套套邏輯／同義反覆 Tautology

 套套邏輯／同義反覆 Tautology

●例句（約190 words，字源放在句首）

Tautology, a word that entered English in the sixteenth century from the Greek tautologia, which is compounded of tautos, a contraction of to autos, meaning "the same", and logos, meaning "word" or "account", and that originally denoted the fault of saying the same thing twice in different words, as in "free gift", acquired its modern logical sense chiefly through Ludwig Wittgenstein, who, in his Tractatus of 1921, argued that a proposition true under every possible assignment of truth values, such as "it is raining or it is not raining", says nothing about the world, its truth being guaranteed by its form alone; no sooner had the logical positivists embraced this idea than mathematics, which they took to consist of such propositions, was regarded as empty of factual content, a view that Quine, denying that any sharp line separates truths of meaning from truths of fact, challenged, whereas defenders of the older view replied that no one who has laboured over a long proof would call its conclusion trivial merely because it follows from its premises, since being uninformative in the logical sense is not the same as being unilluminating in the practical one.

●排列為比較容易閱讀的方式

Tautology,

a word that entered English in the sixteenth century

from the Greek tautologia,

which is compounded of tautos,

a contraction of to autos,

meaning "the same",

and logos,

meaning "word" or "account",

and that originally denoted the fault

of saying the same thing twice in different words,

as in "free gift",

acquired its modern logical sense

chiefly through Ludwig Wittgenstein,

who,

in his Tractatus of 1921,

argued

that a proposition

true under every possible assignment of truth values,

such as "it is raining or it is not raining",

says nothing about the world,

its truth being guaranteed by its form alone;

no sooner had the logical positivists embraced this idea

than mathematics,

which they took to consist of such propositions,

was regarded as empty of factual content,

a view

that Quine,

denying that any sharp line separates truths of meaning from truths of fact,

challenged,

whereas defenders of the older view replied

that no one

who has laboured over a long proof

would call its conclusion trivial

merely because it follows from its premises,

since being uninformative in the logical sense

is not the same as being unilluminating in the practical one.

●分解為原初的短小句

Tautology acquired its modern logical sense chiefly through Ludwig Wittgenstein.（主結構，10字。主詞與動詞 acquired 之間插入約五十個字的字源說明，必須讀到 acquired 才看到動詞。這是本句最大的難點。）

The word entered English in the sixteenth century.

It came from the Greek tautologia.

Tautologia is compounded of tautos and logos.

Tautos is a contraction of to autos.

To autos means "the same".

Logos means "word" or "account".

The word originally denoted the fault of saying the same thing twice in different words.

"Free gift" is an example.

Wittgenstein published the Tractatus in 1921.

In it he argued that a proposition says nothing about the world.

The proposition is true under every possible assignment of truth values.

"It is raining or it is not raining" is such a proposition.

Its form alone guarantees its truth.

The logical positivists embraced this idea.

Mathematics was regarded as empty of factual content soon afterward.

They took mathematics to consist of such propositions.

Quine challenged this view.

He denied that any sharp line separates truths of meaning from truths of fact.

Defenders of the older view replied that no one who has laboured over a long proof would call its conclusion trivial.

The conclusion follows from its premises.

Being uninformative in the logical sense is not the same as being unilluminating in the practical one.

Tautology still carries the older rhetorical sense as well.

●文法解析

主句：Tautology…acquired its modern logical sense chiefly through Ludwig Wittgenstein。主詞後的同位語 a word that…，帶出 from、which、and logos、and that 好幾層，acquired 要到很後面才出現。

a word that entered…, and that originally denoted…：兩個 that 關係子句以 and 並列，先行詞都是 a word。中間插入了 from 片語與 which 子句，讀者容易忘記第二個 that 要接回 a word，而不是接回 logos。

which is compounded of tautos, a contraction of to autos, meaning "the same", and logos, meaning "word" or "account"：be compounded of 意為「由……構成」，of 後並列兩個希臘字。a contraction of to autos 是同位語，meaning 是現在分詞片語，補充說明意義。and logos 要接回 of，與 tautos 並列。

the fault of saying the same thing twice in different words：of + 動名詞，說明 fault 的內容。as in "free gift"：as 後省略了主詞與動詞，等於 as [it is seen] in "free gift"，是省略結構。

who, in his Tractatus of 1921, argued that…：who 與動詞 argued 之間插入介係詞片語，要跳過才看到動詞。