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Are there other repeated single word sentences like the Buffalo sentence?
Are there words in English like had that can be repeated while still making sense? For example,
The faith that he had had, had had an affect on his life.
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1related or duplicate? :english.stackexchange.com/q/2459/8183– ThursagenCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 11:46
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Actually it's a duplicate of the first one. I already voted though...– AlenannoCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 12:04
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1Is this really a duplicate? The other question (somewhat) ANSWERS this question, but someone searching for this question will never find that one.– JeremyCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 12:59
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1Hello and thanks for your good question! It is such a good question, it has been asked before, so your question has been closed as a duplicate. If you read that post and still don't feel that your question has been answered, then please feel free to edit this question to reflect what part of the answer in the duplicate you find confusing. If you have questions about why your post was closed, please leave a comment here or ask on Meta.– Kit Z. Fox ♦Commented Aug 13, 2011 at 15:08
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1@KitΘδς: this really doesn’t seem like a duplicate to me; it actually seems a lot more interesting and on-topic than the old question. That asks for whole sentences composed of repeated words — which are a cute puzzle, but rather contrived and little to do with actual usage. This question just asks about words that can be repeated once consecutively within a sentence — and as answers so far show, there are quite a few different ways which this can occur within normal usage, which seems quite interesting, and quite distinct from both older questions mentioned.– PLLCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 16:20
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4 Answers
That that occurs sometimes. It sometimes means that which, and sometimes just that that, as in I know that that will not work.
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2+1: It also means that that, as in "He wanted a restful weekend, but John knew that that was no longer an option."– RobustoCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 11:48
There's a whole bunch of words that function as more than one part of speech (albeit with different pronunciations). You can probably construct acceptable phrases from some of these. Here are 3 that come to mind:
- to record record profits
- to address address problems
- to refuse refuse charges
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3Though of course these aren't literally repetitions of "the same word" (try pronouncing them). Commented Aug 13, 2011 at 14:01
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@Neil. Agreed, I was cheating with my examples although I do pronounce 'address' (noun / verb) the same. Interestingly, there's a post on today's [Language Log] (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3361 ) about the repetition of is, as in: I think the point is is that this is metaphor with teeth.– ShoeCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 14:48
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@Shoe: with a slightly different antecedent, that sentence might easily have been “I think the point is is that that is metaphor with teeth.” — a double is, followed by a double that. New contrived-writing challenge: how many doubles in a row can you fit into a sentence? :-P– PLLCommented Aug 13, 2011 at 16:24
Another example is the word "buffalo", which is repeated eight times in the following sentence.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Note that, according to the following Wikipedia link, it is a perfectly valid sentence.
As for "had had", take a look at the following Wikipedia link.
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
Other linguistic examples of this sort are given in the following link.
