pleonasms

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:53 PM -0500 2/13/02, Duane Campbell wrote:
>On Wed, 13 Feb 2002 10:27:59 -0800 "ANNE V. GILBERT" >
>
>>  "Ink pen" is another one. I hear a lot.
>
>How 'bout "hot water heater" for what is in fact a cold water heater.
>
>D

depends on your analysis (and careful how you pronounce that)--

Yes, it heats cold (or lukewarm) water, but its function is to heat
water hot.  If "hot" is a resultative rather than a depictive, it
makes sense and isn't really pleonastic.  I guess this would be more
convincing if there were other such cases (a smooth floor sander?  a
clean baby wipe?) but I think it's not impossible to take "hot" to be
a resultative here.

larry