σιγά σιγά

[Theseus]

I am aware of very many of the meanings of σιγά-σιγά. I've looked them up in the standard dictionaries. But in a different website someone tendered a query that when she thanked her sister-in-law for a gift she had given her, the sister-in-law's reply was "Σιγά-σιγά".

Can the idiom mean:"That's nothing" or is the sister-in-law being sarcastic?

 

[Palavra]

Normally, this word would not be repeated in this case. Under similar circumstances, one would say σιγά (το πράγμα), meaning "it's not a big thing", like you said. Σιγά σιγά however is not used in this way; the only alternative I can think of is that the SIL repeated the words for emphasis, or that her words were followed by something else and therefore had an entirely different meaning, e.g σιγά σιγά [speak less loudly] (θα μας ακούσουν οι άλλοι και θα ζηλέψουν), σιγά σιγά [little by little] θα μαζέψεις πολλά δώρα etc.

 

[drsiebenmal]

[...] the only alternative I can think of is that the SIL repeated the words for emphasis [...]

that is: σιγά, σιγά (=don't mention it, it's nothing special etc.).

 

[nickel]

Or:
Σιγά. Σιγά τώρα.
Definitely not the pair of words σιγά σιγά. Incidentally, we prefer to write the latter without the hyphen. Use the hyphen where there is a word missing, e.g. λίγο-πολύ. See: http://lexilogia.gr/forum/showthread.php?389

 

[azimuthios]

e.g σιγά σιγά [speak less loudly] (θα μας ακούσουν οι άλλοι και θα ζηλέψουν), σιγά σιγά [little by little] θα μαζέψεις πολλά δώρα etc.

Palavra is correct. One comment, though. In the first case you need either a comma or a longer than usual pause to reveal the meaning of the phrase, whereas in the second case you pronounce them together and more abruptly. The hyphen helps in the second case.

 

[nickel]

Αμ θα σε παραπέμψω και σένα στο http://lexilogia.gr/forum/showthread.php?389

 

[azimuthios]

Άμα το ξανακάνεις αυτό θα γίνει της παύλας, όπως σου έλεγα τις προάλλες...

 

[Palavra]

Palavra is correct. One comment, though. In the first case you need either a comma or a longer than usual pause to reveal the meaning of the phrase, whereas in the second case you pronounce them together and more abruptly. The hyphen helps in the second case.

Yes, but in the first case σιγά σιγά is an autonomous piece of the sentence [I should have used a comma, ντάμιτ!], and in the second it is not, hence the rise in the intonation.

 

[daeman]

Theseus, let me add that a typical consonant phrase for the meaning of "no big deal", frequently with a sarcastic tone,
is Σιγά τ' αβγά.

 

[azimuthios]

or Σιγά τα ωά or Σιγά τα λάχανα or Σιγά τον πολυέλαιο.

Nice pass, daeman!