Abstract
On the basis of an extensive investigation into ancient texts, this paper analyzes the semantic motivation and the corresponding phonological alternation in the process of changing from a monosyllabic form to a disyllabic form, discovering that there is a progressive pattern of reduplication in Old Chinese, which mainly conveys either diminutive meaning or vivid description. This research has been carried out based on the following principles: 1) pay close attention to the interaction between phonology and morphology; 2) try to recover the particular semantic relationship between the base and the reduplication form; 3) seek both phonological and sematic conditions for the derivational liquid consonant as well as its variants; 4) make comparison with the parallel cases in modern dialects; 5) make use of achievements in the phonological research of Old Chinese.
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