Definition and Examples of Tautologies in English

Definition and Examples of Tautologies in English   In grammar, a tautology is a  redundancy,  in particular, the needless repetition of an idea using different words. Repetition of the same sense is tautology. Repetition of the same sound is tautophony. In rhetoric and  logic, a tautology is a statement that is unconditionally true by virtue of its form alonefor example, Youre either lying or youre not. Adjective: tautologous or tautological. Examples and Observations Here are examples of tautology in use by famous authors in their work: It took only as many minutes to find the following half-dozen examples in one days crop of papers: A major nuclear disaster could have been sparked off . . .. . . who died of a fatal dose of heroin. . . equalized the game to a 2-2 draw. . . kept it from his friends that he was a secret drinkerDirty Den has made up his mind never to go back to EastEnders, finally severing his connection with the soap . . . a group for one-parent single mothers Tautology is either unnecessary elaboration (the Inland Revenues white-collar workers), pointless repetition (pair of twins), superfluous description (Europes huge butter mountain), a needless appendage (weather conditions) or a self-cancelling proposition (He is either guilty or not guilty). (Keith Waterhouse, Waterhouse on Newspaper Style, rev. ed. Revel Barker, 2010)At the risk of being redundant and repetitive, and redundant, let me say that tautology is the last thing children need from their parents, especially when they are in trouble.Whatever you have to say, whatever you do, avoid tautology. Try to say it only once! (Tom Sturges, Parking Lot Rules 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children. Ballantine, 2009)The new public management has brought new ailments, particularly tautology. You often see such phrases as first class organizations are those that perform excellently. (David Walker, Mind Your Language. The Guardian, Sep. 27, 2006) Mark Twain on Tautological Repetition I do not find that the repetition of an important word a few timessay, three or four timesin a paragraph troubles my ear if clearness of meaning is best secured thereby. But tautological repetition which has no justifying object, but merely exposes the fact that the writers balance at the vocabulary bank has run short and that he is too lazy to replenish it from the thesaurusthat is another matter. It makes me feel like calling the writer to account. (Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain. University of California Press, 2010) Tautologies in Logic In common parlance, an utterance is usually said to be tautologous if it contains a redundancy and says the same thing twice over in different wordse.g., John is the father of Charles and Charles is a son of John. In logic, however, a tautology is defined as a statement that excludes no logical possibilitiesEither it is raining or it is not raining. Another way of putting this is to say that a tautology is true in all possible worlds. No one will doubt that, irrespective of the actual state of the weather (i.e., regardless of whether the statement that it is raining is true or false), the statement Either it is raining or it is not raining is necessarily true.(E. Nagel and J. R. Newman, Gà ¶dels Proof, 1958  A  tautology is  a statement that is logically, or necessarily, true or is so devoid of content as to be practically empty (and thus true because completely empty statements, making no claim, cannot be false). Example: Scott Peterson did it or he didnt.  (Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender,  Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 10th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2006) Tautology. Yes, I know, its an ugly word. But so is the thing. Tautology is this verbal device which consists in defining like by like . . .. Since it is magical, it can of course only take refuge behind the argument of authority: thus do parents at the end of their tether reply to the child who keeps on asking for explanations: because thats how it is, or even better: just because, thats all. (Roland Barthes, Mythologies. Macmillan, 1972) Tautology as a Logical Fallacy One of the most boring fallacies, the tautology, basically just repeats the premise. FAN: The Cowboys are favored to win since theyre the better team.​  (Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. Three Rivers Press, 2007) Pronunciation: taw-TOL-eh-jee Also Known As: pleonasm EtymologyFrom the Greek, redundant

Dornbusch Overshooting Hypothesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Dornbusch Overshooting Hypothesis - Essay Example Indeed, this result is derived in a model of perfect capital mobility and sticky prices. The overshooting paper not only was a great piece of research, but also had important policy implications. In the context of flexible exchange rates, not only among major currencies, but also increasingly with emerging market currencies, the excessive volatility is usually mentioned as the main disadvantage of free floating. A policy sequel is that overshooting is often used to justify intervening in foreign exchange markets. This is also a strong reason why policymakers suffer from "fear of floating" (Calvo and Reinhart, 2002). From the empirical point of view, the evidence has been mixed and there are several dimensions in which the model performs poorly.1 Starting from the "exchange rate disconnect puzzle" from Meese and Rogoff (1983), which shows that no structural model can predict exchange rates, not even monetary ones, there have been many attempts to explain exchange rate fluctuations. Faust and Rogers (2003) and, more recently, Bjjournland (2006) propose new identification restrictions that reduce this delayed overshooting. Although the researcher does not intend to address empirically the overshooting hypothesis, it is useful to review analytically the robustness of overshooting and which type of conditions are required to generate a different behavior of exchange rates. The researcher plans to examine the conditions under which the exchange rate undershoots instead of overshoots as in the original model. This could help to reconcile the evidence with Dornbush's model (Rogoff, 2002). However, in the basic theoretical framework, the conditions to generate undershooting are rather contrived, namely, that the interest rate rises as a result of a monetary expansion. Therefore, under perfect capital mobility, with the consequent uncovered interest rate parity, overshooting should be a natural outcome. I also show that dropping perfect capital mobility as suggested by Frenkel and Rodriguez (1982) also requires special conditions. In such case it would be necessary for the current account deficit to narrow after a monetary expansion. Empirical Analysis: Exchange rate shooting during Financial Crises of 1990s This part of the papers documents main characteristics of the exchange rate movement in the countries that experienced currency crises in the 1990s. First, the researcher introduces the data set that we use and then analyze the exchange rate movements in these countries to examine the existence of any systematic regularity that derives the exchange rate overshooting. Data The sample includes currency crises in the 1990s. First, the researcher collects all episodes of speculative attacks in the 1990s based on Glick and Rose (1999). The researcher excludes unsuccessful speculative attacks where countries maintained stable exchange rates even under the pressure of speculative attacks. the researcher also excludes a few recent cases in which the exchange rate is still unstable and the complete exchange rate dynamics during currency crises are not revealed. This selection process reduces the available data set to 24 episodes, which consist of 10 cases in the 1992-3 European crisis, 4 cases in the 1994-5 Mexican crisis, and 10 cases in the 1997-8 Asian crisis and related others. List of countries is reported

