pleonasms

[Beverly Flanigan]

Even in the split pin/pen North, I grew up with "ink pen."  Back in the
dark ages, it referred, as Don Lance said, to fountain pens, like the
classic Shaeffer I got as a special birthday gift.  For a long, long time,
we differentiated fountain (or ink) pens from ballpoint pens, esp. valuing
the first for "good" writing, like greeting cards.  A "lead" pencil, in my
childhood, referred to the kind with a thin lead rod twisted in and out of
a metal or plastic case (if that's clear).  "Regular" pencils were the
yellow school kind.

At 07:26 AM 2/14/02 -0500, you wrote:
>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 uncommon 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


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm