{"id":2423,"date":"2017-04-24T11:37:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T17:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2423"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:22:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:22:57","slug":"striking-the-surplus-from-tautologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/striking-the-surplus-from-tautologies\/","title":{"rendered":"Striking the Surplus from Tautologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The English language includes the tools it needs to communicate with beauty, depth, and precision. Like any other healthy entity, it also moves most swiftly without extra weight. In the world of words, flabby noun phrases are known as tautologies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster<\/em> online defines a tautology<\/em> as \u201c1a: needless repetition of an idea, statement, or word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Common English is rife with such excess. It often occurs because of needless descriptive emphasis or a simple lack of grammatical economy.<\/p>\n

We touched on this issue in Pleonasms Are a Bit Much<\/a>.\u00a0In that entry, we defined a pleonasm <\/em>as deriving from pleonazein<\/em>, a Greek word meaning \u201cmore than enough.\u201d \u201cThe jolly man was happy\u201d is one such example of adding a pound made more of fat than muscle.<\/p>\n

We return to this subject and call it by its other namesake so you might recognize this intruder of our language by either ID card it carries.<\/p>\n

Tautologies will never be fully edited from spoken language simply because of inherent informality; only a well-trained and -disciplined mind will omit extra words during a conversation in motion.<\/p>\n

Careful writers, on the other hand, have the time and the will to infuse their linguistic diets with protein. They cut the sugar and carbs that add calories without nutrients to their thoughts.<\/p>\n

They avoid composing phrases and sentences such as:<\/p>\n

each and every one<\/strong>\u00a0 Choose \u201ceach one\u201d or \u201cevery one\u201d\u2013both are clear when standing alone.<\/p>\n

above and beyond <\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cBeyond\u201d is all you need in a statement such as \u201cHer report went beyond expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

vast majority <\/strong>\u00a0 You hear it all the time, and you might even use it yourself. If you do, you now recognize that \u201cmajority\u201d means the largest part of the group, so you can cast the \u201cvast\u201d and not lose your meaning.<\/p>\n

forward planning <\/strong>\u00a0 If \u201cplan\u201d means \u201cto devise or project the realization or achievement of\u201d or \u201cto make plans\u201d (as in \u201cplan ahead\u201d), is it possible to plan backwards?<\/p>\n

mass exodus <\/strong>\u00a0 Yet another pudgy phrase we hear or use all the time. An \u201cexodus\u201d is defined as \u201ca mass departure,\u201d so we know which word need not join the evacuation.<\/p>\n

Trained expert<\/strong>, violent explosion<\/strong>, invited guest<\/strong>, identical match<\/strong>: The line continues out the door and winds its way to the streets of congested communication outside.<\/p>\n

You have the power to improve the speed and flow of traffic in English. Just say \u201cta-ta\u201d to tautologies by reviewing word choices and ensuring you enhance your meanings rather than duplicate them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The English language includes the tools it needs to communicate with beauty, depth, and precision. Like any other healthy entity, it also moves most swiftly without extra weight. In the world of words, flabby noun phrases are known as tautologies. Merriam-Webster online defines a tautology as \u201c1a: needless repetition of an idea, statement, or word.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-idioms"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}