In the basement of the tautology lovers club was discovered
the dead body of a dead man killed to death

Pleonasms and tautology are quite close concepts. Both are characterized as verbosity.

PLEONASM - a figure of speech in which some element of meaning is duplicated; the presence of several linguistic forms expressing the same meaning, for example, “the conversation was long and protracted”

TAUTOLOGY - repetition of the same or similar words in meaning, for example, “clearer than clear,” “cries, filled with tears.”

In colloquial speech, pleonasms are common - “I saw it with my own eyes”, “Are you planning a joke for me here?”, “I completely agree.”
In this case, pleonasms are used to emotionally enhance the effect of a statement or to create a comic effect.

Take this case for example... I disperse the people, and on the shore on the sand there is the drowned corpse of a dead man. For what reason, I ask, does he lie here? Is this order? (Chekhov. Unter Prishibeev)

In folklore and poetry, pleonasm contributes to the melodiousness of speech and the creation of imagery - “path-path”, “pole-field”, “grief-grief”.

But without fear, without fear, Shengibis went out to battle (Song of Hiawatha, translated by Bunin)

For the language creator - the people, the great artist of the word - the rationalistic side of language is not enough. He needs his speech to be coherent and harmonious, to have rhythm, to have music, and, most importantly, to have expressiveness. (Chukovsky. Alive as life)
In the combination “shame and disgrace,” Chukovsky heard a poetic meter (anapaest). And the fact that two words here “begin with a single sound [s], ... plays an important role.” This phrase is “so expressive, so impeccable in rhythm and sound writing.” - “And shame on unclean chimney sweeps! Shame and disgrace!" (With)

Most often - alas! – pleonasm is a defect in style and indicates the author’s lack of literacy.

Who among us is not a sinner and has not written:
“went down the stairs” - is it possible to go up?
“He nodded his head in agreement” - but can you nod your foot in disagreement?
“the soft light of an evening sunset...” - can there be a sunset in the morning?
and so on.

Everyone makes such mistakes, but! only graphomaniacs offer readers texts full of phrases - “price list”, “timekeeping”, “patriot of the motherland”, “young girl” and so on.

Pleonasms are SYNTACTIC and SEMANTIC.

Syntactic pleonasm is the result of excessive use of functional parts of speech, for example: “He told me that he was hired for another job” (“about that” can be omitted without losing the meaning)
or “I know that he will come” (the conjunction “that” is optional when connecting a sentence with the verb phrase “I know”).
Both sentences are grammatically correct, but the words “about” and “that” are considered pleonastic in this case.

Semantic pleonasm is more a matter of style and use of grammar.
Perissology (or synonymous repetition) and verbosity are distinguished as separate types of semantic pleonasm.

In perissology, the semantic meaning of one word is included in another, for example:
- We went up the stairs.
- Each buyer receives a free gift.
- There is no other alternative.

When verbose, sentences or phrases include words that do not increase the overall semantic load, for example, “He walked towards the house.” “In the direction” is redundant.

Here is a short list of expressions to avoid:

Joint meeting, joint agreement, joint alliance, joint cooperation, mutual cooperation

Memorial monument, souvenir, folklore, biography of life, my own autobiography

Young girl, young guy, old man

Illegal gangs, deliberate slander, defamatory slander, patriot of the motherland

Colleague at work, vacancy, the most profitable, the most optimal solution, answers from respondents

SI system, CD-ROM, VIP person, wooden wood products, apple charlotte, first debut

Overturned and upside down, dreamed about it in a dream, poisoned it with poison, clenched his fist, stopped at a bus stop, looked with his eyes, rose up

The list can be continued, but I think everything is clear.

What to do? How not to embarrass yourself in front of a corrosive reader?

Proofread! Proofread and proofread again!

And then in your novels a white albino will never ask a black black man: “Is it true that butter is butter?”

© Copyright: Copyright Competition -K2, 2014
Certificate of publication No. 2140428001

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. I would like to continue the series of small publications (notes in the margins) devoted to the topic of interpreting phrases and “words” quite often used in the Runet. A little earlier we focused on, and.

Today I just want a few words speak for tautology and pleonasm(the spelling “tuftology” is considered incorrect, although many people pronounce this word exactly like that, making it sound like “tuftology”, which is generally not far from the truth).

What is it? What catchphrase has become essentially synonymous with tautology and why is it most often “scold” rather than “praised”? How does pleonasm differ from tautology? Or is it the same thing? All this, of course, is based on examples, because where would we be without them?

What are tautology and pleonasm?

Translated from the ancient Greek word pleonasm - this is overkill(the use of words or phrases that are unnecessary for understanding), and tautology is this is a repetition of the same thing(thoughts, reasons, descriptions) in one sentence (in fact, this is a special case of pleonasm).

