Newsletter and Grammar Coach

Linda had a bemused smile after Tom told her, “I packed my head hat, several torso shirts, hand gloves, my leg trousers and an extra pair of foot shoes in my suitcase.” He was gently teasing her after she had told him, “We need to take extra face masks.” Tom recognized that the wording “face mask” is as redundant as the expressions “free gift,” “unexpected surprise” and “foreign import.” People routinely pair many other words without realizing they are being redundant.

A mask is defined as a covering for all or part of the face. That’s the only place a mask is properly worn. Although protective face coverings used in some sports are called “face masks,” Linda was referring to covering intended only for the mouth and nose. The word “face” is superfluous in that context. A gift is inherently free. Use of the adjective “free” to characterize a gift is superfluous. A surprise is intrinsically unexpected; that’s what makes it a surprise. An import is, by definition, a product shipped from another nation.

A woman who dashes indoors to escape a downpour might exclaim, “I’m sopping wet.” She’s also repetitive, because the adjective “sopping” means “saturated with liquid.” So does “wet.” Installing a “hot water heater” is unnecessary; water that’s already hot doesn’t need to be heated.

“Regretfully, due to a lack of viable locations we have to postpone the event until another time,” a trade association announced to its members. In that statement, the words “until another time” are redundant because that is implicit in the verb “postpone.”

“The $85 billion in automatic spending cuts over which the president has been gnashing his teeth will hardly make a dent,” a print journalist wrote. The definition of “gnash” is “grind the teeth together,” rendering the words “his teeth” in that sentence redundant.

A county tourism organization promotional announcement declared, “Surrounded on all sides by trails, Long Lake is a hot spot for ATV, snowshoe, cross country ski and snowmobile enthusiasts.” Long Lake sounds appealing, but the tourism group took the long way to get there in that sentence. The words “on all sides” are redundant because the verb “surround” means to encircle or envelop something.

Linguists have a name for such redundancy: “pleonasm.” That refers to modifying a word with an adjective or adverb that describes a characteristic inherent in the word. Commonly heard pleonasms include “positive reinforcement,” “return back,” “past history,” “end result,” “bleary-eyed” (the adjective “bleary” by definition refers to eyes that are unfocused or filmy from sleep or fatigue), “totally compete,” “final outcome,” “general consensus” (“consensus” means “general agreement”) and “new innovation” (an innovation is a new product, a new method or a new concept).

A news report referred to “Cindy McCain, widow of the late Arizona senator John McCain.” Because the term “widow” indicates a woman whose spouse is deceased, “the late” is superfluous in that context.

Some pleonasms are more subtle, or we subconsciously ignore the redundancy because we’re accustomed to using certain words in combination. One such example is “close proximity” because the word “proximity” refers to nearness. Others include “save haven” (a haven is inherently a place of safety), “personal opinion,” “honest truth,” “revert back,” “temper tantrum,” “invited guest,” “regular routine,” “completely engulfed,” “swap out” (“swap” means “exchange,” rendering “out” superfluous), “La Brea tar pits” (“la brea” means “tar in Spanish), “Rio Grande River” (that literally means “river large river”) and “Sierra Nevada mountain range” (“sierra” means “mountain range” in Spanish).

The synopsis of a motion picture plot included this description: “After looking at the now dead corpse of Willie, Rachel hears her grandmother breathing, only to realize grandma is now a werewolf.” The word “dead” needs to be exhumed from that sentence, because death is a tacit aspect of the noun “corpse.”

In a magazine article, a book reviewer critiquing a newly published work wrote that the “fictional novel has elements of cyberspace and internet intrigue; the murder mystery revolves around the murderer accessing and infiltrating the confines of his victims’ computers.” Of course, all novels are fictional, rendering that word redundant.

An article described a 19th-century home that had been listed for sale. “Built in 1885 by Wade Morrison, the original founder of Dr Pepper, the Victorian-style estate on Washington Avenue flawlessly blends old-world charm with modern aesthetics,” the article said. Dr Pepper (the name of which contains no period) had only one founder — Wade Morrison, who owned the Waco, Texas, drugstore where the flavored soda was concocted. The word “original” is superfluous.

The list of pleonasms includes “exact replica,” “component parts,” “advance warning,” “climb up,” (“climb” means “ascend”), “descend down,” “fall down,” “mix together,” “gather together,” “root cause,” “hopeful optimism,” “armed gunman,” “completely unanimous” and “mass exodus.”

We don’t expect you to remember the word “pleonasm,” but we hope you’ll be able to recognize one when you see it.

,Several years after civil engineer Larry Walker, P.E., retired as head of the Davis, California, environmental engineering and water quality management firm that he founded, he began researching and documenting his family history for the benefit of future generations of his family. He traced ancestral lines through more than 12 generations to the early 1600s in colonial New England. His book, the Walker–Stefani Family History: Part I — The Twelve Ancestral Immigrants To California, is a detailed narrative account of Larry's meticulous research.

Larry contracted with EditPros’ Book Prep service to transform his word-processing manuscript into a 98-page hardback book containing color and black-and-white photos. He will make the book available to family members this month.

To help make the sprawling history manageable, Larry focused on his 12 ancestors and family groups who immigrated to California between 1850 and 1921. Accordingly, he composed the family’s saga in the context of the history of California and the ways in which it influenced the decisions of the 12 ancestors to resettle in the West. The Walker–Stefani Family History: Part I includes an appendix that presents a chronology of not only the settlement and development of California, but also pivotal historical developments in Europe that prompted ancestral immigration to America. Larry plans to publish a companion volume about the more recent generations of the Walker-Stefani family. Larry intentionally limited distribution of the book only to family members; it is unavailable for sale by commercial retailers.

This is the 30th book that Book Prep has produced for authors during the past four years. As part of the Book Prep package, EditPros professionally formatted the interior pages of the Walker–Stefani Family History: Part I, designed the cover, and readied it for print publication.

LEARN MORE about the EditPros Book Prep service.

Vic L. wrote:

The grammar coach replies:

* * * * *

Are you perplexed by some aspect of grammar or word usage? Don't be shy! Ask the "grammar coach" at EditPros and we'll try to help — at no charge, just for the sport of it.

Do you know of a friend or colleague whose office can benefit from EditPros’ services? If you do, you may be able to earn a “referral reward” of up to $500 from EditPros.   

We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter — which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. We respond to all "grammar coach" questions personally, but delays may occur because we must place top priority on assignments from our clients. We appreciate your patience and your interest.

You also can change your e-mail subscription address. For an address change, please indicate your existing AND your new e-mail address. Thank you.

OUR PRIVACY POLICY for e-mail newsletter subscribers:

We do not use any commercial e-mail lists or automated mass-mailing programs, and we do not allow access to the list by anyone else for any reason. Our subscriber list is maintained by hand, and it is not for sale. We are protective of confidentiality because many of our readers are also clients of ours.