premise that a dissyllabic verb consists of two monosyllabic verbs which could be used separately, it represents a picture that three Chinese words belong to three individual registers. 81 groups of such words are exhaustively analyzed in this paper and it is found that (1) the most important function of the Two-Character-Three-Register Phenomenon is to distinguish registers; (2) dissyllabic verbs are mainly laid in formal register, whereas monosyllabic verbs in informal and elegant registers; (3) this can mostly be accounted for through the filling effect of register vacancy.