Lexical Repetition

The degree to which languages tolerate lexical repetition varies. English discourages it, and when I am writing I sometimes find myself alternating between perhaps and maybe to ensure I do not use one of them too often. But this is just stylistic, and it does not add to the clarity of what I write.

I get the impression that Malay tolerates lexical repetition much more. I saw this phrase on page 1 of the Media Permata of 25 May 2010 in an article about the control of TB:

mengikuti arahan seperti yang diarahkan

which is literally "follow the directions as directed". Note that, in the Malay, there are two words that are derived from the root arah.

In English, I suspect this would probably be "follow the instructions as directed" or something like that.

Note that there is nothing particularly wrong about lexical repetition. In fact, it is one of the ways that cohesion is maintained in a text. In contrast, English tends to use pronouns as one main way to achieve cohesion, which is one reason why there are so many more pronouns in an English text than an equivalent Malay one. However, when people in Brunei and elsewhere are writing in English, they should be aware that repetition of lexical items is discouraged, even when the words are different derivatives of the same root.