Learn something new every day: order of components in some Chinese two-character phrases

[pne]

I was reading the Wikipedia article on Standard Mandarin and came across this bit:

It is known that if the two morphemesof a compound word cannot be ordered by grammar, the order of the twois usually determined by tones — Yin Ping (1), Yang Ping (2), Shang(3), Qu (4), and Ru, which is the plosive-ending tone that has alreadydisappeared. Below are some compound words that show this rule. Tonesare shown in parentheses, and R indicates Ru.

左右 (34)
南北 (2R)
輕重 (14)
貧富 (24)
凹凸 (1R)
喜怒 (34)
哀樂 (1R)
生死 (13)
死活 (3R)
陰陽 (12)
明暗 (24)
毀譽 (34)
褒貶 (13)
離合 (2R)

Fascinating!

Comments

[node-ue.livejournal.com]

That's bizzarre. I wonder how that held up across the historical development of Mandarin, considering the collapsing of multiple tone categories into just 5 in Standard Mandarin.

[afuna]

I know some of the compound words on the list, but I did not know about the rule for the word order. I'm just so used to the compound words being in a particular order that I would never say them the other way around, i.e., I would never think of 左右 as 右左.