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There is a type of 'double adjective' expression in colloquial (mainly spoken) Indian English, which is a reflection of usage in many (Indian) subcontinental languages, example: "small small".

enter image description here

For instance,

"... ... That was so much beautiful, I can't tell. There were big big mountains, and there were small small houses in the foothills of them. ... ...".

My guess is that this is merely used to express a plural form, as in (converted to Standard English). It's more like "a collection of big mountains".

"... ... That was so beautiful, I can't tell you how much. There were some big mountains, and there were many small houses in their foothills."

Am I right?

Other examples of doubling of adjectives as in 'small small':

The playground was full of little little children playing.

If you have any sense, you will listen to old old people!

Big big people will do big big things. Small small people shouldn't imitate them.

In short, what does this type of double adjective as used in colloquial Indian English really mean, and how would you express the same in standard English?

Community
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    It's hard to say how to express it in standard English based on this explanation, because you seem to be uncertain about what it means in the first place! – herisson May 18 '17 at 05:19
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    Small small might be expressed in English as teeny-tiny, although I doubt that's in any dictionary. – Xanne May 18 '17 at 06:17
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    BTW, what's a subcontinental language? – Xanne May 18 '17 at 06:20
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    @Xanne: From the tag, I'd infer from the (Indian) subcontinent. – MSalters May 18 '17 at 06:29
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    Does "small small" mean many small things or very small things or slightly smaller than small but slightly bigger than too small? – slebetman May 18 '17 at 06:32
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    We have this sort of expression in Turkish, it is supposed to emphasize plurality rather than the adjective. I've written an answer taking that into account. @slebetman – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 07:03
  • I think "big big" could stand opposed to "regular big". So a there are big mountains, but also even bigger ("big big") ones. – Ian May 18 '17 at 07:16
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    By the way "That was so much beautiful, I can't tell", is very much Indian English. A more British but very close version would be something like "It was so beautiful, I can't even begin to describe it" (which would then be followed by the description of course). – Chris H May 18 '17 at 07:56
  • Repetition often serves to magnify. My guess, and it is a guess, as the question isn't completely clear... is that 'small small' in whatever foreign language you heard its equivalent use is a magnification of small. In which case I would suggest 'very small' for an English equivalent. However as the question stands it is too open to opinion and ambiguous to support any definitive answer. – Gary May 18 '17 at 08:48
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    @ChrisH Another idiomatic, but quite recent, way of saying it would be “So beauty. Much mountain. Very wow. I can’t even.” – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 18 '17 at 10:02
  • @JanusBahsJacquet LOL but too modern for me – Chris H May 18 '17 at 11:00
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    Examples I am finding in Indian media strongly suggest that the OP is correct that this phrase is about numerosity of small things, not magnitude of smallness. For example, the groom in this story does not mean that teeny tiny things went wrong with his wedding, but rather that many problems that should have been small arose. – 1006a May 18 '17 at 13:08
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    I've looked through some articles and I'm absolutely certain that my answer is correct. I've also done translation work and even though I never encountered this exact situation, I've had to look for Chinese words and see how they were used more than a few times. You don't want to use "tiny little" or "teeny tiny" where this expression was used. That'd just look funny. – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 14:05
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    The picture given only shows a few very large mountains and a few very small houses (not many of either). So the picture leads me to believe that what is intended is that repetition of an adjective is for emphasis or 'very', not for number. Can you clarify what is the original meaning of 'big big'? Does it mean 'really big mountains' or 'a lot of big mountains'? – Mitch May 18 '17 at 16:13
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    I'm voting to close as "unclear what you're asking". Without more information about the original phrase, there is no way to judge answers here. Most answerers currently are just going off of what the phrase would mean in standard English. But note that, for example, in parts of Africa small small is idiomatic for little by little, and in Turkey, at least, it is idiomatic for many small, so the "intuition" by native speakers of English or other languages that it must mean very small is meaningless. – 1006a May 18 '17 at 17:23
  • And then there is "haydi ufak ufak kaçalım artık biz" in Turkish which really trips up Google Translate. – Sinan Ünür May 18 '17 at 17:29
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    @JohnHamilton: Do you have it in Turkish or Turkish English? We have duplication of words in Malay which is generally used for plurals but in the case of "small-small" (kecil-kecil) means either very small or the general idea of smallness (which I don't think can be expressed in English in one word, also note that due to Malay influence Manglish/Singlish spell it small-small with a hyphen). You can't base the interpretation of Indian English on Turkish. Maybe you can speculate based on Turkish English (like I can speculate based on Manglish) but we still need the OP to clarify – slebetman May 18 '17 at 22:22
  • @slebetman There's no Turkish English. I'm speculating on my few years of work experience as a translator, mainly doing documentaries from Europe and TV Shows from China / Korea (which were in Google Translate form with original scripts alongside to help). – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 22:32
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    There seems to be a small attempt at reopening. I would vote to reopen but only if edits to clarify were made (see above comments). – Mitch May 23 '17 at 13:26
  • Which is to say that if it were reopened without editing, I would be compelled to vote to close. – Mitch May 23 '17 at 15:33
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    Now that it's reopened, I have another clarification request, for anybody. Supposing that 'big big' means 'many big', is it right to say that only a few big mountains is said in Indian English as 'small big mountains'? My feeling is that this implies big big should not main 'many big' but rather 'really big'. – Mitch May 23 '17 at 17:01
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    @anonymous 1) I neither voted to close or to reopen. 2) out of courtesy we were all waiting for you to do the editing. It would help if you could clarify: do you speak Indian English or have you just overheard this? DO you know yourself what 'big big' means: if so can you explain more fully, if not sure, please explicitly ask for the meaning (so we know what to do with all this). – Mitch May 23 '17 at 17:07
  • @anonymous 'many big mountains'? or just the plural 'big mountains'? Is it oK to say something like 'big big mountain' (with mountain in the singular)? – Mitch May 23 '17 at 17:17
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    @OP -- It is good to see, OP, that you have reclaimed your question after reopening, by making an explanatory edit, because this is your question! – It is a very good, interesting question and I like it. You are right to assume that double adjective indicates plural. Please see the answers of John Hamilton and Turab, which are mostly correct. If you like one of them, please accept it! Note: the other answers are inaccurate, irrespective of upvotes. – English Student May 23 '17 at 17:48
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    I've edited my answer to include references to books. Please review it. – John Hamilton Jun 16 '17 at 14:14
  • did I miss something, or has no-one provided an example of this reflection of usage in many (Indian) subcontinental languages?

