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Hendiadys in Chinese

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Mandarin has long been a single-syllable word language. This has led to overloading of syllables, only partly alleviated by making tonal distinctions. As society and culture become more complex, the problem is aggravated, and currently Mandarin is moving towards becoming a two-syllable word language, by among others the use of hendiadys. So both 朋 and 友 mean "friend", but nowadays 朋友 is almost exclusively used. Sometimes a class and its instance are used - "apple" is 苹果, literally "apple fruit". And so on. 2001:1C04:4706:EC00:F2BA:76F6:B49F:3171 (talk) 17:27, 17 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]