Tautology (language)

In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement that repeats an idea using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, effectively "saying the same thing twice".[1][2] Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature.[3] Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of style when unintentional. Intentional repetition may emphasize a thought or help the listener or reader understand a point.[4] Sometimes logical tautologies like "Boys will be boys" are conflated with language tautologies, but a language tautology is not inherently true, while a logical tautology always is.[4]

  1. ^ Fowler, Henry Watson (1 April 1983). Gowers, Sir Ernest (ed.). Modern English Usage (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-281389-3.
  2. ^ Bryson, Bill (29 July 1999). The Mother Tongue: The English Language. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-014305-8.
  3. ^ 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. pp. 143–161. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14102-2_8. ISBN 978-3319141022.
  4. ^ a b Bascom, John (1866). Philosophy of Rhetoric. Boston, Crosby and Ainsworth. p. 241. OL 1853537W – via Internet Archive.