Pleonasm: examples and features

Pleonasm is a special turn of speech, in which there is a duplication of a certain element of meaning. In other words, the expression can have several linguistic forms with the same meaning. This phenomenon can be present both in the finished segment of the text or speech, and in the very language expression.

Pleonasm, examples of which can be found in conversational speech every day, is the realization of a tendency towards redundancy of the message, which in turn helps to overcome the obstacles that prevent the correct understanding of the message (for example, communicative noise). In addition to preventing the negative impact of interference, pleonasm is a means of stylistic design of the message and a stylistic reception of poetic speech. Sometimes it is a language anomaly, when redundancy competes with the economy of language facilities. Such pleonasm is called a tautology and indicates a low semantic and stylistic competence of the speaker. For example: a guard is someone who guards, and security is the occupation of guards.

In its structure, pleonasm (examples clearly show this) is a duplication of the unit of the content plan, performed by repeating a certain unit of the expression plan (reduplication, tautology) or using units with a similar meaning (verbosity, synonymic repetition). It is contrasted with a reduction in the content plan-an ellipse, a default, or a clipping. Often, pleonasm is called reduplication - repetition of a word or morpheme, which is a means of form and word formation.

Pleonarism is divided into a compulsory, stable turn of speech conditioned by the system of language, and optional, not conditioned by it. In turn, facultative pleonasms are divided into conventional (fixed for the norm of the language) and nonconventional (created by the speaker or writing spontaneously).

If we talk about the concept of "obligatory pleonasm", examples of it are already present in the grammatical system. They are a repetition of certain grammatical meanings in the endings:

- the coordination of the endings of the adjective and the noun: the red house;

- Repeat the grammatical meanings of the preposition or the verb prefix: enter the room;

- grammatical constructions with double negation: no one called.

Conventional facultative pleonasmas include stable turns and expressions, often encountered in colloquial speech. These include, for example, expressions such as "going down", "hearing with your ears", "dreaming in a dream", "ways-roads" and many others. Often this group includes such combinations as "full-full", "apparently invisible", "darkness-darkening". In addition, it can be attributed to combinations with the same root verbs and nouns: "tell a fairy tale", "grieve grief", "life to live."

Unconventional facultative pleonasm (examples: "remember in your head," "talk with your mouth," etc.) are used to create a certain stylistic effect. This is a path, often found in poetic speech.

In cases where pleonasm is not part of the language system and is not created specifically for artistic expressiveness, its use is considered a stylistic error and is condemned. The abundance of pleonasm is a peculiarity of the conversation of a poorly educated person, which arises as a result of inadequate possession of the means of the language or the poverty of the vocabulary.