Tautologies and pleonasms

It is amazing how many tautologies we use every day. You only need to look carefully at the words, often so familiar to us that we never do examine them, to see that they are tautologies. Pleonasms are harder to spot, but Chas Jones provides a helpful list.

Tautology: Needless repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.

Pleonasm: The use of more words than are necessary for the expression of an idea. A pleonasm consists of two concepts, usually two words, which makes one redundant. Some pleonastic expressions are tautologies.

But….Every rule has its exceptions

Tautologous expressions are often found in legal documents e.g. ‘aid and abet’, ‘will and testament’. Some scholars suggest this practice developed when Anglo-Norman included terms from Anglo-Saxon beside Norman-French to make sure the meaning was clear to everybody. Now the words are ‘twinned’ and sound 'normal'.

Recognise any of these?

And the words, very, totally and completely are often redundant!

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