ERRORS IN STYLE
TAUTOLOGIES AND ALL THAT
Even after we have made sense of the parts of speech, punctuation, grammar and sentence construction, it is still possible to get our English horribly wrong.
We can mix up our words (is it lay or lie?); we can use too many words (should we say exact replica?); and we can confuse things (you never did nothing). Just to get our style right can be a problem. Who out there uses whom these days? Are old-fashioned words like whilst and amongst still valid? Should we avoid clichés like the plague?
And then there are the rules that never were. Is it correct to occasionally split infinitives? If you can’t end a sentence with a preposition, then what are they for? And is it acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction?
On this and the following page we will try to answer some of those questions.
Using too many words can mostly be considered a fault in style. Redundant phrases, or pleonasms, are groups of words with a single meaning that can often be replaced with just a single word. Some well-known examples are: at this point in time, which can adequately be replaced with the simple now; and in order that, which can be replaced with so or to.
The tautology is a specific type of redundant phrase. It means saying the same thing twice, but with different words (e.g. twelve noon; safe sanctuary; sum total).
Closely related to these is the oxymoron, where words of contradictory meaning are joined: the only way out was in; bitter-sweet; anecdotal evidence; pretty ugly; deafening silence. Some phrases like military intelligence, Microsoft Works, and non-working mother are not oxymora, but seem to be when seen from a humorous viewpoint (just as criminal lawyer is not really a tautology). In fact, tautologies, pleonasms and oxymora are all seriously used by our greatest writers:
- “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene III)
- “He was now sufficiently composed to order a funeral of modest magnificence ...” (Samuel Johnson)
- “O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!” (John Donne, Devotions on Emergent Occasions.)
These examples are, of course, perfect. Often we can use wordy or contradictory phrases to express a paradox, create irony or introduce polemic to our writing. Also, flowery and wordy descriptive phrases may well express nuance where the pithy short word would seem mechanical – but they should only be used with purpose and caution. Generally, keep your language free of repetition and wordiness.
Here are a few well-known tautologies and pleonasms. Some are just a little bit of fun; others are serious errors in style:
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