The Universe of Disco


Thu, 20 Oct 2022

A linguistic oddity

Last week I was in the kitchen and Katara tried to tell Toph a secret she didn't want me to hear. I said this was bad opsec, told them that if they wanted to exchange secrets they should do it away from me, and without premeditating it, I uttered the following:

You shouldn't talk about things you shouldn't talk about while I'm in the room while I'm in the room.

I suppose this is tautological. But it's not any sillier than Tarski's observation that "snow is white" is true exactly if snow is white, and Tarski is famous.

I've been trying to think of more examples that really work. The best I've been able to come up with is:

You shouldn't eat things you shouldn't eat because they might make you sick, because they might make you sick.

I'm trying to decide if the nesting can be repeated. Is this grammatical?

You shouldn't talk about things you shouldn't talk about things you shouldn't talk about while I'm in the room while I'm in the room while I'm in the room.

I think it isn't. But if it is, what does it mean?

[ Previously, sort of. ]


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