One of the problems of modern philology is speech redundancy and its insufficiency. She points to a meager vocabulary, the inability to clearly state her thoughts. Especially destructive is the manifestation of speech redundancy in the works of novice writers, journalists. Its main manifestations include repetition of words, tautology and pleonasm.
The ability to find these speech errors in the texts , to correct them in a timely manner is the key to a competent, beautiful and easy to read text. True, far from always tautology and pleonasm are gross speech errors. In some cases, they can be an excellent means of expressiveness and emotional design of the text.
The main types of speech errors
Speech redundancy, or verbosity, involves the transmission of the same thought in a sentence and utterance. The main types of such errors associated with lexical deficiency include primarily tautology, pleonasm and repetition of words in sentences. These speech errors indicate a low level of speech culture. But at the same time they are used in fiction as a means of emotional expressiveness.
Speech errors include the use of superfluous words in a sentence, splitting of a concept, that is, a situation in which a verb predicate is replaced by a verb-nominal combination. Vivid examples are the following expressions: take a walk (instead of walking), fight (instead of fighting). Also, the most common mistakes encountered in spoken language include parasitic words: here, well, type, etc.
Repeating words as one of speech mistakes
Quite often in the texts you can find a repetition of words. For example: “A newspaper was published once a week. In the morning, the newspaper was delivered to the kiosk. ” So writing is unacceptable. The word "newspaper" is used in both the first and second sentences, which is a rather gross speech mistake. In this case, the correct decision would be to replace it with a synonym or pronoun.
The repetition of words indicates that the author cannot clearly and succinctly articulate his thought, owns a meager vocabulary. True, it is worth noting that in some cases such speech redundancy may be justified. It can become an excellent stylistic device, with the help of which the author emphasizes one or another thought. For example: "They walked, and walked, and walked, not one day, not one night." In this case, the repetition of the verb indicates the duration of the process.
Pleonasm
The term "pleonasm" (pleonasmos) is translated from the Greek language as "excessiveness", "excess". And it means the use in speech of close in meaning, superfluous words in a sentence. Vivid examples of pleonasms can be found in such proposals:
- "A blond blonde came up to me."
- "In the room they found a dead corpse."
- "He worked silently, without words."
- "The oil is very oily."
- "He wrote his autobiography."
- “He was interested in a vacancy in the company.”
- "Vasily fell down."
- "We trample on foot the native land."
All these proposals are overloaded with unnecessary refinements or pleonasms. So, the blonde in any case is light, an autobiography comes from two Greek words and means a self-written story of her own life, etc.
Like any other speech redundancy, pleonasm is a sign of a person’s lack of education, a very poor vocabulary. You should carefully analyze your vocabulary. And also in time to find and correct errors associated with the use of pleonasm in speech.
Tautology
The term tautology consists of two Greek words. The first - tauto - means "the same", the second - logos - "word". It is interpreted as a repetition of cognate words or morphemes in a sentence. Most philologists note that tautology is one of the varieties of pleonasm.
It also manifests speech redundancy. Examples of this phenomenon are clearly expressed in the following phrases: tell a story, there are buses in the bus depot, etc. A hidden tautology is also distinguished when a Russian and a foreign word with a close, identical meaning is combined in the phrase. For example: debuted for the first time, internal interior, folklore, own autobiography.
Use in style
It is worth noting that speech redundancy, examples of which can be found in fiction, is far from always a speech error. So, in stylistics, the use of pleonasms and tautology helps to strengthen the effectiveness and emotionality of speech, emphasize the aphorism of the statement. Humor writers use these errors to create puns.
Note the main functions that speech redundancy and tautology play in style:
- Use in speech of the main characters in order to emphasize the poverty of his vocabulary, lack of education.
- To enhance the semantic significance of a particular moment, highlighting a certain thought in the text.
- Use tautological repetitions to emphasize the intensity or duration of action. For example: "We wrote and wrote."
- The use of pleonasms in order to emphasize or clarify the sign of an object, its characteristic.
- Sentences with speech redundancy can also be used to indicate a large concentration of objects. For example: "And everywhere books, books, books ...".
- Use to create puns. For example: "Let me not allow it."
Note that the most common tautology and pleonasm are found in folklore. For example: they lived, they were, path-track, apparently not visible, marvelous, wonderful, wonderful miracle, grief to grieve. The basis of the majority of phraseological hooks and sayings is tautology: it’s small it’s small, you can’t hear it, you can see the species, walk with a shake, all sorts of things, bitter grief, sit there.
Regulatory Use Cases
It is worth noting that in some cases pleonasm and tautology may be normative. Often this happens when the phrase is not felt semantic congestion. So, speech redundancy is absent in such expressions: white linen, black ink. The explanation is simple. After all, linen can be gray and yellow. And ink can be both black, and blue, green, red colors.
conclusions
One of the main mistakes that can often be found in oral and written speech is speech redundancy. Tautology and pleonasm are its main manifestations, which indicate the scarcity of language, poor vocabulary. At the same time, these lexical phenomena can be used in fiction to create bright, colorful pictures, highlight this or that thought.
For any educated person, especially if he works in the field of journalism or is fond of writing books, it is important to be able to find pleonasm and tautology in the text, correct them in a timely manner so that the texts are easy to read. Speech redundancy and insufficient vocabulary make the material presented uninteresting to a wide audience.