EVOCATION AND TAUTOLOGIES

Tautologies such as Kids are kids are forms of self-identification in which objects referenced by a noun phrase are identified by means of e vocation, with a set of qualities and attributes normally assumed abou t them. Evocation is thus a reference to shared beliefs, which are the n reaffirmed in the current context of utterance. Equally crucial for tautological utterances is the question of how one describes a referen t, i.e. whether one describes it 'opaquely' or 'transparently'. In ref erring to a girl in a painting, for example, the speaker can describe the image-girl opaquely as a blue-eyed girl, if the (image-)girl in th e painting is blue-eyed; alternatively, the speaker can describe the ( image-)girl transparently as me, if she herself is the model of the gi rl in the painting. I conclude that tautologies mean what they mean be cause they involve an evocation of shared knowledge, and they take the forms they do because shared knowledge is described in ways that maxi mal linguistic redundancy is achieved for rhetorical purposes.