人多嘴杂
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kategogogo
Senior Member
Japanese Mandarin bilingual
嘴杂 used on its own is unusual and I would call it unidiomatic. I believe the correct version is always 人多嘴杂. 
This familiar phrase is derogatory. It’s often applied that way to describe that within a group of people, word gets around. Each time a trivial piece of information is told, it becomes distorted slightly. As a result, rumors are spread from person to person. 人多 implies not only a high headcount, but also gossips with their own agendas. 嘴杂 means to spread rumors or to engages in talk about other people’s business.
This familiar phrase is derogatory. It’s often applied that way to describe that within a group of people, word gets around. Each time a trivial piece of information is told, it becomes distorted slightly. As a result, rumors are spread from person to person. 人多 implies not only a high headcount, but also gossips with their own agendas. 嘴杂 means to spread rumors or to engages in talk about other people’s business.
kategogogo
Senior Member
Japanese Mandarin bilingual
谢谢
I love this kind of happy accident. You’ve raised an intriguing aspect of four-character idioms in Chinese language. Phrases like 人多嘴杂 is open to multiple interpretations. It can be seen as two separate noun phrases: 人多 (人很多) + 嘴杂 (嘴很杂), or their meanings can be deprived by associating different parts with each other: 人 corresponding to 嘴, two nouns; 多 corresponding to 杂; two adjectives. This linguistic flexibility makes Chinese idioms really unique and so different from other languages.
skating-in-bc
Senior Member
Mandarin 國語
You parsed it correctly. 人多嘴雜 is not a non-compositional "idiom". Its meaning is actually the sum of the meanings of its components (i.e., the meaning of the form /AB/ = the meaning of /A/ ⊕ the meaning of /B/, with “⊕” denoting ‘combined in accordance with the rules of the language’; e.g., 人多嘴雜 = 人多 + 嘴雜: (1) 人多就會嘴雜, (2) 人多因而嘴雜, or (3) 人多而且嘴雜, wherein “⊕” denotes '就會/因而/而且').
嘴雜 involves a metonymy--a figure of speech in which 嘴 is substituted for 話 ('talk, remarks'). 雜 may be literal (meaning '紛紛, 多種多樣") and thus 嘴雜 may refer to all sorts of talk or remarks, especially scandalous talk or negative remarks as in "醫院人多嘴雜, 你來這兒, 不怕別人說是非嗎?". It may also be figurative (meaning '交傳, 傳來傳去') and thus 嘴雜 may refer to the spreading of gossip, as in "醫院人多嘴雜, 你來這兒, 不怕被人張揚出去?"
To me, it is not unidiomatic to treat 嘴雜 as a phraseological unit, for instance:
風傳媒 2020-06-18: "國民黨的組織像流水席餐會, 人多、龐大、嘴雜、老化..."
之乎: "小单位嘴杂怎么办?"
蒙克顿枫下论坛: "缸浅动静大, 嘴杂是非多."
狩獵美人心: "嘴雜, 就會產生許多的八卦."
醫院(topic)人(subject)多(predicate)嘴(subject)雜(predicate)
人多嘴雜 is composed of two clauses (i.e., 人(subject)多(predicate) + 嘴(subject)雜(predicate)) that together form an adjectival predicate for the topic 醫院.
國民黨的組織像流水席餐會, 人多 (adjectival)、龐大 (adjective)、嘴雜 (adjectival)、老化 (adjective)..."
小单位嘴杂(adjectival)怎么办
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