Tautology
Tautology is the statement of something already self-evident in its own terms, where the predicate asserts what the subject has already established, so the proposition adds no new information. Unlike epizeuxis, which repeats the same word for emphasis, or polyptoton, which shifts a repeated word's grammatical form, tautology repeats the idea rather than the word: the sentence circles back on its own premise. It surfaces in everyday speech in phrases such as 'free gift' or 'ATM machine', and in a lyric it can turn the obvious into a stance, stating what needs no stating so that the act of stating it becomes the point.
By asserting what is already true by definition, tautology lets a speaker treat a truism as a verdict: naming the obvious presses the listener to accept it as settled and beyond argument. In Taylor's writing the redundancy can carry a shrug of inevitability, the sense that certain people will behave in certain ways because that is simply what they are, which lets the speaker dismiss their behaviour as predictable rather than wounding.
Appears in 1 song
“'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'players gonna play' and 'haters gonna hate' as tautological expressions: a player playing and a hater hating state what is already contained in the words themselves, so the sentence adds nothing the subject did not already assert. He notes the redundancy is deliberate, the same way everyday phrases such as 'free gift' or 'ATM machine' say more than they need to. Stating the obvious lets the speaker treat her critics' behaviour as self-evident and predictable.
Framing the critics' conduct as a tautology renders it inevitable and therefore dismissible: players play and haters hate because that is simply what they are, so their noise reflects their nature rather than any truth about the speaker.