Have you ever come throughout the time period “tautology” currently and puzzled what it’s?
Or are you on a mission to enhance your writing and need to study to keep away from it?
Numerous widespread phrases are tautologies. And as soon as you understand, they will drive you loopy!
To let you know the sincere reality…
They’re giving freely free tickets…
However with the ability to establish them means you a minimum of received’t drive your readers loopy.
On this put up we’ll have a look at a bunch of tautology examples and dissect them so you possibly can spot them a mile away.
However first, let’s check out the definition.
What Is A Tautology?
In literary phrases, a tautology, is solely repeating oneself.
You’ll be able to repeat your self in some ways (ask my Mum), however there are just a few outlined kinds of tautology.
In grammar, it’s repeating an thought, assertion, or phrase — however utilizing totally different phrases, or synonyms.
In rhetoric and logic, a tautology is slightly like a round argument. It’s one thing that’s unconditionally true by advantage of logic.
Let’s take a better have a look at the totally different tautologies, with some examples.
The Verbal Tautology
A verbal tautology is a grammatical redundancy — you repeat the identical thought however phrase it otherwise.
For instance, asking prospects to:
“Prepay prematurely.”
They’ll pay prematurely, or they will prepay. However you don’t must say the identical factor twice!
Or this one:
“I went to see him personally.”
You may add “personally” for emphasis. Nevertheless it doesn’t add something. If I went to see him, it should have been personally.
As we’ll see later, a verbal tautology can be used so as to add emphasis and rhythm to your writing.
Nevertheless, a clear, concise sentence is commonly the higher alternative.
The Logical Tautology
A logical tautology is an announcement that’s all the time true — it covers all eventualities.
For instance:
“You both have blue eyes otherwise you shouldn’t have blue eyes.”
“You might be courageous or you might be not courageous.”
“I’ll get in bother or I’ll not get in bother.”
These statements are all the time true, as a result of if you put each halves of the sentence collectively, there’s no chance of it not being true. Subsequently, it feels redundant, similar to a verbal tautology.
10 Examples of Tautology You Didn’t Even Know You Used
Now that you just’ve seen what the dictionary says, let’s take a better have a look at some tautologies that you just’d hear in on a regular basis conversations.
Chances are high, your personal language is crammed with them.
Acknowledge any pet favorites?
Logical Tautology Examples
Whereas these logical statements could also be widespread colloquial sayings, they don’t add which means or deeper readability to your writing.
“It’s what it’s.“
This can be a logical tautology as a result of it makes use of the repetition of “it’s” in a easy assertion that’s universally true about no matter “it” is. However repeating it doesn’t add any data.
As Nina Simone (and plenty of others) stated:
You’ve acquired to:
“Do what you’ve gotta do”.
This is similar sort of logical tautology.
However what’s that factor you’ve acquired to do?! The which means is implied within the context. What you’re actually saying is you don’t have any alternative within the matter.
Logical tautologies are sometimes used extra intentionally than verbal tautologies.
Verbal Tautology Examples
We use a ton of verbal tautologies in our native dialects and speech mannerisms. Many people use tautological redundancies so as to add emphasis, rhythm, selection, or perhaps a splash of native shade to a phrase.
“I personally made this card for you with my very own fingers.”
“The soggy floor was moist and coated in mud.”
“The trainer assisted me by serving to me full the task.”
“Take pleasure in your added bonus!”
“Watch out, there may be quite a lot of frozen ice on the highway!”
“She all the time over exaggerates.”
“They hiked to the summit on the prime of the mountain.”
“The lodge room wasn’t nice, but it surely was sufficient sufficient.”
If you happen to dwell in a group the place these tautologies are frequent in native chit chat, by all means take part and have some enjoyable!
Once you’re writing although, select your phrases fastidiously. It’ll make for clear and concise writing.
5 Tautology Examples That’ll Crack a Smile
Some tautologies are so blatant they’ll seemingly tickle the corners of your mouth. You may even bless us with an actual smile or a teenage eye-roll!
We’ve picked just a few well-known examples on your enjoyment:
“An individual’s an individual, regardless of how small”
— Horton Hears a Who, Dr. Suess
“Found by Pooh, Pooh discovered it.”
— Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
“They’re merely going to must rating extra factors than the opposite crew to win the sport.”
— John Madden
“Our nation should come collectively to unite.”
— George W. Bush
“It’s deja vu all over once more.”
— Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra’s well-known quote is one in all my favorites.
It’s not simply deja vu (French for already seen). It’s not simply deja vu once more.
It’s deja vu all over once more.
It kills me.
Which one do you want finest?
If They’re So Dangerous, How Come Shakespeare Used Tautologies?
The nice masters’ phrases have delighted us for hundreds of years. They used many literary units to precise their concepts.
Tautology is one in all them.
It may be particularly efficient in kids’s literature, poetry and track lyrics.
We will additionally use tautologies in dialogue, as a tool to develop a character’s ideas and character.
The purpose is, there is a degree (see?) to the tautology — for instance to cost the phrases with emotional affect, or to make an thought unforgettable.
3 Nice Tautology Examples in Literature
We’ve been discussing tautologies, primarily in favor of not utilizing them.
Now you’re going to see three skillful makes use of of tautology that add rhythm and punch to the writing.
“And as for me, if I’m bereaved of my kids, I’m bereaved.”
— Genesis 43:14
This epic biblical tautology brings house Jacob’s helpless plight.
If he stays, the Egyptian prime Minister retains his beloved youngest son in jail.
If he leaves to Egypt together with his different sons, he places the entire household in danger.
That is the second of peak anguish within the story.
Within the historical Hebrew tradition, there was nothing worse than being bereaved of your kids. So, the writer makes use of a tautology to skyrocket the affect of this assertion.
“To be or to not be, that’s the query.”
— Hamlet, William Shakespeare
This well-known logical tautology finds Hamlet pondering life and dying.
Greater than 400 years later, these phrases stay an icon of English literature.
Shakespeare was a grasp at conveying huge concepts, expressing the dramatic temper in every scene, and he managed to voice all of it in iambic pentameter!
“I’m keen to let you know. I’m wanting to let you know. I’m ready to let you know.”
— Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
Shaw used tautology on this line to provide Alfred Doolittle a poetic air — to impress Professor Henry Higgins together with his pure poetic present.
Was Higgins impressed? Effectively, that’s as much as the viewers to resolve.
Why Music Is Tautological Anarchy
Poetic kinds comply with a distinct algorithm, to create rhyme and rhythm. So, poets and lyricists may be looser with the foundations than different writers.
Track lyrics use filler phrases to suit the construction of the track. For instance:
“I like you. I actually do.”
It sounds redundant in other forms of writing, however is ideal in a track.
Let’s have a look at just a few examples.
Kiss’s hit track “Shout it Out Loud” makes use of a verbal tautology within the refrain.
“Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud!”
— Kiss
“Shout it out loud” is a verbal tautology as a result of, should you shout one thing, it’s essential to invariably use a loud voice. So “out loud” is redundant.
Within the context of the track, this “useless” repetition makes for a enjoyable, pulse-pounding refrain, and Kiss followers like it!
The Beatles have tons of tautology examples of their songs. “All You Want is Love” is filled with logical tautologies like this one:
“There’s nothing you are able to do that can’t be accomplished. There’s nothing you possibly can sing that can’t be sung”
— The Beatles
These are logical tautologies as a result of they categorical a thought in an announcement that’s all the time true.
The track “Qué será, será” makes use of the identical method, however kicks it up a notch through the use of a distinct language to repeat the thought.
“Qué será, será. No matter might be, might be.”
— Livingston & Evans
If you happen to write poetry and track lyrics, be deliberate about utilizing tautologies to make your phrases stronger, fairly than weaker.
Which Tautology Examples Do You Like to Hate?
You’ve seen how a tautology can sound extra like a damaged report than an emphatic literary machine.
And the way the literary masters have used tautologies to make a significant affect on their viewers.
So, right here’s the underside line:
- Write clear, concise sentences.
- Basically, remove tautologies out of your writing.
- Solely use a tautology when it offers your phrases higher affect.
No matter you’re writing, use probably the most highly effective phrases you possibly can — and attempt to wield the facility of tautology correctly.