Horror aequi,[a] or avoidance of identity,[2]: 100 is a linguistic principle that language users have psychological[3]: 266 or physiological[1]: 51 motives or limits on cognitive planning[1]: 51 to avoid repetition of identical linguistic structures.
The term originated in 1909 in Karl Brugmann,[4]: 219 who used it to explain dissimilation,[3]: 266 the tendency for similar consonants or vowels in a word to become less similar,[5]: 146 which can often be chalked up to simply "euphony".[4]: 219 Today, however, the term is usually applied instead to grammatical elements or structures.[4]: 219
One of the most widely cited definitions[6]: 39 [7]: 71 is that of Günter Rohdenburg: "the horror aequi principle involves the widespread (and presumably universal) tendency to avoid the use of formally (near-)identical and (near-)adjacent (non-coordinate) grammatical elements or structures."[8]: 205
In the study of phonology, such avoidance falls under the obligatory contour principle,[2]: 100 which holds that certain consecutive identical sounds are not permitted[9][10]: 383–84 (such as in Mandarin Chinese, where two third tones are not used consecutively[11]: 104 ).
The term horror aequi is sometimes extended to the stylistic preference to avoid repeating the same word in a given text.[12]
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