want to know what it is pleonasm? Pay attention to the tips to face the problem head on!
Oops! “Face the problem head-on”? Shouldn't it just be “face the problem”? If we face it, then we do it head-on, so it is not necessary to exaggerate in speech, much less in writing. This kind of linguistic exaggeration that we love to commit is called pleonasm.
Brazilians are a very expressive people. When we communicate, we like to gesture, stare at our interlocutor to keep their attention, and even give rhythm to our words. In this desire to be understood, because we want people to understand us right, we can be exaggerated, excessive, and that is where, voluntarily or not, we are redundant, that is, repetitive.
The word pleonasm comes from Greece, specifically in the term pleonasms, and means excess, exaggeration or amplification. The word pleonasm can be replaced by the term redundancy without this altering its meaning. There are two types of pleonasms: literary pleonasm and vicious pleonasm.
O literary pleonasm
is used to highlight an idea and is often found in literary language. In this case, pleonasm is not considered an error, fitting into what we know as “poetic license”. Look at the examples:“It's been twenty years since that day
When with my eyes I wanted to see it up close
How much in vision with those of saudade via."
(Alberto de Oliveira)
“You will die a vile death at the hand of a fort”.
(Gonçalves Dias)
“O salty sea, how much of your salt
They are tears for Portugal”.
(Fernando Pessoa)
“and laugh my laugh
And pour out my tears”.
(Vinicius de Moraes)
already the vicious pleonasm, which adds unnecessary terms for understanding both in writing and in speech, is considered an error. It's called vicious because, most of the time, we don't even realize that we're committing a linguistic exaggeration. See the examples:
I stared straight ahead
lived the life
I went up/down down
link
Stars in the sky
widow of the deceased
Final conclusion
These are just a few of the countless examples of vicious pleonasm, as there are countless of them, as, in addition to being expressive and exaggerated, we are a very creative people! Through the examples given, the difference between the types of pleonasms becomes evident, so it is easier to understand when it is considered a resource to confer expressiveness with literary intent and when he's just a repetition, whose job is unnecessary.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters