Pleonasm

Pleonasm (/ˈpl.əˌnæzəm/; from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλέον (pléon) 'to be in excess')[1][2] is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as in "black darkness," "burning fire," "the man he said,"[3] or "vibrating with motion." It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria.[4] Pleonasm may also be used for emphasis, or because the phrase has become established in a certain form. Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature.[5]

  1. ^ Latham, Robert Gordon (1855). A Hand-book of the English Language: For the Use of Students of the Universities and Higher Classes of Schools. Walton & Maberly.
  2. ^ "Pleonasm – Definition and Examples of Pleonasm". Literary Devices. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 1 July 2003. p. 952. ISBN 978-0-87779-808-8.
  4. ^ Okopień-Sławińska, Aleksandra (2008). "Pleonazm". In Słowiński, Janusz (ed.). Słownik terminów literackich (in Polish). Wrocław. pp. 390–391.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Szymanek, Bogdan (2015). "Remarks on Tautology in Word-Formation". In Bauer, Laurie; Körtvélyessy, Lívia; Štekauer, Pavol (eds.). Semantics of Complex Words. Studies in Morphology. Vol. 3. Springer International Publishing. p. 146. ISBN 978-3-319-14102-2. Retrieved 27 October 2020. The concept of tautology is defined here, rather loosely, as 'expressing the same idea twice in different words'... However, according to some other accounts, such expressions should rather be viewed as instances of pleonasm.