One Good, One Bad List

First panel. This sentence has two lists of adjectives. What’s wrong with the bad one? I speak of grammar, of course.

You’re right (I hope)! The second list is redundant. Both words mean the same thing. The first list has words with (technically) different meanings, so that list is grammatically okay.

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Huh?

• Redundancy is when you repeat something and the repeat is unnecessary. So “return back” is a redundancy. “Back” is redundant because it’s unnecessary; all you need is “return.”
• A Tautology is when you say something twice. It refers to the repetition, not to whether the two (or more) words have an unnecessary word. Yes, the distinction is subtle.

Here’s a good example of a tautology. If you think about it, the two parts say the same thing! (no limit=weren’t restricted)

Of course, the not-obvious tautology is what makes the comic funny.

One of my five main principles in writing is to be concise. (The name for the error of not being concise is to be pleonastic, which is a fancy word for “wordiness.”) So here:

And one type of pleonasm is being redundant, which is when the extra word or words mean the same thing as the word you actually need. Don’t do this!

Here’s the sentence, from an article about insomnia in the Spring 2029 New Scientist:

If pills aren’t necessarily the answer for people with insomnia, neither are overly simplistic behavioural interventions.

“Simplistic means “overly simple.” You don’t need the separate word “overly.”

So you’re either repeating “overly,” which is a redundancy, or you’re just inserting the unnecessary word “overly,” which is a pleonasm. Take your pick.

Sorry, no picture.

A redundancy is when two (or more) words that mean the same thing appear in a sentence, and one of the words is unnecessary. This redundancy is so common, most people don’t notice it. Can you spot it?

Yup, it’s “tiny little.” Do you ever say that?