ZipCar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ZipCar - Essay Example Based on the case and financial projections, it is clear that main value drivers of ZipCar include its resources (cars), targeting the right customer segments and operating costs. The following analysis has helped in arriving at some key findings, which can be of great help to not only improve the business but also can add weight to the concept to attract investment. The revised financial projections for ZipCar has incorporated changes with respect to subscription fees according to customers’ needs and has increased the per mile charge in comparison with competitors. Considering the business potential and huge investment that is required for ZipCar to function as expected and to expand, it is also important that it minimizes costs wherever possible. One key area that incurs huge costs is obtaining cars on lease. As per the present projections, ZipCar would require $4,400/year to lease one car and would require an average of 50 cars per year and is expecting to increase the num ber of serviceable cars on a yearly basis. This would mean increase in leasing costs. Moreover, there is also an apprehension that car companies might not find this business promising if they have to lease too many cars to one company. The projections reveal between 10% to 25% growth on a yearly basis. The NPV is calculated using three discount rate assumptions (10%, 15%, 20%) based on the projections (see Exhibit i). The growth of the business as shown in revised financial plan does not indicate any uniformity; however the minimum growth rate is at 14%; hence, calculation of NPV with discount rates assumptions below, above and at that point seemed logical in this case. With similar notion, the terminal value of business has been calculated (Exhibit i). These figures indicate that for an investment of $1.3 million to fetch a growth of at least 15% returns, it becomes necessary that the business maintains a steady growth rate at 10% over next 5 years. In order to achieve this, it is also necessary that profitability is increased for which the below described recommendation might of some help. Besides business expansion, profitability can also be increased by minimizing costs. One possible and implementable solution is to minimize costs incurred by leasing out cars, which attracts much of the investment. This can be done by leasing cars from individuals only a monthly basis (rent) rather than yearly basis. Considering risk factor, it would be better that ZipCar takes 30% of its cars from individuals that do not use their cars too often in exchange of money on a monthly basis. While ZipCar can own the responsibility of these cars in case of damage, it can avoid maintenance of 30% of its cars as it already pays rent to the individuals. The fuel expenses will be borne by the customers. By doing so, ZipCar can save costs incurred towards leasing, maintenance, and insurance of 30% of the cars. Changes in financial projection if such model is adopted has been shown in Exhibits ii and iii; the NPV and TV of the firm after incorporating this recommendation is included in Exhibit i. Exhibit i NPV= Net present value DR = Discount Rate TV= Terminal value of investment Exhibit ii. Recommended model: Exhibit iii: Comparison between original, revised and recommended

Emerging Trends in Health Care Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emerging Trends in Health Care - Term Paper Example As elucidated by Sena, adoption of technology in healthcare is one of the emerging trends affecting health care. Just like in any other industry, the use of technology is imperative in healthcare as healthcare organizations strive to align their services with their objectives of providing quality services to their clients. In essence, the use of technology has made the job of doctors and nurses easier and patients are able to access healthcare services more rapidly. A good example of how technology is used today in healthcare is electronic health records which improves efficiency of services. Doctors and physicians are therefore able to access patients' medical information in their computers by just a click. Secondly, according to Sena, individuals seeking treatment today are more involved in the provision of care. This can be attributed to the fact that the modern man is more sophisticated in terms of education. Therefore, people today tend to evaluate all available healthcare avenues in order to make an informed decision on the institution offering the best services. This has also been contributed by the fact that people are able to access information particularly through the internet. Consequently, people in the contemporary world can identify differences in terms of services, costs, as well as quality of services in different institutions as relevant information is available on the internet. The third emerging trend is closely linked to the current high spending in healthcare that has pushed up health insurance premiums.

