Opp. of "oxymoron"

[Dennis R. Preston]

If you are looking for technical terms, "redundancy" is just right
since it has no pejorative sense among linguists, but I suspect you
are right that real people probably have this sense. But then that
doesn;t stop us from calling ourselves the "ADS," and "dialect" is
surely more pejorative than "redundant" among real people.

dInIs



>Found at http://members.nbci.com/_______/news/kibology00047.html
>(originally posted to alt.religion.kibology by "SWT"
><dumplechan at hotmail.com> on 27 Jun 2000):
>
>"Append to end" isn't an oxymoron. It is (at least for my idiolect's
>definition of "append") redundant - or to put it more charitably, call
>it
>"oxybrilliant" since it's the opposite of oxymoron.  Wow, that's so
>'oxy!
>
>
>Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>
>>  A colleague just asked if there is a word for the opposite of "oxymoron,"
>>  referring to the use of two terms of similar meaning, like perhaps "dead
>>  loss." The problem with terms like "tautology" or "redundancy" is that
>>  these are generally used in reference to disapproved usages, and we're
>>  looking for a term that refers in a favorable way to such constructions
>>  esp. when used for deliberate rhetorical effect.
>>
>>  Any ideas?
>>
>>  Jesse Sheidlower
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736