0:04

coming up on word matters when english

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repeats itself, i'm

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emily brewster and where it matters is produced

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merriam in collaboration with

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new england public media on

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each episode merriam-webster, editors

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m & j, peter, sokolowski, and

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i explore some aspect of

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the english language from the dictionary, is

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vantage

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point a

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listener questions of tautology in

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one of our definitions starts

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us off on a discussion of all types

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of repetition and redundancy

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we have a nice note from leonard

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and it has a christian

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the june second word of the day

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the finds the verb meld

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as you blend or mix

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together then the two examples

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use that word with the word together

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isn't to meld together

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a tautology the of my favorite

0:59

startling examples of a tautology

1:01

our pin number and

1:04

please rsvp the

1:06

you think tautology is should be avoided

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the great question

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i told you we define as needless repetition

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of an idea statement or word or

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an instance of such repetition

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and within logic a specialized definition

1:21

a statement that is true by virtue

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of it's logical form alone

1:26

and it comes from the latin word

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which plus from the greek word so tautology

1:31

essentially means in english today what it meant in greek

1:33

couple thousand years ago

1:35

the key there to me as his

1:37

needless members and

1:39

what does it mean for repetition

1:42

to be needless

1:44

i think that's an excellent point emily because

1:47

i don't have language keeps with the

1:49

language or have language peeves with

1:51

the peters is that when you hear

1:53

omits needless words what

1:55

does that mean we don't need any words

1:57

we could be pictographic insider

1:59

to me a word which

2:02

adds to the slow of the sense

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of rhythm of the sentence or even just the mouthfeel

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of the sentence it sounds fun to say so

2:08

i'm gonna say it's me that the needful bird

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whereas other people might think it's needed

2:14

the thing is repetition bothers people and

2:16

this gets to something we've talked about before on

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a logical level is not necessary linguistic

2:21

it might be just logic that bothers

2:23

people right

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and in different circumstances

2:26

these kinds of repetition can be problematic

2:29

and in other circumstances they are not so

2:31

am and you're talking about the rhythm and mouthfeel

2:33

and certainly repetition in

2:36

musical lyrics or in poetry

2:38

is less troublesome two

2:40

people than i assume

2:42

a repetition and totalities

2:45

in defining text tend

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to be we actually answer

2:49

this particular question is our

2:52

definition of meld problematic

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my argument is that know it is not

2:57

problematic because the definition is

2:59

easier to understand with that

3:01

little hint of repetition their

3:04

efficiency is not a greater

3:06

good than efficacy

3:08

so in this case to mix together

3:11

i think that is clearer that is more

3:13

quickly understood by the reader

3:15

then simply defining meld as to mix

3:18

even a recipe you sometimes he mixed

3:20

together which is essentially unnecessary

3:23

but i find it helpful because he

3:25

relies okay these things are going

3:27

to be com one e

3:29

pluribus unum that phrase comes

3:31

from apparently a roman recipe for

3:34

salad that was admired by

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benjamin franklin are one of the founders from

