Repetition of words

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I would say that repeated words are quite common but rather not in European languages. They are often used to mean plural case.

Accidental repetition too can occur more often in languages that have free grammar. I recently ran across a 寒寒 in a Chinese text that was actually accidental, from two separate terms 伤寒 = "damage by cold" and 寒热 = "chills and fever"

Repeated words are rare in European languages in part because Indo-European grammars generally force neighboring words to be from different categories (noun/verb/adjective/article/peposition etc). Also repetition is seen as bad style and students are taught to avoid it.

But still repetitions can happen in English too. "to two", "two to", "had had", "said that that book", ...

"The teacher where the student had had had had had had had had displeased the teacher"

All the best, --stolfi