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Why do tropes have weird names?

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SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#26: Feb 15th 2013 at 2:14:01 AM

We do actually do the "naming things" thing. Only that we prefer to have memorable names as opposed to completely obscure ones.

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FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#27: Feb 15th 2013 at 11:08:35 AM

[up][up] I disagree. We started this thing expressly to describe and name tropes. Having names for them was the thing that was missing from the world that we wanted to provide. Some tropes already had names, so they're legit.

Just like with other taxonomic efforts, we get to pick the names for things that have not been cataloged.

edited 15th Feb '13 12:18:15 PM by FastEddie

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32_Footsteps Think of the mooks! from Just north of Arkham Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Think of the mooks!
#28: Feb 15th 2013 at 12:12:33 PM

Also, just like with any other attempt at naming things, there's sometimes arguments over just what counts as official usage.

Want a solid case for this? When it came time to come up with the scientific name for the common housecat, there was a bunch of back-and-forth as to what it should be. Science now goes with Felis catus (what Linnaeus first proposed), but F. domesticus and F. silvestris catus have both been used and still pop up here and there.

You could get away with using any of those terms, although the first is the one with the widest acceptance.

TV Tropes is in a similar situation. Some cases, we're just using old names (like Gaslighting or The Mentor) that existed prior to this site. Sometimes, we're using our own words (like Narm) that have managed to catch on better than previous terms (like bathos for the previous trope). And sometimes, we do end up needing to change names as the ones first picked don't end up fitting (see Renamed Tropes in general).

We're working with a constantly evolving set of tools (i.e. language) - I suspect we'll never get it perfect, but that's why we keep working on it.

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Xtifr World's Toughest Milkman Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
World's Toughest Milkman
#29: Feb 15th 2013 at 1:25:13 PM

Some other points that may not have been mentioned:

First: If you just see the name of a trope, with no explanation, that's a Zero Context Example. Those are a no-no, and should commented out, moved to the discussion page, or even just plain deleted with an appropriate edit reason. (Though the first two are preferred.) Yes, just seeing "Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman" as a bullet by itself is not very helpful, which is why we allow deletion. But if you see:

You probably get at least a sense for what the trope is about. :)

Second: the wiki is about tropes. If you're coming here hoping to learn all about some particular work, you're on the wrong site. Work pages are completely secondary to our primary goal of documenting tropes. The only purpose a work page really serves is as a concrete example of how tropes may come together. We will happily delete a page that has a lengthy summary of the plot of a work, but no tropes; however, we will keep a page that has a two line summary of the work and a dozen or more tropes. Even if none of those tropes are about the main plot. We don't actually care about the plot; just the tropes.

edited 15th Feb '13 1:26:10 PM by Xtifr

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RJSavoy Reymmã from Edinburgh Since: Apr, 2011 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Reymmã
#30: Feb 16th 2013 at 11:10:31 AM

To try to get a representative sample of tropes, I took Haruhi Suzumiya (a trope-heavy work that has gotten a lot of attention on the wiki) and looked over (and edited a bit, but NVM) the J-N section.

Out of 94 entries, here are four with some Japanese (Joshikousei, Kawaisa, Kansai Regional Accent, Moe). Except for the accent thing, they could be given English names, but then they are peculiar to Japan so I can accept them.

The titles I would consider non-indicative are:

So 18 not-ideal titles, of which I would rename 5 at most. I do think it's a problem, but not to the extent seston implied.

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nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#32: Feb 16th 2013 at 3:33:24 PM

Seems like this thread has addressed the question pretty well. I'll go ahead and lock it.

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