    I would have fallen for the 'ignorant logic' explanation and tried to justify doubling for amplification, being wholly ignorant of the very idea of doubling for plurality.

    I'd have cited the vintage movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

    Everyone here with any knowledge of Indian English seems to think we should be looking solely at plurality so why isn't happening?

     – Robbie Goodwin Jun 16 '17 at 20:21
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    @Robbie Goodwin there was a lot of melodrama a month back over the closure and reopening of this question, and how so many users recklessly provided wrong answers through clueless guesswork. John Hamilton's was the most sensible answer which I as an Indian know is correct. To cut a long story short, John Hamilton has finally provided the elusive references that nail it down: please see the latest version of the answer.Now *at least 4 people need to downvote the currently leading,incorrect answer and also upvote John Hamilton to the top: this answer is now well deserving of the bounty!* – English Student Jun 16 '17 at 21:27
  • That's far and away the greatest difference between British and any other English variety I've ever seen or heard of and I very nearly fell for it myself – Robbie Goodwin Jun 17 '17 at 21:46

9 Answers9

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Reduplication is used in Indian English to indicate emphasis, distributive meaning, or indefiniteness

The sources I found indicate that reduplication of adjectives in Indian English can indicate various qualities: emphasis, distributive meaning, or indefiniteness.

This page I found shows that it's used in a distributive manner:

(5) Reduplication used for emphasis and to indicate a distributive meaning: I bought some small small things; Why you don't give them one one piece of cake?

– "Indian English", Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language

The first sentence would mean "a number of small things" and the second sentence would mean "give everyone a piece of the cake".

And this other page specifically says "small small" does not necessarily mean "very small":

Indian Pidgin English is an example of a variety that uses reduplication in a remarkable number of ways. [...] if you hear This house has small small room the meaning is not "a very small room" but "several small rooms". The reduplication expresses plurality.

– Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, by David Crystal, on Google Books

Some more resources for further reference:

How to express this in other kinds of English

This kind of expression is often used in my language and I get where you're coming from (hopefully). In Turkish, this would emphasize plurality, meaning there are an increased number of small things rather than the same number of smaller things. Unfortunately, Standard English has nothing like what you're suggesting.

The closest you can get is the adjectives like "many" or "a number of". As in

There were a number of large mountains, and many small houses in the foothills.

or you can imply a plural form with "a range of" and by that way, you can use "a number of" for the houses without repeating yourself

There was a range of large mountains, and there were a number of small houses in the foothills.

If you want to imply distance between the houses or the mountains, you could change it to something like

There were a number of large mountains scattered around [the valley], and small houses were at their foothills.

There was a range of large mountains, and small houses were scattered around the foothills.

There was a range of large mountains, and there were a number of small houses, scattered around the foothills.

NVZ
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John Hamilton
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    I don't think that "big big" refers to a larger number of big things. This might be specific to Turkish. – Ian May 18 '17 at 07:15
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    @ian_itor It most certainly is not. Germanic languages might not have this expression, but I've heard it in several other languages. One of those is Japanese, even the expression itself is a direct translation. https://translate.google.com/#tr/ja/k%C3%BC%C3%A7%C3%BCk%20k%C3%BC%C3%A7%C3%BCk%20evler (I'm just going to leave it to the asker to pick an answer, since he's the one who knows what he's trying to express) – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 07:22
  • I didn't mean to say it was unique to Turkish language. You are right. But I still don't think that it applies in this case, it just doesn't feel right. – Ian May 18 '17 at 07:23
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    But this is a good point. Since "small small houses" is not standard English, it may be misunderstood: does it mean "many small houses" or does it mean "very small houses"? – GEdgar May 18 '17 at 10:24
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    @GEdgar Well, by my thought process, the asker's English is good enough to know how to use "very small houses" or "tiny houses" and he's asking for something else entirely. It does depend on which language this excerpt was translated from and it would help me if I saw the original, but this is my best guess on the matter. – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 10:27
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    @ian_itor OP explicitly mentions emphasis of plurality as the meaning of the repetition. – Taemyr May 18 '17 at 10:28
  • @Taemyr Well, OP was just guessing, as am I. As John said, OP will have to choose which answer suits him best. – Ian May 18 '17 at 10:30
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    Looking at examples of "small small" (and frequently "small-small") in Indian media, this looks like the only correct answer. – 1006a May 18 '17 at 12:58
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    @1006a Indian culture is really similar to ours and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. For example this one "I have reached this place because of the small-small characters that I have done." would literally mean "many small roles that I have played". – John Hamilton May 18 '17 at 13:07
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    Many Indian subcontinental languages (including Hindi/Urdu and South Indian languages) use double words like 'big big' and 'small small' to mean 'many' and not 'very.' This linguistic tradition is responsible for the frequent colloquial use of such expressions in Indian English. "I saw small small shops selling nice nice gifts." "Downtown is full of big big hotels where big big buses bring fat fat people!" It's not the fault of anybody who answered this Q, because you wouldn't be expected to be aware of such quirks, but this is the only correct answer and I ought to know because I am Indian! – English Student May 23 '17 at 10:46
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    @1006a I have raised a query in meta https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10264/whats-not-clear-in-this-question 'what's not clear in this question' -- since you have concurred with John Hamilton's correct answer which I just now confirmed in my above comment, please read my meta Q where I have pointed out how OP's question is clear enough -- if convinced, please consider to reopen. – English Student May 23 '17 at 11:15
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    The Turkic and Indian languages are unrelated, and it wouldn't make sense for Turkish to have influenced Indian English more than the Indian languages. Can you present any specific evidence that this duplication indicates plurality in Indian English? – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:32
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    Your references are brilliant and nail down the answer excellently. I ALSO APPRECIATE @sumelic for taking note and posting the bounty, which your answer now richly deserves. *John Hamilton, do keep up the good work!* – English Student Jun 16 '17 at 21:30
  • John Hamilton's references make it clear this is much more complicated than a simple question of many v very… and equally that a real translation to British or US American English would need some rather complex guidelines. – Robbie Goodwin Jun 17 '17 at 21:36
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    @John Hamilton: Hi, I made some rather extensive edits to this because of a chat conversation where a member thought the answer was only based on Turkish. I was worried that people might be missing the great citations you found, so I moved them to the top of your answer and added another relevant quote. I hope these changes don't offend; my only intention is to help make this answer clearer so that more people will find it convincing. Please change back any unwanted changes. – herisson Jun 24 '17 at 20:00
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    @curiousdannii: Have you seen the new version of this answer with citations? – herisson Jun 24 '17 at 20:01
  • @sumelic having read your above-referred chat with Mitch on this topic (and now that you have rewarded John Hamilton's excellent answer which richly deserves the bounty) let me make it clear that any such answer might have been perceived as more authoritative coming from an Indian member; however John Hamilton got the correct idea first and developed it very well in the face of much skepticism, finishing by providing some golden references that I could not have found -- that's why I resisted the temptation to write an answer which though correct based on experience would've lacked citations. – English Student Jun 25 '17 at 03:03
  • @sumelic the manner in which you have now presented the important features of John Hamilton's correct answer (with those excellent references) has made that answer even more scholarly & authoritative, and therefore very convincing for non-Indian readers. – English Student Jun 25 '17 at 03:25
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    @sumelic I was on a holiday so I couldn't check back, but it seems to me that the community has liked your edits and I found them to improve upon the answer in a non-disruptive way. So, thank you for your work, please don't refrain from further edits if you deem them necessary. – John Hamilton Jun 30 '17 at 05:21
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In UK English, the nearest equivalent is to use two different words, both meaning small