3:38

many one the idea is to make

3:40

one kind of substance out of these

3:43

others and i do find

3:45

it useful as a kind of sign post

3:47

or directions or instructions

3:49

the understand the impulse to want to strip things

3:51

down to their kind of barest

3:54

bones as communicative

3:56

ability to what is the most

3:58

efficient way you

3:59

in communicate something

4:01

twitter used to require that archer when

4:03

the catholic church sons were so small but

4:06

i think in general people

4:09

tend to values something that

4:11

isn't so onerous on the reader

4:13

or and the listener there's something about

4:15

a longer phrase that gives

4:17

the listener more time to follow

4:20

what you're saying bear efficiency

4:22

can be really hard to follow a low

4:24

and

4:24

lax dial efficiency is a style

4:26

and itself just for the sake of it what

4:29

are some of these annoying when he mentioned pin

4:31

number but also this a t m machine

4:33

right that people gas love to hate allen a

4:36

lot of times they are politically rich an acronym

4:38

iq settings so personal identification

4:40

number number that's what bothers people

4:43

but i would argue that even

4:45

though it is of redundancy

4:47

it doesn't matter

4:48

and

4:49

it is redundant but it's just a new

4:51

word pin number part of

4:53

the way that language work is it works an illogical

4:56

ways rsvp please

4:58

i think that's totally fine yes we're doubling

5:01

the please that's okay what

5:03

is being lost by the dublin,

5:05

microsecond of your

5:07

time, know what is being lost by

5:09

your quibble far greater a microcephaly

5:11

the time while sitting around talking about

5:13

how the line with shouldn't work, that way english

5:16

is going to hell in a handbasket, whatever i know

5:18

how everybody feels bad about himself in

5:20

the language to me that's a far greater

5:22

than just being like i have, we repeated

5:24

the police and

5:25

that case, and it may apply

5:27

to the pin number and atm machine also, they

5:30

rsvped has become lexicalized

5:32

in a way that we don't even recognize in the dictionary

5:35

because we acknowledge it's an abbreviation

5:37

meaning please reply but to rsvp

5:40

used as an absolute just a reply

5:42

and rcp doesn't necessarily include

5:44

the idea of please or thank you it's

5:47

just a reply that's not yet

5:49

in the dictionary and yet as english speakers

5:51

we don't think of what those initials really

5:53

stand for we just take it to mean a reply

5:56

right rcp as a french fray and

5:58

to sell english speakers most of us

5:59

don't speak french and the phrase

6:02

rsvp that abbreviation

6:04

the acronym really means tell me if you're

6:06

coming i'm inviting you to something tell

6:08

me if you're coming and i feel like

6:11

if i don't say please rsvp

6:13

it's rude

6:14

what's also interesting there is not

6:17

only is our to p become less slice

6:19

but it's taken from another language and one of the things

6:21

that english is very good up is that when we borrow

6:23

another language we put our own stocked with structure

6:26

on a classic case of this is why

6:28

likes his face and the greek meaning the

6:30

many and some people when they like to show off

6:32

their knowledge a creek say well you shouldn't say though

6:34

if only because it's another many

6:37

for and means the employment many people

6:39

when i actually speaking in britain

6:41

reason agree craze in english context

6:44

and so does what lawyer is actually

6:46

quite natural and it's in line with

6:48

what english does minute faros phrases

6:50

or words from other languages quite often you

6:53

remind me of a favorite in house joke

6:55

and the bilingual department at merriam webster

6:57

of years back to this day i

6:59

still use this although all of my colleagues

7:01

from those years of moved on there was a restaurant

7:03

downtown in springfield

7:05

they used to have a little slater chalk

7:08

board outside that would have a super today and

7:11

it would say soup does your of the day

7:14

of course my colleagues or lexicography we would go in

7:16

there once a week or whatever and we didn't have a conversation

7:18

about they would just say the suit is your of the day

7:20

and so that became like a fixed phrase

7:22

soup deserves it acres cause soup soup

7:25

but you have means of the day and

7:27

but clearly these people had felt that soup to

7:29

soar simply meant special soup the soup

7:31

that is not on the menu and again it was

7:34

there for them for them lexical eyes and away

7:36

the had nothing to do with the word's meaning

7:38

in france because who cares or express

7:40

how that senses and sectors your the

7:42

day was easily understood it is all of that sony

7:44

i have to say to this day i still reflexively

7:47

say soup to your of the day if it ever comes

7:49

into my conversations dense a great example

7:51

again like rsvp insists ryan phrasing

7:54

that is being

7:54

brought into the language and taking

7:57

on a youth that's really actually distinct

7:59

from it

7:59

course it interesting because it's english now

8:08

you're listening to where it matters i'm

8:10

emily brewster next up more

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on the languages repetitious knees