This is what can be characterized by the term - speech excesses (errors). They very often hurt your ears and pollute our speech.

I would like to emphasize that pleonasm represents a more capacious definition, since redundancy (excess) in a sentence can be created not only by the use of words with similar meanings, but also by phrases that can be safely omitted. An example of this pleonasm, which cannot be called a tautology, the following dummy phrases can serve:

  1. A cart was driving towards the house (you can remove the phrase “in the direction” and nothing in meaning will change or be lost)
  2. He told me that... (the phrase “about that” can be omitted without losing the essence and brevity)
  3. Useful skill (the word “useful” is superfluous here, because the skill itself implies “useful skill”)

It seems like nothing, but it’s garbage that clogs our brain.

But still, pleonasms most often mean the duplication of meanings, i.e. pure tautology. In addition, such examples are much brighter and more impressive than what has already been given above.

Examples of tautology and pleonasm

Most often, this disgrace occurs when they use cognates words next to each other. This can be called a “childhood disease”, because most often it is characteristic of those who are just learning to correctly and, what is important, clearly form their thoughts.

You've probably already encountered someone telling someone that this is... "oil oil". In fact, this phrase has now become synonymous with the word “tautology” and is used much more often when they want to point out to a person an obvious shortcoming identified in his speech associated with speech excesses. “Well, it’s oil!” - they say in such cases.

Examples of “single-root” tautology The following phrases can serve:

  1. old man
  2. pay a fee
  3. high height
  4. visiting guest
  5. ask a question
  6. white white
  7. torrential downpour
  8. the writer describes
  9. the narrator told
  10. smiled a wide smile
  11. earned salary
  12. ringing bell
  13. finish to the end
  14. good-natured good fellow
  15. smoke is smoking
  16. little things
  17. had an illness
  18. openings open

But there is examples of pleonasm(tautological sense, i.e. excess due to duplication of meanings, and not due to empty phrases), when they use not the same root words, but very close in meaning:

  1. negative disadvantage
  2. hot boiling water
  3. better
  4. very well
  5. meet for the first time
  6. free gift
  7. fair-haired blonde
  8. dead corpse

Well, and one more thing examples of pleonasm without tautology(just one of the words is superfluous, because it simply cannot be any other way and it would be unnecessary to clarify):

  1. month of January
  2. minute of time
  3. back of the head
  4. future prospects
  5. main favorite
  6. industrial industry
  7. blink your eyes

Examples of non-irritating tautology of pleonasms

However, there are examples when an obvious tautology is not at all annoying:

  1. make jam
  2. start over
  3. fasten the clasp
  4. treat a guest
  5. close the lid
  6. lean on your elbow
  7. white underwear
  8. black ink
  9. dreamed about it in a dream
  10. size disproportion
  11. flowers bloom
  12. serve
  13. jam-packed
  14. present day
  15. highest peaks
  16. stop at the bus stop
  17. do the job
  18. jokes jokes
  19. to sing songs
  20. train with a trainer
  21. work work
  22. red paint (both words of the phrase are based on the root “beautiful”)

You can also give many examples when obvious pleonasms They don’t look particularly like that anymore due to their frequent and everyday use:

  1. facial expression
  2. go down
  3. to go up
  4. another alternative
  5. crowd
  6. clenched fist
  7. fell down
  8. walk
  9. ultimately
  10. I personally
  11. reality
  12. my autobiography
  13. young guy
  14. useful skill (a skill is a “useful skill” in itself)

The latter is most likely explained simply by the force of habit. If you have heard these phrases since childhood, use them yourself and everyone around you, then comments about the fact that this is a tautology will simply look inappropriate. These phrases no longer grate the ear like those used due to misunderstanding.

Often “taffeta phrases” come into our speech from proverbs and sayings:

  1. the fairy tale takes its toll
  2. sit down
  3. bitter grief
  4. walk
  5. live life
  6. let's eat
  7. guiltless guilty
  8. free will
  9. go to waste
  10. apparently species

Very often, usages in one phrase lead to established (not striking) tautologies (pleonasms). words borrowed from different languages, but mean almost the same thing:

  1. exhibition item (an exhibit is, by definition, an “exhibited item”)
  2. people's democracy (democracy is, by definition, “the power of the people”)
  3. memorial monument (a memorial is a monument by definition of the word)
  4. debut for the first time
  5. open vacancy
  6. interior interior
  7. price list
  8. hospitalize
  9. memorable souvenirs
  10. period of time
  11. full house
  12. import from abroad
  13. first premiere (first debut)
  14. folklore

