pleonasms

[Donald M Lance]

on 2/13/02 2:05 PM, Bethany K. Dumas at dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU wrote:

> On Wed, 13 Feb 2002, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>>> I had never heard "ink pen" until I moved to Knoxville in 1974 - the first
>>> place I heard it was in the Computer Center.
>>>
>>
>> Aha.  Given what I (think I) know about the variety of English spoken
>> in Knoxville, that would be an area where you'd want to distinguish
>> between "ink pen" and "straight pin".
>
> Yup.
>
> Bethany
>
I don't buy the notion that "ink pen" developed as a disambiguating ploy.
What is the likelihood that "(straight) pin" or "(safety) pin" or
"(sticking) pin" would come to mind in a context in which someone asks for
a(n ink) pen?  I'd say it's way, way under 1%.  In my mind it's more likely
that the tautologous "ink pen" developed as a way of referring to a
(fountain) pen or (dipped) pen as opposed, tautologously, to a lead pencil,
which also occurs in speech.

DMLance