Table 1 The samples of three- and four-character reductions.

ǎi cuó qióng “a short, ugly and poor guy”;

bái fù měi “a fair-skinned, rich and beautiful lady”;

bái gǔ jīng “female office elites”;

chéng huì wán “You urban folks are genuinely born to have fun”;

gāo fù shuài “a tall, rich and handsome guy”;

huó jiǔ jiàn “The longevities see more things”;

lěng wú quē “a cold-hearted guy without belief”;

rán bìng luǎn “But it is of no damn use”;

suī xiàn gǒu “Though I remain single now”;

yǔ shī zǎo “Chinese teacher died early”;

xiǎo què xìng “little dose of genuine happiness”

bú míng jué lì “I don’t quite get it, but I think you are terrific”; bú yuē ér tóng “He or she becomes a gay (lesbian) after such a long time without dating”; lèi jué bú ài “Too tired to love”; nán mò nǚ lèi “males would stop talking and females would shed tears when seeing this”; rén jiān bú chāi “Some lies are better not exposed, as life is already so hard.”; shí dòng rán jù “I was scared though I was deeply moved but still rejected him”; shuō nào jué yú. “I feel myself an unwelcome outsider, while the other people are having a good time talking and frolicking”; wú zhī shǎo nǚ “an unaffiliated intellectual female official”; xǐ dà pǔ bēn “The news is so exhilarating that everyone is celebrating and spreading it to the rest of the world”; xì sī kǒng jí “If you think it over, you would feel extremely horrible”