Besides force of habit, tautology can be used to enhance the effect. This can be seen from most of the examples given above. You can also add to them, for example:

  1. tightly
  2. completely
  3. the real truth
  4. bitter grief
  5. clearer than ever
  6. Vanity
  7. full full
  8. all sorts of things
  9. ridiculous absurdity

How to avoid tautologies and pleonasms in your speech? Read more (or write, as I do 🙂). Thus, you will inevitably increase your vocabulary and form a culture of speech. Everything is banal, but, unfortunately, in the current 21st century of the Internet it is not so simple and feasible, because we regularly read only news headlines and messages on social networks from “bookworms” like ourselves.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

You might be interested

What are synonyms, their examples and what are they? Polysemantic words are examples of different facets of the Russian language
Context - what is it? Synecdoche is an example of metonymy in Russian Epiphora is a repetition with a special meaning
Oxymoron - what is it, examples in Russian, as well as the correct stress and difference from an oxymoron (or axemoron) LOL - what is it and what does lOl mean on the Internet How to spell it is unlikely What are antonyms and examples of enriching the Russian language with them Inversion is a beautiful distortion of the Russian language Collocations are semantic constructions of the Russian language

What do the news clips from which the video below is made in common? Right! In each of them the same phrase “unpleasant incident” is used. And in each of them, the editorial staff broadcast a news text with a lexical error. Let's figure out what's going on here.

We look in the explanatory dictionary for the lexical meaning of the word “incident”.

INCIDENT-A; m. [from lat. incidens (incidentis) - happening] Incident, incident of an unpleasant nature; misunderstanding. Border incidents. Possibility of incidents between smb. I. is exhausted (has no bad consequences). Great Dictionary of Russian language. - 1st ed.: St. Petersburg: Norint S. A. Kuznetsov. 1998.

As we can see, the word is borrowed. Its meaning in Russian encodes not only information about the event, but also its specific assessment. In this case, it is some kind of misunderstanding that happened to someone. By adding the adjective “unpleasant” to the word incident, we duplicate information and, of course, make a lexical error. This phenomenon is called pleonasm.

The discussion about total speech errors is becoming increasingly relevant in our time. Even the speech of media workers, which should be a standard, is replete with such misunderstandings, let alone ordinary people. That is why, apparently, ideas arise to introduce an oral part into the Unified State Examination in the Russian language, so that the conversation about speech errors would be conducted in the classroom in a substantive and constant manner. But it's never too late to become a schoolboy again for a while.

Pleonasm, lapalissiades, perissology, isosemy, tautology... Don't be afraid, they are not contagious.

Although it is not only media workers and writers who need to carefully monitor them. Such mistakes do not make anyone happy. They, like weeds, can spoil our speech. In order to “remove them by the roots” if possible forever, it is necessary to “know the enemy by sight.”

We have already become acquainted with pleonasm. This is a fairly common linguistic phenomenon, although many may read its name for the first time. Its main distinguishing feature is redundancy, excess. In Russian in such cases they usually say “oil oil”. By the way, this repetition of words with the same root is called tautology. Many linguists believe that tautology is a type of pleonasm.

Semantic pleonasms are associated with semantics, the lexical meaning of a word. Such pleonasms often include borrowed words. It's not hard to guess what the reason is. The person does not quite correctly understand what this word means, and adds another word, this time Russian, which duplicates the meaning of the first. This phenomenon is called perissology. Here are the most common examples:

  • Price list. Price list (German Preiskurant, from Preis - price and French courant - current) - a directory of prices for goods.
  • Timing of time. Timing (Greek chronos - time and metreo - measure) is a method of studying the time spent on performing cyclically repeating manual and machine-manual operations.
  • Interior. Interior (French: interiorieur)
  • Made his debut for the first time. Debut from French début - beginning, appearance). A debut is the first appearance of an artist in public. Opening (chess) - the beginning of a chess game.
  • Atmospheric air. The atmosphere (from ancient Greek ἀτμός - “steam” and σφαῖρα - “sphere”) is the air shell of the Earth.
  • First premiere. Premiere (French première - “first”) - first show, first performance.
  • There are many such examples: another alternative, free vacancy, the most optimal, nostalgia for the homeland, main priority, incriminate guilt, hair depilation, memorial monument, souvenir, folklore, biography of life, my autobiography, patriot of the motherland, work colleague, national referendum, demobilize from the army , additional bonus, exciting thriller, interactive interaction, information message, extremely extremist, 24-hour non-stop, local aboriginal, people's democracy, unusual phenomenon, optional elective, unexpected surprise, main theme, counter-attack, future prospects, complete fiasco, completely sold out, popular hit, preliminary announcement, summit at the highest level, stable stabilization, strict taboo, screenshot from the monitor screen.
  • Sometimes native speakers misunderstand the lexical meaning of native words. There are also our, domestic, semantic pleonasms that go beyond the linguistic norm: torrential downpour, five rubles of money, thirty construction workers, the month of March, ultimately, to go back, met for the first time, gesticulated with his hands, nodded his head, blinked his eyes, temporary reprieve, illegal gangs, the main point, takes place, the real truth, short moment, personally, surprisingly strange, initial basics, unconfirmed rumors, flock of sheep, retreat back, feathered birds, repeat again, completely destroyed, pre-planning, warn in advance, equal half, mix together, joint meeting, see with your own eyes, hear with your own ears, getting a job, going up/down the stairs.

