Tautology (language)  

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A [[rhetorical]] tautology can also be defined as a series of statements that comprise an argument, whereby the statements are constructed in such a way that the truth of the propositions is guaranteed or that the truth of the propositions cannot be disputed by defining a term in terms of another self referentially. Consequently, the statement conveys no useful information regardless of its length or complexity making it [[unfalsifiable]]. It is a way of formulating a description such that it masquerades as an explanation when the real reason for the phenomena cannot be independently derived. A [[rhetorical]] tautology should not be confused with a [[tautology (logic)|tautology]] in propositional logic, since the inherent meanings and subsequent conclusions in rhetorical and logical tautologies are very different. A [[rhetorical]] tautology can also be defined as a series of statements that comprise an argument, whereby the statements are constructed in such a way that the truth of the propositions is guaranteed or that the truth of the propositions cannot be disputed by defining a term in terms of another self referentially. Consequently, the statement conveys no useful information regardless of its length or complexity making it [[unfalsifiable]]. It is a way of formulating a description such that it masquerades as an explanation when the real reason for the phenomena cannot be independently derived. A [[rhetorical]] tautology should not be confused with a [[tautology (logic)|tautology]] in propositional logic, since the inherent meanings and subsequent conclusions in rhetorical and logical tautologies are very different.
 +==Quotes on the tautological nature of language==
 + “[[In the illusory babels of language]], an artist might advance specifically to get lost, and to intoxicate himself in dizzying syntaxes, seeking odd intersections of meaning, strange corridors of history, unexpected echoes, unknown humors, or voids of knowledge… but this quest is risky, full of bottomless fictions and endless architectures and counter-architectures… at the end, if there is an end, are perhaps only meaningless reverberations.”
 +
 + --Robert Smithson, A Museum of Language in the Vicinity of Art (1968), in: Jack Flam (red.), Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press, 1996, p. 78.
 +
 + [[It is clear that the world is purely parodic]], in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
 +
 + Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne's thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
 +
 + -- Georges Bataille via "Visions of Excess Selected Writings, 1927-1939"
==See also== ==See also==

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In rhetoric, a tautology is an unnecessary or unessential (and sometimes unintentional) repetition of meaning, using different and dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing twice (often originally from different languages). It is often regarded as a fault of style and was defined by Fowler as "saying the same thing twice." It is not apparently necessary or essential for the entire meaning of a phrase to be repeated. If a part of the meaning is repeated in such a way that it appears as unintentional, clumsy, or lacking in dexterity, then it may be described as tautology. On the other hand, a repetition of meaning which improves the style of a piece of speech or writing is not necessarily described as tautology because it improves the style of a piece of speech or writing.

A rhetorical tautology can also be defined as a series of statements that comprise an argument, whereby the statements are constructed in such a way that the truth of the propositions is guaranteed or that the truth of the propositions cannot be disputed by defining a term in terms of another self referentially. Consequently, the statement conveys no useful information regardless of its length or complexity making it unfalsifiable. It is a way of formulating a description such that it masquerades as an explanation when the real reason for the phenomena cannot be independently derived. A rhetorical tautology should not be confused with a tautology in propositional logic, since the inherent meanings and subsequent conclusions in rhetorical and logical tautologies are very different.

Quotes on the tautological nature of language

In the illusory babels of language, an artist might advance specifically to get lost, and to intoxicate himself in dizzying syntaxes, seeking odd intersections of meaning, strange corridors of history, unexpected echoes, unknown humors, or voids of knowledge… but this quest is risky, full of bottomless fictions and endless architectures and counter-architectures… at the end, if there is an end, are perhaps only meaningless reverberations.”
   --Robert Smithson, A Museum of Language in the Vicinity of Art (1968), in: Jack Flam (red.), Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press, 1996, p. 78.
   It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
   Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne's thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
   -- Georges Bataille via "Visions of Excess Selected Writings, 1927-1939" 

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Tautology (language)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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