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9:13

we continue our discussion of

9:15

tautology is read done didn't seize

9:17

and repetitions there

9:19

are lots of other redundancies

9:22

taught holidays repetitious

9:25

phrases that writers are

9:27

warned against we've talked about

9:29

pin number and eighty a machine

9:32

in both of those cases the word

9:34

that has been repeated has been kind of swallowed

9:36

up by the acronym which signal it's

9:38

own function really and so the

9:40

repetition is not so obvious the

9:43

people also warn against phrases

9:45

like advance planning

9:47

basic fundamentals

9:49

yeah yeah another one is free

9:52

gifts theory go for like to say

9:54

but he says but they want

9:56

a sense of gift to be set

9:58

in stone when fact the untethered

10:00

as all words aren't and is

10:03

shifting in lot of cases is a sign

10:05

of discomfort with semantic drift

10:07

that when people say title like free gift

10:09

for the mean his gift is taking on

10:12

new an extended broader meaning said

10:14

i am uncomfortable with

10:15

i mean do you charge for your gift

10:17

why to give gifts to people but i'm happy

10:19

i'm sure instruments just

10:21

, nobody wants gifts from me he

10:25

pays in friendship

10:27

redundancy is useful

10:30

sometimes and it can also be

10:32

over done

10:32

and here's the thing with the case of free gift

10:35

i think you start on a slightly different

10:37

path which is the language of marketing

10:39

or salesmanship people can become

10:41

sensitive to and be annoyed by because they feel

10:44

like okay you're kind of bending the language

10:46

to sell me something and i think there

10:48

is a kind of marketing tactic to

10:51

use any which in this way to kind of induce you

10:53

in one way or another ensign of it's laughable

10:55

and funny as some of it's on of gray

10:58

and boring see that is noticeable

11:00

and annoying a free gift kind of falls

11:02

into that category because no one would really

11:04

say that in the context of a birthday party

11:06

or christmas or whatever but they would

11:08

in the case of off you buy this you get this

11:10

say and so says a transaction

11:13

so it becomes as a kind of a different sects not

11:15

just a language p for or problem

11:17

but my kind of a conceptual ideas

11:19

that you might feel defensive about or wary

11:21

about

11:22

i think you're exactly right and again this is about context

11:25

we are i think especially

11:28

wary of language from

11:30

advertising and from business

11:32

those are i think two kinds jargon that

11:34

turn people off new more than other kinds

11:36

of jargon it because you think we

11:38

feel like were liable to be victimized

11:41

in some way i afraid that they are using

11:43

their tricky language to put us in

11:45

circumstances that we did not mean to

11:47

sign

11:47

for many examples of these one

11:49

i remember just as a kid we just

11:52

repeated it all the time because it was so funny it

11:54

was it was a dinner knives table

11:56

settings that we had and leader

11:58

label as a package said jenny

12:00

simulated plastic would handles

12:03

that , just someone in marketing just basically

12:05

using words to sell space yes

12:08

it is a handle because of that sequence

12:10

of words was funny to us as kids

12:12

so i still remember to this day gave

12:14

auto mechanic or of this marketing mass

12:16

of language the word tautology

12:19

i think has a negative connotation

12:21

for sure if something's pleasant then

12:23

you want to revisit it you don't want to

12:26

regurgitate it rigors is another negative

12:28

way of experiencing are

12:31

repeating something and something i told

12:33

you a clear to me negative connotation

12:35

right as does redundancy or and there's the

12:37

department of redundancy department the

12:39

point is you don't need it

12:41

meanwhile repetition i think is looked

12:43

upon more charitably again a your turn

12:45

to song

12:46

eric for example britain

12:47

listen and rhythm

13:02

wherever you get your podcasts or

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can also visit us at any p

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of the day and

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it matters is produced by john's o sea

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and me sir and and say i'm

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peter sokoloski i'm emily brewster

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word matters is produced by merriam webster's

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