Remember these expressions and don’t let them into your speech anymore. This is exactly the case when there is obvious redundancy and duplication of information.

On the other hand, language - This is a very complex living organism, and, of course, there are cases when everything is not so simple.

Types of pleonasms

Recently, pleonasms have begun to appear more and more often, which include the abbreviation: CD, ERD diagram, IT technology, RAID array, VIP person, GPS system, SMS message. In this case, it is more difficult to get rid of duplication, since the main lexical meaning is encoded in just one letter. Moreover, this letter - Latin, and the word that is encrypted in it is also foreign, most often English. The Russian equivalent within the expression serves as an explanation. There are also domestic abbreviation pleonasms. For example, “power lines” or “AvtoVAZ”.

Some pleonastic combinations have already become entrenched in the language and have become the norm. A striking example is the “butter sandwich”.

The original meaning of the word borrowed from the German language was gradually erased from the memory of native speakers. A sandwich, as we understand it, can be made not only with butter, but also with sausage, caviar, cheese, and so on.

Another type of semantic pleonasm is verbosity. Example: he walked towards the house. This phrase contains words that add nothing to its meaning - "towards".

Pleonasms are not always errors. Stylistic pleonasm is characteristic of colloquial, journalistic and artistic speech, especially folklore, where pleonastic epithets and comparisons can crystallize into stable poetic formulas: path-path, pole-field, sadness-longing, grief-worry, fate-fate, young-green, ocean-ocean.

Stylistic pleonasms (they are also called expressive) are often used deliberately in fiction. This is the author's technique, not a mistake.

Oh field, field, who are you
Dotted dead bones?
Whose greyhound horse trampled you
In the last hour of a bloody battle?

Agree that Pushkin’s pleonasm from “Ruslan and Lyudmila” adds imagery.

And here is a vivid speech description of one of Chekhov’s characters. “Take this case for example... I disperse the people, and on the shore on the sand drowned corpse of a dead man. For what reason, I ask, does he lie here? Is this order? What is the police officer looking at? Why, I say, police officer, don’t you let your superiors know? Maybe this drowned dead man drowned himself, or maybe this thing smells like Siberia. Maybe there is a criminal homicide here...”(A.P. Chekhov, “Unter Prishibeev”)

To be fair, it must be said that pleonasm in linguistics is not considered exclusively a speech error. Scientists define it more broadly. This is precisely a speech pattern that, under certain circumstances, either goes beyond the boundaries of the norm or is considered completely acceptable. In colloquial speech it can be used to enhance emotion or comedy.

Lyapalissiad: what kind of animal is this?

Here is an interesting example - the English poem “Guinea Pig” (translation by S.Ya. Marshak):

Guinea pig
Was
Mala
And that means she wasn’t a big pig.
The legs worked
The little pig has
When I ran away
She's on the path.
But she didn’t stand
When I was running,
And she was not silent
When she screamed.
But suddenly for some reason
She died,
And from this moment
I wasn't alive.

The poet used the lyapalisiad in this text . This is another type of verbal redundancy - a statement of obviously obvious facts, bordering on absurdity. They usually create a comic effect in inappropriate, sometimes even tragic situations: “he was dead and did not hide it.”

Lapalissades received their exotic name under very interesting circumstances. The term is derived from the name of the French marshal Marquis Jacques de La Palis. According to legend, the soldiers composed a song about him, which included a play on words: “S’il n’était pas mort, Il ferait encore envie” (if he had not been dead, they would have envied him). The phrase can be read differently: “S’il n’était pas mort, Il serait encore en vie” (if he were not dead, he would be alive).

Tautological tautologies

Many scientists recognize tautology as one of the varieties of semantic pleonasms. This term is better known and is usually strongly associated with the phrase “oil”, which we already mentioned above. These are expressions that include repetition of the same (single root) or similar words. Most often this repetition is unfounded: smiled, smile, young girl, resume again, ask a question.