  • Indian "small small" -> UK "tiny little" (to emphasise smallness) or "loads of little" (to emphasise large number)

  • Indian "big big" -> UK "great big"

  • "cold cold" -> UK "freezing cold"

  • "hot hot" -> UK "boiling hot" (for an environment), "scalding hot" (for a liquid) etc.

ProfDFrancis
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    All but the first I've heard in common US English usage as well. (We'd use "teeny-tiny", perhaps, for small small. More often we'd just use an adjective like "very": very small, etc.) – Roddy of the Frozen Peas May 18 '17 at 14:44
  • @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas Or "itty-bitty", or "teensy-weensy" or "teeny-weeny" or "tee-ninesy" (sp?) or "little bitty"... – shoover May 18 '17 at 16:09
  • I'd go with "super-small", or even more informally, "crazy-small". But I would also state for the record that, while I wouldn't necessarily call it in "common" usage, I would certainly put "tiny little" as being in usage in American English. (As in, say, "oooh, look at the tiny little kittens! So cute!" Totally idiomatic American English.) – neminem May 18 '17 at 16:45
  • I like tiny miny. I'm not sure how to write this, as I guess it is based on tiny mini. Another one is wee little houses. – WalyKu May 18 '17 at 16:56
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    As the comments below the original post, and John Hamilton's answer indicate, the Indian English expression "small small" doesn't seem to mean "tiny little" and the Indian English expression "big big" doesn't seem to mean "great big". I like the "loads of little" part of this answer, but I think the rest of it is misleading. – herisson May 23 '17 at 17:00
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    Downvoted because after reading all the comments and answers here, and reading all the comments on the Meta post about this question, https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10264/whats-not-clear-in-this-question, I am convinced that this answer is not correct. – ab2 May 23 '17 at 19:08
  • Can you please [edit] this answer to add some evidence for your claims? – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:20
  • Examining a particular author's background might suggest that their answer carries a little more weight than is generally ascribed. For this answer, I submit Dr Francis has sufficient background, both culturally and linguistically, for his answer to be trusted. Also, in large-pop cultures, sometimes two differing answers can both be correct. – cssyphus Sep 06 '23 at 14:46
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Repetition of a word in a sentence is right if it makes grammatical sense.

An immediate repetition of a word, separated by punctuation, is appropriate for emphatic effect, for example,

“I am far, far away from home.”

