Chinese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Probably an impossible question to answer, just a style thing, but why did the writer use 甩 twice?
“在台上，你的手是不是被什么东西扎了一下？ 快结束时我看你微微甩了甩手，你平时被东西扎着时就是这样子。“
我看你微微甩了甩手 I saw you flick your hand slightly (I suppose I could write: I saw you give a slight flick of your hand 'a flick of your hand': （一个）甩手)
Would 微微甩了手 be acceptable?
Referred from another site: "汉语有些动词可以重叠使用，用来表示短时、尝试或反复多次，带有一种轻松的口气。" (http://www.chinaqw.com/hwjy/hykt/200806/11/119975.shtml)
I translate it as:
In Mandarin, some verbs can be used in an overlapping/repetitive way to signify short-time action, trying something or do something again and again, accompanied with a soft and relaxed tone.
For this ABAB-like structure, sometimes you can map it as "A+ed a bit/slightly", use -ed because it's a past action, besides the time period is really really short like in no time(practically or emotionally you want to de-emphasize the action).
甩了甩手 -> flicked his hand a bit/slightly.
他看了看手表 -> he took a quick look at his watch. (a quick look still has some meaning of 'slightly' to me)
奥巴马拉了拉领带 -> Obama slightly pulled his tie.
but 奥巴马 doesn't 打了打领带, 打领带 really takes time.
Jack 打了打篮球. -> I want to emotionally de-emphasize the action 打篮球 here, I think he didn't play for a long time, maybe made some shots and left and that's it.
And some opposite examples:
我吃了吃饭. also, 我喝了喝水, 我上了上班
Wrong, it violates the "short-time" action rule, since nobody can have dinner in no time, the same for work(上班)
So you only say 我吃（完/过）饭了. 我上（完/过）班了.
他正在眨了眨眼. 正在: be doing sth. 眨眼: blink
Wrong, ABAB usually don't fit the progressive tense, better as a past simple tense
So you can say: 他眨了眨眼
To comprehend ABAB structure, you will need a whole book, but hope these simple rules helps you out a bit.
user6065 is right about the grammar of course.
As far as your question about why the writer would use reduplication of 甩 in addition to a separate adverb like 微微， I'm not sure there's a better answer than "that's what Chinese speakers like to do." I'm not a native speaker, but I've lived in (southern) China for a good while. Based on the ear test, I'm not sure I've actually ever heard someone say 微微， while I hear reduplication of verbs to express the that meaning all the time.
When it comes to word choice, I heartily endorse the principle of mindless conformity. Until we reach fluency, we second language learners are the slaves, native speakers are the masters, and we should always remember that!
