pleonasms: ink pen

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Thursday, February 14, 2002 1:56 pm +0000 Douglas Bigham
<TlhovwI at AOL.COM> wrote:

> 'Round here we say both "pen" and "ink pen" when refering to the writing
> device.  True, it's often a clarification device (I need a pVn.  What
> kind?), but its not stuck (tee-hee) to that function.  When talking to a
> non-merger person, however, you're likely to get called-out about
> pronounciation (or misunderstood) without the "ink".  What concerns me is
> everyone on-list calling a "stick pin" a "straight pin".  Of course it's
> straight!

It's a straight pin as opposed to a safety pin.  Same as stick pin, but
certainly not pleonastic!

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA in Applied Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320