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An example of a sentence like this would be "The bus will come when it comes." and others along the same line. Do these types of sentences have a special name?

Edwin Ashworth
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akshat
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    Does this answer your question? Can there be a better word for commonplace observations? truisms, platitudes ... Note that your example sentence is not fatuous, it is a gentle paraphrase of "Don't be so impatient ... the bus will arrive eventually." – Edwin Ashworth Dec 22 '20 at 15:34
  • @EdwinAshworth I do not think so. This link is for, as it says, commonplace observations that do carry meaning of their own. Information can be inferred from these sentences. What I'm talking about are sentence that don't provide any additional knowledge other than what the asker already knows. – akshat Dec 22 '20 at 15:37
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    Welcome to EL&U. The example you've provided is not meaningless (in the way colorless green ideas sleep furiously is), although it is tautological. Could you [edit] your post to provide other examples? – choster Dec 22 '20 at 15:37
  • Look at James Waldby's 'A banality is something "common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable; containing nothing new or fresh." ' If not, What is the noun for self evident or obvious? certainly duplicates. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 22 '20 at 15:39

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The statement is a truism

= an undoubted or self-evident truth especially : one too obvious for mention

Merriam Webster

This word is preferable to another candidate, platitude, because platitudes are meaningless because of previous repetition rather than inherent meaninglessness.

platitude = a remark or statement that may be true but is boring and has no meaning because it has been said so many times before

Cambridge dictionary

Anton
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  • Already mentioned; given in a 'comment' rather than an 'answer' as this is old ground. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 22 '20 at 15:52
  • @EdwinAshworth An all too familiar issue of re-SEARCH versus RE-search. I tend to favour the first; it can sometimes uncover new ground or be more up-to-date but success is never guaranteed. – Anton Dec 22 '20 at 16:49
  • The duplicate close-vote ethos on ELU is in line with the aim not to re-invent the wheelbarrow and end up with an unsearchable morass. Giving an answer already mentioned in a comment, and ignoring a duplicate claim, seems to flout that aim. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 22 '20 at 16:55
  • Sometimes it is difficult to reconcile all the prescriptive advice one gets. You point out that my answer repeats something in a comment (OK, I regret I did not pay enough attention). Others have pointed out elsewhere that comments are not for answers and I therefore take the view that the priority is to answer the question when one can, rather than add more comment. Once again, your view is that the site is a finely honed product whereas I incline more to the view that it is as much fascinating process as it is authoritative product. – Anton Dec 22 '20 at 17:02