pleonasms

[Dennis R. Preston]

Even around the house larry. Anybody in Louisville who asked for a
"pVn" (without obvious disambiguating context) would be run out of
town. I had "ink pin," (later) "ball-point," and "straight pin"
(although the last was probably also doing duty to separate it from
"safety pin."

dInIs


>At 9:29 PM -0500 2/13/02, Baker, John wrote:
>>         You must not have the pin/pen merger.  I've used "ink pen" as a
>>disambiguating phrase any number of times.  And "lead pencil" is not
>>tautologous, because there are non-lead pencils too.
>>
>>John Baker
>
>I would think "ink pen" isn't that common a disambiguator in just
>those dialects that have the merger.  While there aren't too many
>contexts in which you'd need to specify "ink pen" to distinguish it
>from "pig pen", I could imagine walking into a general store that
>sells both stationery supplies and notions (if that's what a straight
>pen is) and having to specify which kind of "pVn" one needed.
>
>larry
>
>>
>>
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>>  From: Donald M Lance [SMTP:lancedm at MISSOURI.EDU]
>>>  Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 9:11 PM
>>>  To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>  Subject:      Re: pleonasms
>>>
>>>  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

--
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