ABSTRACT In this paper we test the hypothesis that tautologies (An X is an X; X is X) are actually not tautologies (i.e., not repetitive). Indeed, when exploring natural language use, it seems that, having expressed such “uninformative” statements, speakers, most often, spell out their specific intended interpretation, rendering these messages informative (Section 2). Visual/pictorial tautologies are also informative; either they allow the observers to come up with their own interpretation, or often, the artists use language to spell out the intended message (Section 3). Whether in language or in picture, artists tend to deautomatize the familiar, thereby rendering tautologies Optimally Innovative. Additionally, they often produce tautologies that convey figurative messages, whether metaphorical or sarcastic, thus allowing these tautologies to be highly creative (Section 5). Tautologies, then, communicate innovative messages, even when implicitly so. In fact, tautologies may often covertly reject the default salient meaning, while explicitly enlarging on it by using a novel, nondefault alternative.

中文翻译：

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无论是口头的还是视觉的，肯定的还是否定的，重言式都不是重言式

摘要 在本文中，我们检验重言式（An X 是 X；X 是 X）实际上不是重言式（即不重复）的假设。事实上，在探索自然语言的使用时，似乎在表达了这种“无信息”的陈述后，说话者通常会详细说明他们的具体预期解释，使这些信息具有信息性（第 2 节）。视觉/图片重言式也提供信息；要么他们允许观察者提出自己的解释，要么艺术家经常使用语言来阐明预期的信息（第 3 部分）。无论是语言还是画面，艺术家都倾向于将熟悉的事物去自动化，从而使重言式具有最佳创新性。此外，他们经常产生传达比喻性信息的重言式，无论是隐喻的还是讽刺的，从而使这些重言式具有高度创造性（第 5 节）。因此，重言式传达了创新的信息，即使是隐含的。事实上，同义反复可能经常暗中拒绝默认的显着意义，同时通过使用一种新颖的、非默认的替代方案来明确地扩大它。