If pleonasm is an unreasonable excess, verbosity, as they say, “woe from mind,” then tautology is considered a more serious speech error, since it usually indicates a poverty of vocabulary and illiteracy.

But there are exceptions here too. Sometimes a tautology is a variant of the norm. For example, in colloquial and poetic speech the following combinations are used: bitter grief, wonderful miracle, wondrous wonder, black night, white day, icy water, mortal melancholy. Such epithets are considered quite a characteristic feature of poetic speech.

On the Internet I found a wonderful example of a parody that perfectly explains the essence of the tautology. The Moldovan comic duo “Ostap and Bender” came up with a miniature called "An Unusual Lesson", where almost all dialogues deliberately include tautological expressions. At the end of the scene the following poem sounds:

Lukomorye has a crafty bow,
Chain chain on that chain.
Half day to noon
Somewhere around noon
The walker is a stilted walker.
He will go to the right, from the right - right,
He goes to the left - left there.
There are more wonderful miracles there,
There were no more wonderful miracles.
There on unknown paths
Traces are chasing, watching.
There's a chicken on chicken legs
Kurei supervises while smoking.
And I was there, I was there, I was there,
I drank honey with honey...

In addition to semantic pleonasms, there are also syntactic ones. In them, redundancy and duplication of information extends not to one expression, but to entire syntactic structures. Compare two sentences: “She told me that she would come tomorrow” And "She told me she would come tomorrow."

Both sentences are grammatically correct, but the words “about” are considered in this case as pleonastic, that is, redundant.

Time to test yourself

Let's now consolidate the result and try ourselves in the role of a strict and impartial television editor. Find semantic pleonasms in the proposed videos. By the way, all of them have already been met earlier in this article. At the same time, we'll check your attention.

If you personally found all 15 errors, then you can consider that the test is on the topic “Lexical errors. Pleonasm" in your pocket. Apparently you learned your lesson well in the end.

Speech redundancy- this is a problem born largely due to the author’s reluctance to spend time and effort on polishing his own text. That is, instead of indicating his thought with a couple of precisely formulated phrases, the writer embarks on long explanations, which give us verbal redundancy.

Speech redundancy in a text can manifest itself in various forms.

    Sometimes you can observe an obsessive explanation of already known truths: Daily consumption of milk is a healthy habit; not only children, but also adults eat milk; the habit of drinking milk can persist until old age. Can this habit be called harmful? Should I give it up? Of course no!

    Speech redundancy also occurs when the same thought is conveyed repeatedly. For example: Russian athletes arrived at the Olympic Games in order to take part in competitions in which not only ours, but also many foreign athletes will participate.

    In some cases, the manifestation of speech redundancy may border on the absurd: The body was clearly dead and showed it with all its appearance. In literary theory, such examples are called Lapalissiades. The name of the term is derived from the name of the French marshal Marquis La Palis, who died in 1525. The fact is that the soldiers composed a song about the deceased commander, which contained the following words: Our commander was alive 25 minutes before his death. Lapalissades add inappropriate comedy to speech, asserting obvious truths. And inappropriateness, as a rule, is expressed in the fact that such phrases emerge in situations associated with the most tragic circumstances.

Pleonasm.

Pleonasm (from the gr. pleonasmos - excess) - this is the use in speech of words that are close in meaning and therefore unnecessary ( foresee in advance, speak out loud, dark night, etc..). Pleonasms arise mainly due to the stylistic negligence of the author. For example, when connecting synonyms: boring and dull; helped and contributed; nevertheless, however; for example.

However, in addition to obvious errors and oversights, there is the concept of “ imaginary pleonasm", which the writer uses consciously as a means of enhancing the expressiveness of speech: Not will go back a time when the history of our country was rewritten to suit someone's petty interests. Such a deliberate discrepancy attracts the reader’s attention, enhancing the expressive effect.

It would not be out of place to mention that the use of pleonastic combinations is very characteristic of folklore. As is known, expressively colored pleonasms have long been used in oral folk art, such as once upon a time, sea-okiyan, path-path and others.

Tautology.

A special case of pleonasm is tautology. Tautology(from the gr. tauto - the same, logos - word) arises as when repeating words with the same root ( ask a riddle, stop at a bus stop), and when combining a foreign and Russian word that duplicates its meaning ( young prodigy, first debut, interior). The second case is often called hidden tautology, and often this indicates that the speaker does not understand the exact meaning of the borrowed word.

In general, tautology - and in fact, the unintentional use of combinations of words with the same root - is a very common mistake. And even with careful proofreading of the text, it is not always possible to detect all tautological connectives. However, I believe that such repetitions should not always be considered as errors. Indeed, in many cases it is simply impossible to avoid tautology, and excluding a single-root word from a sentence and replacing it with a synonym does not always give the desired effect - very often this leads to a distortion of meaning or impoverishment of speech. It can be considered that a pair of cognate words in a close context are stylistically justified if such words are the only carriers of the corresponding meanings and they cannot be replaced by synonyms ( edit – editor; cook – jam, etc..)

