[英語小知識 Blog]
Q: How do you say 鬼打墻 in English?
A: Guǐ dǎ qiánɡ...wait, wasn't that answer 鬼打墻?
When we find ourselves wandering around in the same place for hours, seemingly lost, or talking for ages without coming to a conclusion about something, we say it’s a matter of 鬼打墻 in Chinese.
In English, there is no literal translation of this phrase. We generally say we’re “going in circles” or “going around in circles” (e.g. We’ve been going around in circles for hours trying to find the hotel).
當我們覺得自己在同一個地方晃了好幾個小時，似乎迷路了，或是講話講了很久卻沒有達成什麼樣的結論，我們就會說這是「鬼打牆」。在英文裡，我們的說法則是 going in circles 或 going around in circles（例如：我們想要找到旅館，卻一直在鬼打牆。）。
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A common logical fallacy for this type of argument is called "the fallacy of circular reasoning" (循環論證的謬誤).
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%AA%E7%92%B0%E8%AB%96%E8%AD%89
Avoid this type of logical errors in your essays!
Sources:
http://www.websaru.com/%E9%AC%BC%E6%89%93%E5%A2%99.html
http://www.anglepedia.com/plate/web/papermsg.jsp?UI=beta&PI=2857
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