Lexical Repetition

One important difference between languages, something that learners are rarely taught about, is the the degree to which lexical repetition is tolerated. In Malay, it is fine to repeat a word, but in English it is better to use a pronoun.

Here is an extract from a dialogue in my Malay textbook:Note the repetition of nenek ('grandma'). The translation is given as:While this is certainly accurate, it is not very good English, as it would be better to use 'her' rather than 'Grandma' in the last sentence.

This kind of lexical repetition is common in writing I get from students in Brunei. For example, one student wrote:

I have chosen to find a job in the government sector basically because jobs in the government sector are more secure.

Note the repetition of government sector. It would be better to write something like this:

I have chosen to find a job in the government sector basically because that kind of position is more secure.

On the other hand, if New Englishes in places such as Brunei really start to influence the style of International English, then maybe tolerance for lexical repetition will become more acceptable. We will see.