J
Jascha24
Guest
Hi everyone!
I am a German student writing a scientific paper on conversational tautologies like "Boys will be boys", "War is war" or "A husband is a husband". Now I need some help from experts and native speakers.
I read, for example that the tautology "A husband is a husband" can have no less than four interpretations. These are the notions of obligation (there are obligations to fulfill towards one’s husband), appreciation (husbands do have positive aspects), indifference (one husband is not worse or better than another) and absolute generalization (all husbands are the same, one knows what to expect from them).
Now I wonder, when tautologies do not seem to work anymore. Obviously, the notion of generalization is lost the more specific the utterance is.
Example: "Aimless linguistic approaches will be aimless linguistic approaches"
I also found an utterance that made me wonder whether this can still be seen as a tautology:
“Maybe linguists are linguists because they can’t have any fun of their own with language.”
Would you say that this is a tautology?
Thanks a lot for answers, ideas and criticism!
PS: Do you know other language or linguistic forums where I could post my questions?
I am a German student writing a scientific paper on conversational tautologies like "Boys will be boys", "War is war" or "A husband is a husband". Now I need some help from experts and native speakers.
I read, for example that the tautology "A husband is a husband" can have no less than four interpretations. These are the notions of obligation (there are obligations to fulfill towards one’s husband), appreciation (husbands do have positive aspects), indifference (one husband is not worse or better than another) and absolute generalization (all husbands are the same, one knows what to expect from them).
Now I wonder, when tautologies do not seem to work anymore. Obviously, the notion of generalization is lost the more specific the utterance is.
Example: "Aimless linguistic approaches will be aimless linguistic approaches"
I also found an utterance that made me wonder whether this can still be seen as a tautology:
“Maybe linguists are linguists because they can’t have any fun of their own with language.”
Would you say that this is a tautology?
Thanks a lot for answers, ideas and criticism!
PS: Do you know other language or linguistic forums where I could post my questions?