Exceptions include the use of terminological vocabulary, which also often gives rise to tautological combinations ( dictionary of foreign words, investigation by investigative bodies, etc..)

12. Correlation of the concepts “bureaucracy”, “stamp”, “standard”.

When analyzing errors caused by the unjustified use of stylistically colored vocabulary, special attention should be paid to words associated with the official business style. Elements of official business style, introduced into a stylistically alien context for them, are called bureaucracy. It should be remembered that these speech means are called clericalism only when they are used in speech that is not bound by the norms of official business style.

Lexical and phraseological clericalisms include words and phrases that have a coloring typical of the official business style ( presence, for lack of, in order to avoid, reside, withdraw, the above, takes place and so on.). Their use makes speech inexpressive ( If there is a desire, much can be done to improve the working conditions of workers; There is currently a shortage of teaching staff).

As a rule, you can find many options for expressing thoughts, avoiding bureaucracy. For example, why would a journalist write: Marriage is a negative aspect of the enterprise's activities, if you can say: It’s bad when a company produces defects; Marriage is unacceptable at work; Marriage is a great evil that must be fought; We must prevent defects in production; We must finally stop producing defective products!; You can't put up with marriage! Simple and specific wording has a stronger impact on the reader.

A clerical flavor of speech is often given verbal nouns formed using suffixes -eni-, -ani- and etc. ( identifying, finding, taking, swelling, closing) and suffixless ( tailoring, stealing, time off). Their clerical tone is aggravated by consoles Not-, under- (non-detection, under-fulfillment). Russian writers often parodied a syllable “decorated” with such bureaucracy [ The matter of gnawing the plan by mice(Hertz.); The case of a crow flying into and breaking glass(Writing); Having announced to the widow Vanina that in her failure to attach a sixty-kopeck stamp...(Ch.)].

Verbal nouns do not have the categories of tense, aspect, mood, voice, or person. This narrows their expressive capabilities compared to verbs. For example, the following sentence lacks precision: From the side of the farm manager V.I. Shlyk showed a negligent attitude towards milking and feeding cows. You might think that the manager milked and fed the cows poorly, but the author only wanted to say that Farm manager V.I. Shlyk did nothing to ease the work of the milkmaids or prepare feed for the livestock. The inability to express the meaning of voice with a verbal noun can lead to ambiguity in the construction of the type professor's statement(Professor asserts or him claim?), I love singing(I love sing or listen when they sing?).

In sentences with verbal nouns, the predicate is often expressed by the passive form of the participle or a reflexive verb; this deprives the action of activity and enhances the clerical coloring of speech [ After visiting the sights, tourists were allowed to take photographs of them.(better: Tourists were shown the sights and allowed to photograph them)].

However, not all verbal nouns in the Russian language belong to the official business vocabulary; they are varied in stylistic coloring, which largely depends on the characteristics of their lexical meaning and word formation. Verbal nouns with the meaning of person ( teacher, self-taught, confused, bully), many nouns with the meaning of action ( running, crying, playing, washing, shooting, bombing).

Verbal nouns with book suffixes can be divided into two groups. Some are stylistically neutral ( meaning, name, excitement), many of them -nie changed in -nye, and they began to denote not an action, but its result (cf.: baking pies - sweet cookies, boiling cherries - cherry jam). Others retain a close connection with verbs, acting as abstract names of actions, processes ( acceptance, non-detection, non-admission). It is precisely such nouns that most often have a clerical connotation; only those that have received a strict terminological meaning in the language do not have it ( drilling, spelling, joining).

The use of clericalisms of this type is associated with the so-called “splitting of the predicate”, i.e. replacing a simple verbal predicate with a combination of a verbal noun with an auxiliary verb that has a weakened lexical meaning (instead of complicates, leads to complication). So, they write: This leads to complexity, confusion of accounting and increased costs., or better yet write: This complicates and confuses accounting and increases costs..

However, when assessing this phenomenon stylistically, one cannot go to the extreme, rejecting any cases of using verbal-nominal combinations instead of verbs. In book styles the following combinations are often used: took part instead of participated, gave instructions instead of indicated etc. Verb-nominal combinations have become established in the official business style. declare gratitude, accept for execution, impose a penalty(in these cases the verbs thank, fulfill, exact inappropriate) etc. In the scientific style, terminological combinations such as visual fatigue occurs, self-regulation occurs, transplantation is performed and so on. Expressions function in the journalistic style workers went on strike, clashes occurred with the police, an attempt was made on the minister's life and so on. In such cases, verbal nouns cannot be avoided and there is no reason to consider them clericalisms.

