repeated vs. additional

Consider the following sentences:


1. After the patient did not respond to the initial dose, further doses visibly improved his condition.

2. After the patient did not respond to the initial dose, repeated doses visibly improved his condition.


These expressions are not synonymous in English.


In sentence #1, "further doses" refers to any additional doses that were given after the first one, however many or few.

There may even have been only one additional dose, despite the use of the plural form (though if there really was only one, it's probably better to be less ambiguous in stating this).


In sentence #2, "repeated doses" refers to a series of doses that took place after the first one.

This means that there were at least two of them, and the term "repeated" will cause many people to imagine that there were numerous doses given (though it doesn't absolutely require this interpretation).



What languages would (generally) use separate expressions for each of these meanings, and which would tend to use the same expression for both?

This thread was spurred by the examples of German erneut, Russian povtornyi and more, but I'm not an expert on these terms, so I will leave the commentary about them to fluent speakers.

I see what you mean... In Russian, повторный you mentioned refers to the repetition of the first dose; and, while basically it can be plural (повторные) in this context, but if one is squeamish about logic, it would be better to use the singular form for a single dose, and "further/succeeding" otherwise (дальнейшие/последующие) - unless the initial were "doses". But there's the passive participle form повторяемые (whereas the above повторные is a pure adjective) and in principle it is the meaning you need, but it seems to be not so idiomatic (because of the lack of clariity about the agent by whom the doses are assumed to be repeated). Or, one can be descriptive and say something like неоднократные дальнейшие - "repeated further", literally "non-onetime further" but it implies more than one and likely a number of them.

In French, I would say:

1. Après l'absence de réponse du patient à la dose initiale, des doses supplémentaires ont visiblement amélioré son état.

2. Après l'absence de réponse du patient à la dose initiale, des doses répétées/régulières ont visiblement amélioré son état.

Gavril said:

This thread was spurred by the examples of German erneut, Russian povtornyi and more

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As nizzebro has correctly pointed out, повторный doesn't exactly mean 'repeated', though it's connected (being based on the idea that something was repeated once or more).

nizzebro said:

But there's the passive participle form повторяемые

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I struggle to imagine how you would manage to put it into the original context.
The (more or less) exact counterpart of 'repeated' here is повторяющиеся ('repeating themselves; being repeated' - with the usual Slavic reflexive mediopassive).

Awwal12 said:

I struggle to imagine how you would manage to put it into the original context.
The (more or less) exact counterpart of 'repeated' here is повторяющиеся ('repeating themselves; being repeated' - with the usual Slavic reflexive mediopassive).

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Yes, it's unfortunate - that's basically what I wrote about. You are right, the reflexive form seems to be slightly better, because the passive is "less likely adjective"- it either needs an actor overt or the action in progress. However, the meaning of the word is the same - just the roles are different, where both have a certain problem in that regard, so, in the active role the "dose" feels like a self-evaluating event - maybe replacing it with "intake/injection" (приём/инъекция) would help.

In Greek I'd use:

1. Adv. «περαιτέρω» [pe̞ɾe̞ˈt̠e̞.ɾo̞] --> further < Ancient Greek adverb «περαιτέρω» /perɐi̯ˈte.rɔː/ (same meaning), which is the adverbialised comparative grade of the adjective «περαίτερος» /peˈrɐi̯.teros/ --> beyond < adj. «περαῖος» /peˈrɐí̯.ìos/ --> ulterior (PIE *per-).

2. Adj. «επαναλαμβανόμενος» [e̞panalamvaˈno̞.me̞no̞s̠] (m.), «επαναλαμβανόμενη» [e̞panalamvaˈno̞.me̞ni] (f.), «επαναλαμβανόμενo» [e̞panalamvaˈno̞.me̞no̞] (n.) --> repeated < Ancient Greek mediopassive participle «ἐπαναλαμβανόμενος» /epɐnɐlɐmbɐˈno.menos/ --> repeated < Ancient Greek verb «ἐπαναλαβάνω» /epɐnɐlɐmˈbɐ.nɔː/ --> to repeat, resume, take up again, a compound: prefix and preposition «ἐπί» /eˈpi/ + preposition «ἀνά» /ɐˈnɐ/ + verb «λαμβάνω» /lɐmˈbɐ.nɔː/