• GigaBowser@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    That’s not what this is though. You aren’t emphasizing how “after” it was. You aren’t distinguishing it from some sort of “before-after”. This is just a typo.

    • colinA
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      it’s maybe not contrastive focus reduplication as Wikipedia defines it, but that is the closest label i know for this concept.

      it’s kinda like… like when you pause to search for an example and then repeat the word “like” when you resume the thought. it’s an idiom, maybe helps to clue the listener that you’re completing a paused sentence instead of starting a new one, maybe makes it easier to communicate intended tonal shifts since it lets that shift happen between two identical words (making the tonal difference unmistakable) instead of between two different words (where the difference in tone could be mistaken for a difference in pronunciation).

      i’ve used repetition in this meme format deliberately. the intended reading is really similar to that “like… like” example: the top text is light/airy, then a pause as you jump to the bottom, and then the bottom text is serious/mono-tone. voice it out loud in that manner, with and then without the repetition, and see if one feels more natural to you than the other. i’m curious how much this idiom varies among speakers.