The use of verb-nominal combinations sometimes even creates conditions for speech expression. For example, the combination take an active part more capacious in meaning than a verb participate. The definition of a noun allows you to give the verb-nominal combination a precise terminological meaning (cf.: help - provide emergency medical care). The use of a verbal-nominal combination instead of a verb can also help eliminate the lexical ambiguity of verbs (cf.: give a horn - blow a horn). The preference for such verbal-nominal combinations over verbs is naturally beyond doubt; their use does not damage the style, but, on the contrary, gives the speech greater effectiveness.

The influence of official business style often explains the unjustified use denominative prepositions: along the line, in section, in part, in business, by virtue of, for the purposes of, to the address, in the region, in plan, at the level, at the expense of etc. They have become widespread in book styles, and under certain conditions their use is stylistically justified. However, often passion for them damages the presentation, weighing down the style and giving it a clerical coloring. This is partly due to the fact that denominal prepositions usually require the use of verbal nouns, which leads to a string of cases. For example: By improving the organization of repayment of arrears in the payment of wages and pensions, improving the culture of customer service, turnover in government and commercial stores should increase- the accumulation of verbal nouns, many identical case forms made the sentence ponderous and cumbersome. To correct the text, it is necessary to exclude the denominal preposition from it, and, if possible, replace verbal nouns with verbs. Let's assume this edit option: To increase turnover in government and commercial stores, it is necessary to pay wages on time and not delay pensions for citizens, as well as improve the culture of customer service.

Some authors use denominative prepositions automatically, without thinking about their meaning, which is partly still preserved in them. For example: Due to lack of materials, construction has been suspended(as if someone foresaw that there would be no materials, and therefore construction was suspended). Incorrect use of denominative prepositions often leads to illogical statements.

The exclusion of denominative prepositions from the text, as we see, eliminates verbosity and helps to express thoughts more specifically and stylistically correctly.

The influence of official business style is usually associated with the use of speech cliches. Speech stamps words and expressions with erased semantics and faded emotional overtones become widely used. Thus, in a variety of contexts, the expression to obtain registration begins to be used in a figurative meaning ( Each ball that flies into the goal net receives a permanent registration in the tables; Petrovsky's muse has a permanent residence in our hearts; Aphrodite was included in the permanent exhibition of the museum - now she is registered in our city).

Any frequently repeated speech device can become a stamp, for example, stereotyped metaphors, definitions that have lost their figurative power due to constant reference to them, even hackneyed rhymes ( tears - roses). However, in practical stylistics, the term “speech stamp” has acquired a narrower meaning: this is the name for stereotypical expressions that have a clerical overtone.

Among the speech cliches that arose as a result of the influence of the official business style on other styles, we can highlight, first of all, cliched figures of speech: at this stage, in this period of time, today, emphasized with all acuteness and so on. As a rule, they do not contribute anything to the content of the statement, but only clog up the speech: At this time, a difficult situation has arisen with the liquidation of debt to supplier enterprises; At present, the payment of wages to miners is under constant control; At this stage, the crucian carp spawns normally, etc. Excluding the highlighted words will not change anything in the information.

Speech stamps also include universal words, which are used in a wide variety of, often too broad, vague meanings ( question, event, series, carry out, unfold, separate, specific and so on.). For example, noun question, acting as a universal word, never indicates what is being asked about ( Nutrition issues are especially important in the first 10-12 days; The issues of timely collection of taxes from enterprises and commercial structures deserve great attention.). In such cases, it can be painlessly excluded from the text (cf.: Nutrition is especially important in the first 10-12 days; It is necessary to collect taxes from enterprises and commercial structures in a timely manner).

Word be, as a universal, is also often superfluous; You can verify this by comparing two editions of sentences from newspaper articles:

Unjustified use of linking verbs is one of the most common stylistic flaws in specialized literature. However, this does not mean that linking verbs should be prohibited; their use should be appropriate and stylistically justified.

Speech stamps include paired words, or satellite words; the use of one of them necessarily suggests the use of the other (cf.: event - carried out, scope - wide, criticism - harsh, problem - unresolved, urgent etc.). The definitions in these pairs are lexically inferior; they give rise to speech redundancy. Speech cliches, relieving the speaker of the need to look for the necessary, exact words, deprive speech of concreteness. For example: This season was held at a high organizational level- this sentence can be inserted into a report about hay harvesting, and about sports competitions, and about preparing housing for winter, and about harvesting grapes...

