You searched for: “tautologies
redundancies, tautologies, and pleonasms
This entry is located in the following units: Pleonasms or Tautological Redundancies (page 18) tauto-, taut- + (page 1)
tautology, tautologies
1. The needless repetition of an idea; especially, in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman”.
2. The redundant repetition of a meaning in a sentence, using different words.
3. In rhetoric, a tautology is the use of redundant language in speech or writing, or, put simply, "saying the same thing twice".
4. In logic: a compound propositional form all of whose instances are true, as “A or not A”; a proposition or statement that, in itself, is logically true; as, "Today, that competing swimmer will win or will not win."
This entry is located in the following units: -ology, -logy, -ologist, -logist (page 73) tauto-, taut- + (page 2)
Word Entries containing the term: “tautologies
Tautologies and Pleonasms
Tautologous expressions are often used in legal documents for clarification of meaning; such as, "will and testament" and "breaking and entering".

This practice may have been a result of expressing English documents with a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and French, or Latin terms.

When early writers weren't sure if both designations had the same meaning, or that others might not have a clear understanding of the French or Latin, they apparently included terms from both the Anglo-Saxon and the "foreign"; words side by side, just to be sure others understood what was meant. This is according to David Crystal in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.

Pleonasms are the opposites (antonyms) of oxymora. A pleonasm consists of two concepts (usually two words) that are redundant. What does "redundant" mean? Well, how about "more than enough; overabundant; excessive; and superfluous"?

Still having a problem understanding what pleonasm means? Some pleonastic expressions are also known as tautologies. Tautology means, "needless repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence; redundancy; pleonasm". All right, what about pleonasm? Well, it means, "the use of more words than are necessary for the expression of an idea; redundancy".

So it is that we go around in circles: pleonasm means tautology, which means redundancy, which means pleonasm, which means tautology, ad infinitum.

This entry is located in the following units: Pleonasms or Tautological Redundancies (page 21) tauto-, taut- + (page 1)