Javed Ahmed
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    Also, "There's so much that we share / that it's time we're aware / it's a small, small* world*" – 1006a May 18 '17 at 13:10
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    Not forgetting "in a dark, dark town there was a dark, dark street" of Funnybones fame ;-) – Dan May 19 '17 at 12:09
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    The question is not about repetition in general. It is about how to express the meaning of a particular repetitive construction that is used in Indian English, but not in other forms of English. Since repetition doesn't seem to be used for this purpose in standard English, "big, big" would still be wrong. – herisson May 23 '17 at 16:44
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    Downvoted because I have become convinced that this answer is not correct. See my comment under the answer by Eureka. – ab2 May 23 '17 at 19:10
  • @sumelic I don't see how this is any different from the usage in standard English of reduplication for emphasis. He has a big, big ego is perfectly standard English. The Indian usage is the same (except without a comma), no? If not, how does it differ? – user428517 Jun 16 '17 at 18:09
  • @sgroves: The OP says "My guess is that this is merely used to express a plural form." "a big, big ego" wouldn't be the same thing because "ego" is not plural. Also see this comment from an Indian English speaker: https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10264/whats-not-clear-in-this-question/10268#comment41351_10266 – herisson Jun 16 '17 at 18:26
  • @sumelic That's just a guess though. I don't see any evidence in the quoted statements that "big big" or "small small" are meant to express a plural form. – user428517 Jun 16 '17 at 18:27
  • @sgroves: all of the quoted examples in the OP use plural nouns. The OP (who seems to be an Indian English speaker) guesses that it is used to "express a plural form" and another Indian English speaker made a comment saying this construction is only used with plural nouns. That seems like a lot of evidence to me – herisson Jun 16 '17 at 18:28
  • @sumelic The OP is asking the question and providing a guess. An OP's guess shouldn't be used to formulate an answer ... and yes, all the quoted examples are plural, but that's irrelevant. "Big, big mountains" in standard English still means "multiple mountains that are all very big". – user428517 Jun 16 '17 at 18:35
  • @sgroves: This question isn't about the meaning of "big, big mountains" in standard English! It's specifically about the meaning of expressions like "big big mountains" (no comma) in *Indian* English. First sentence: "There is a type of 'double adjective' expression in colloquial (mainly spoken) Indian English" -- title: "What does “small small” mean in Indian English?" An answer based only on knowledge of standard English cannot be adequate as a response to this question. – herisson Jun 16 '17 at 18:40
  • @sumelic That's my whole point. A good answer should post relevant links to evidence that Indian English speaker us this construction in a different way from standard English. I don't doubt they do, but we need sources. – user428517 Jun 16 '17 at 19:21
  • @sgroves: Did you see the three sources linked at the end of John Hamilton's answer? – herisson Jun 16 '17 at 19:25
  • @sumelic since these expressions are mainly colloquial (spoken), and written instances are nearly nil, finding references would be extremely challenging. Therefore John Hamilton's latest references are pure gold and make it a brilliant answer. SO I APPRECIATE your prompt reaction to kindly set a bounty that John Hamilton's answer now richly deserves! I earnestly request you not to wait, but to award the bounty at the earliest opportunity. – English Student Jun 16 '17 at 21:37
  • @sumelic That certainly seems to be the intention and it is good policy in general to wait for more answers, but *in this particular case* there is only one answer and nobody could write it again without appropriating Hamilton: I should think we don't want any more answers to complicate the situation!The amount of reckless guesswork on this particular question was unprecedented because ELU answers are usually thoroughly systematic. In my respectful opinion, this question does not need any more answers, though nothing stops users from answering even after you award John Hamilton the bounty! – English Student Jun 16 '17 at 21:58
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In almost all Indian languages, repetition of adjectives is used to indicate that there are many such items available.

E.g.: There are small small houses in the village means there are many small houses in the village.

honeybadger
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It's much like "thinking in one language and speaking it in another". Indian has quite similar words to Turkish and accordingly, what might be called "doubling" (for emphasis) in these kind of languages, does not exist in English.

That's why "big big" would be uncertain to the reader. Two words with similar or same meaning work much better. In this example, repetitive adjective doesn't emphasize scale of size; rather it emphasizes the quantity, which doesn't have to be plentiful or rare, of same-sized things. So "big big" doesn't mean "greater big"; but rather, it means "a number of big..", but not necessarily "so much of it".

Ultimately, this kind of expression in English would be achieved using two similar/close words. Like "great big" and "tiny little" as said.