The set of speech cliches changes over the years: some are gradually forgotten, others become “fashionable”, so it is impossible to list and describe all cases of their use. It is important to understand the essence of this phenomenon and prevent the emergence and spread of cliches.

Language standards should be distinguished from speech cliches. Language standards are called ready-made means of expression reproduced in speech, used in a journalistic style. Unlike a stamp, “a standard... does not cause a negative attitude, since it has clear semantics and economically expresses thoughts, facilitating the speed of information transfer.” Language standards include, for example, the following combinations that have become stable: Public sector workers, employment services, international humanitarian aid, commercial structures, law enforcement agencies, branches of Russian government, according to informed sources, - phrases like household service (nutrition, health, relaxation etc.). These speech units are widely used by journalists, since it is impossible to invent new means of expression in each specific case.

A cluster of verbal nouns, chains of identical case forms, and speech cliches firmly “block” the perception of such statements that are impossible to comprehend. Our journalism has successfully overcome this “style”, and it “decorates” only the speech of individual speakers and officials in government institutions. However, while they are in their leadership positions, the problem of combating bureaucracy and speech cliches has not lost its relevance.

13. Literary editing as one of the components of the journalist’s profession: the concept of literary editing; the place of literary editing in the process of preparing a manuscript for publication; literary editing tasks

Literary editing is the search for the most accurate verbal expression of formulations, certain ideas, specific judgments or concepts, as well as arguments proving the author’s position. Literary editing - this is a reading of the text that may require not only the correction of individual errors, but also the reworking of individual fragments of the text, the restructuring of sentences, the removal of unnecessary repetitions, the elimination of ambiguity, etc., so that the form of the text best matches its content.

Literary editing involves correcting stylistic flaws. Stylistic errors are understood as various types of errors associated with a violation of style and the Literary norm in general, including the incorrect choice of word form, the choice of an inappropriate stylistic option that does not correspond to the general style of the text, etc.

Problems lit. edits:

    Evaluation of the manuscript in terms of suitability of the text for its purpose

    Identification of substantive advantages and disadvantages, verification of the accuracy and reliability of facts

    Assessment of the literary qualities of the text: compositional, genre, stylistic and logical

Ignorance of the laws of lexical and syntactic compatibility often leads to speech errors. Among them, pleonasm and tautology stand somewhat apart.

Frequency examples are associated with a misunderstanding of the semantics and stylistic affiliation of certain words. First of all, this concerns paronyms and aspectual pairs of verbs. Two words with a similar sound often differ from each other in shades of lexical meaning and stylistic affiliation. The importance of distinguishing such forms for conveying meaning is great. That is why the Unified State Exam in the Russian language includes a number of tasks that test knowledge of the basics of word usage and their compatibility.

Both terms - pleonasm and tautology - designate the so-called speech excess, but these concepts are far from identical.

Tautology is one of the types of pleonasm. Pleonasm refers to the use of words with similar meanings within the same communicative unit:

  • The main point reasoning lies in the thesis of the text.
  • A person usually sleeps no more eight o'clock time.
  • Employees will receive a bonus in month of December.

An extreme case of pleonasm is the use of words not only close in meaning, but also with the same root.

Actually, this is a tautology, examples of which are found in large numbers in school essays and presentations, as well as in the speech of poorly educated people:

  • Returning from the cinema, we were hit by torrential downpour.
  • Not there is significant differences in the moral priorities of world religions.
  • During the evening narrator us told different stories from your life.

But language is a living, developing organism, and therefore cannot fit into a simple set of schemes and rules. Sometimes the use of words that have semantic relatedness is quite justified. Tautology practically does not produce examples of this kind, and there are many essentially pleonastic expressions that have become entrenched in the language and become normative:

  • Due to a malfunction of the elevator we had to go down On the stairs.
  • from China turned out to be the most valuable exhibit of the exhibition.
  • For countries people's democracy characteristic

Sometimes writers use pleonasm and tautology for expressiveness.

In A.P. Chekhov’s story “Unter Prishibeev” we read: “...drowned the corpse of a dead man..." The writer uses a similar pleonastic turn to create a comic effect. The famous aphorism of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol contains a tautology: “Gorky with fur mine I'll laugh».

Tautology also occurs in oral folk art. Examples of expressive repetitions can be seen in Russian folk tales, proverbs and sayings: “grief is bitter”, “a fairy tale is told”, “lying down”, “sit down” and so on.

As we see, the role of pleonasm and its variety - tautology - in the Russian language is ambiguous. Redundancy of speech, of course, is inappropriate in a normal speech situation and is considered a gross speech error. But the conscious use of repetition of words that are close in meaning and have the same root as a quality in is quite acceptable.


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