How to use repetition (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: How to use repetition (2017)

#21

Post by cultureswitch » Sun, Jun 04, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #19

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #4

A bit unrelated since the article is more about stylistic repetition, but I had a hard time using repetition in my writings after decades of school drilling into my that it was a bad thing. Yet in teaching, repetition is not just acceptable, it's necessary. You need to say the same thing over and over again for it to stick. And still, you'll note people will have missed half of it. So it turns out repetition is like…

> after decades of school drilling into my that it was a bad thing. I'd argue that's just school teaching bad style. They're doing it because they are optimising for something else: exposing students to wider vocabulary. To write well, call a spade a spade. To show off how many words you know, call it a spade the first time, shovel the next, digging device the third time, then earth moving tool, substrate projector,…

I would never call a shovel a spade due to the potential for confusion (unless that's what I'm going for).

Re: How to use repetition (2017)

#22

Post by cultureswitch » Sun, Jun 04, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

djhn wrote: post #20

TacticalCoder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last in TFA with the "drink drink" is definitely done all the time in french too. Something like the following repetition is ultra common: "C'etait bien ?" (What is good?) "Oui c'etait bien. Enfin, pas 'bien bien' mais... Bien" . (Yes, it was good. Well, not "good good" but... Good). The "x is x" is ultra common too, say to a kid, when it really needs to go to bed: "J'avais dit dodo et dodo c'est dodo!" (even if…

I like how you use the pronoun "it" for the child. Somewhat in line with French parenting philosophy, or is that reading too much into it?

Definitely reading too much into her

Re: How to use repetition (2017)

#23

Post by jameshart » Sun, Jun 04, 2023, 9:02 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #14

"It is what it is" isn't a tautology. It's a condensed way of saying that "it is what is seems to be, and nothing more or less; in particular, it is not something else we might wish it to be."

Well none of the other example repetition usages are simple tautologies either. The entire post is about how repetitions that appear to be simple tautologies are actually communicating some meaning.

Re: How to use repetition (2017)

#24

Post by jameshart » Sun, Jun 04, 2023, 9:09 PM UTC

zfxfr wrote: post #3

I wonder if this kind of thing is found in other languages. for example i can't think of any in French (i am French) even "it is what it is" which I would translate by " C'est comme ça" (it is like this)

I think French uses repetitions in a different way. I mean, it's attained the status of just a word particle in its own right in French, but Est ce que c'est - Est ce que ce est - "is it that it is" seems like a repetition embedded deep in a part of the language. Are the circumstances such that the circumstances are...

And then qu'est-ce que c'est takes it to another level - what is this, that this is?