Turab
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    The Turkic and Indian languages are unrelated, and it wouldn't make sense for Turkish to have influenced Indian English more than the Indian languages. Can you present any specific evidence that this duplication indicates plurality in Indian English? – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:32
  • A late response to @curiousdannii. It would seem that it is a fair critique that language families of Turkish and Indian are different. But having similar root is not the only way to influence one another. In fact, Indian culture is influenced from Turkish culture and language starting from year 900s. For quite a few hundred years, some Turkish states ruled over India. In fact until British rule started at mid 1800s. So actually Indians interacted with Turks very much longer than they did with Brits. Hence the language influence. – Turab Oct 13 '22 at 14:41
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English has many adjectives and adverbs which are similar in meaning but differ in degree. In the present context, for example, "huge" or "enormous" would be used in place of "big big" and "tiny" or "miniscule" in place of "small small". We sometimes use "absolutely" with the more extreme words giving phrases like "absolutely enormous mountains" and even, less often, double up extreme words giving phrases like "tiny, tiny houses" but I can't think of a case where I would say "small small" because there are adjectives of greater degree which do the job better.

In relation to Javed Ahmed's answer "far" is doubled for emphasis in "far, far away" because there are no commonly used adjectives of higher degree for distance as there are for size, although we can use "very far" which is rather more prosaic and less expressive.

Repeated adjectives are more often used by and for children because the higher degree adjectives are part of an extended vocabulary and there are also informal adjectives and portmanteau words used in informal speech like "teeny tiny" and "ginormous" (from "gigantic" and "enormous") but the use of these would usually be humourous in intent and would certainly not be taken seriously by a listener or reader.

BoldBen
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  • What evidence do you have that speakers of Indian English duplicate words to indicate intensity? Please [edit] your answer to add some. – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:33
  • @curiousdannii I'm not making any claims about the use of double adjectives in Indian languages and Indian dialects of English. I'm only suggesting a reason why 'standard' English (British, American, Australian, Candian and the other major variants) don't, usually, use double adjectives. The original post is unclear as to the meaning of double adjectives in Indian English, but the only use for double adjectives in 'standard' English is for emphasis as in "Far far away", this was the comparison I was making. – BoldBen May 26 '17 at 18:29
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    The original post was not as clear as it could have been, but it was never about the use of double adjectives in standard English. – curiousdannii May 26 '17 at 22:41
  • @curiousdannii Now you've edited the original post to make the usage clear (which it was not when I first looked at it) I would suggest that the English equivalent is "lots of" + adjective as in "lots of big mountains and lots of small houses". The double adjective is only ever used in standard English to emphasise degree which is where the confusion has arisen in my mind and in the minds of other native standard English speakers. – BoldBen May 28 '17 at 04:11
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This is also common in Mandarin. It means very big or very small. You can also use words that have the meaning of very big, such as gigantic or enormous. For very small, you could choose tiny or miniscule. Even more choices are at http://thesaurus.com I suggest avoiding multiple very or much or other modifiers. It can quickly make you sound childish, such as "very, very, very, very big".

Lance Baker
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    Indian English is not related to Mandarin. If you have evidence that it does in fact mean the same thing, please [edit] your answer to add that evidence. – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:21
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Look at those pretty pretty flowers!

I feel like this repetition is related to the language spoken by adults to children, in English anyway (when without the commas).

Yes, those repetitions like 'big big' are common in other languages like Chinese as well. It's usually used in a succession though, or it would sound 'queer'. For example (in Chinese): Look at those tall tall trees, those small small houses, those, those blue blue skies...". It is just a style of writing.

Like Javed Ahmed said, in English, if you have the comma in between, it sounds perfectly fine. "there were big, big mountains, and small, small, oh so small cottages..."

Ceraroon
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    What evidence do you have that speakers of Indian English duplicate words to indicate intensity? Please [edit] your answer to add some. – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:34
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I think words of more intense meaning would be a good translation. In this case, you are contrasting the scale of the mountains with the size of the houses. I would translate this as "Enormous mountains" and "really tiny houses".

But there isn't a single word or phrase that maps directly to "big big" or "small small".

user1359
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  • What evidence do you have that speakers of Indian English duplicate words to indicate intensity? Please [edit] your answer to add some. – curiousdannii May 25 '17 at 13:33