The Devil's Dictionary and repetition

[Joseph Carson]

Greetings to all ADS-Listers,

        One of the foundations of American narrative humor is the reliance
on using three characters to tell the tale.  "There were a rabbi, a priest,
and a parson ...", "There were these three soldiers on leave, one sailor,
one airman, and one marine ....", "You got some of these, some of them, and
some of those, so then you ...", and the list of "dese, dem, doses" goes on,
and on, and on.  Why?  I have no idea ... just my 3 cents worth. - Regards,
Joseph Carson

Ronald Kephart wrote:

> >...What is it about 3 times, as opposed to some other number?  Is it part
> of a certain set of languages, or is it some innate human tendency?
>
> Three is, and has been for a long time, a magic number in
> Indo-European. Father, son, and holy ghost; id, ego, superego; three
> strikes and you're out; three wishes from the genie; you get three
> guesses; three branches of government; Peter, Paul, and Mary; and so on.
> The magic number in Quechua is two, so it's at least partly cultural.
>
> There's a classic article about the clash between magic numbers, but I
> don't have the refs in my head it's been so long (I can probably find it
> if someone wants). Anyway, it involves white school teachers asking
> questions three times and then moving on when the student didn't answer;
> their Native American students, however, were waiting for something like a
> fifth time before answering, which was culturally appropriate for them.
>
> Ronald Kephart
> English & "Foreign" Languages
> University of North Florida