A parallel verb compound contains two verbs which either are synonymous or signal the same type of predicative notions. For example: the notion ‘fortunate’ was expressed by the monosyllabic word 幸 at an earlier stage of the language. The notion is expressed by the parallel compound 幸福 ‘fortunate-blessed = fortunate’ in Modern Chinese. The constituents of most parallel verb compounds are of the same syntactic category-they may be both adjectival verbs, both action verbs. And the parallel verb compound shares the semantic and syntactic properties of its constituents. In other words, if the constituents are both adjectives, the compound is also adjectival.
Reference
Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar (Vol. 3). Univ of California Press.