The Role of Social Media in the Management of Information on an Assignment

The Role of Social Media in the Management of Information on an Organization - Assignment Example Social media has many uses, the majority of which are beneficial while a few are detrimental. In a positive way, social media have revolutionized both personal and business communications. The new communication technology has completely transformed the mode of information management in many organizations. It has been used in advertising, delivery of news, chatting, sharing of photos and images, among other diverse uses. Social media has enlarged the social space for millions of people. On the detrimental side, social media have facilitated cyberbullying, bad publicity, and the spread of propaganda among other problems. Social media has facilitated globalization through the creation of vast interactive networks through sharing of information. Sites such as LinkedIn provide a platform on which professionals share their ideas and research work resulting in synergistic research. More growth is expected in the social media industry and its effects will continue to be felt in the corporate arena. Social networks have influenced in a great way in which organizations go on with their usual duties. Verbal communication has greatly declined while the social space has widened whi le the advertising platforms have increased. However, the social sites have been faulted for its simplicity in sharing any information, some of which may place an organization at a vulnerable position. In this paper, I will endeavor to establish the role of social media in the management of information in an organization. In addition, a focus on ‘cloud networking’ shall be put into perspective as it relates to the management of information. Finally, the issue of security in the management of information shall be addressed. Social media has made computer-aided communication very easy, convenient and affordable. Through social media, one may access information that their followers are updating instantly.  

Home work communication Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Home work communication - Assignment Example Whereas parent-child attachment may have been developed during the child’s babyhood, this bond is likely to be tested as the child develops his or her own personality. These are, in many ways, bigger problems than the difference in race between the parent and adopted child (Fisher, 2003). With trans-racial adoption, there may be extra issues that the adoptive parent is often encouraged to deal with in his or her children of a different race. According to a research that sought to understand how cultural identity is reinforced by the adoptive parents of foster children of a different race, participants stated that it is quite common for strangers to ask odd questions about the true heritage of the child (Herd, 2012). While there are strangers who will comment positively on the rich mix in a multicultural family, there are others who will make unbecoming remarks. According to the study documented by Herd, there are different strategies with which adoptive parents can respond to uncalled for remarks. For instance, they can change the subject, inquire as to the intention of the stranger, or simply educate him or her on how adoption works. It is also important to realize that trans-racially adopted children do not have the opportunity to learn about their birth cultures by watching their adopted parents in daily life. This means that adoptive parents with children of a different race should seek for opportunities in which their children can be party to positive or constructive events during which people of their own ethnic background are portrayed positively. According to the research participants in the study documented by Herd, adopted children can learn about the special attributes of their personhood by being exposed to people of their birth race in positive ways (Herd, 2012). For instance, Caucasian parents who were part of this study often took their African American children to salons where they had a chance to learn how best to manage African American hair. This experience not only reinforced positive aspects of the African American experience for the children, but also helped in building their relationships with their adoptive parents. Once this trust is established, the children involved in trans-racial adoptions, among other types of adoptions, will trust what their adoptive parents say and how they teach them about the world’s attitude towards their unique family. According to a research conducted by the Eva B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, â€Å"trans-racial adoption is not responsible for the development of social or psychological maladjustment issues in adopted children; rather, these children, like all other adopted children and their parents face assorted challenges, and the way in which the parents respond to the problems hinders or facilitates the children's progressive development (VanderMolen, 2005). According to the participants in this study, the issue of adoptive identity challenges all children regardles s of race. It is common for adopted children, for instance, to downplay the adoption issue when in school because they want to fit in and not seem odd. However, inside, they have to deal with fears such as losing their adoptive parents and questions about why their real parents gave them up. There are many advantages to adopting children from a different race (Woolf, 2006). Psychological research studies have established that trans-racially adopted children tend to deal with

The Role of Social Media in the Management of Information on an Assignment

The Role of Social Media in the Management of Information on an Organization - Assignment Example Social media has many uses, the majority of which are beneficial while a few are detrimental. In a positive way, social media have revolutionized both personal and business communications. The new communication technology has completely transformed the mode of information management in many organizations. It has been used in advertising, delivery of news, chatting, sharing of photos and images, among other diverse uses. Social media has enlarged the social space for millions of people. On the detrimental side, social media have facilitated cyberbullying, bad publicity, and the spread of propaganda among other problems. Social media has facilitated globalization through the creation of vast interactive networks through sharing of information. Sites such as LinkedIn provide a platform on which professionals share their ideas and research work resulting in synergistic research. More growth is expected in the social media industry and its effects will continue to be felt in the corporate arena. Social networks have influenced in a great way in which organizations go on with their usual duties. Verbal communication has greatly declined while the social space has widened whi le the advertising platforms have increased. However, the social sites have been faulted for its simplicity in sharing any information, some of which may place an organization at a vulnerable position. In this paper, I will endeavor to establish the role of social media in the management of information in an organization. In addition, a focus on ‘cloud networking’ shall be put into perspective as it relates to the management of information. Finally, the issue of security in the management of information shall be addressed. Social media has made computer-aided communication very easy, convenient and affordable. Through social media, one may access information that their followers are updating instantly.