Redundancy--(in defense of "South Yugoslavia")

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

   I'd like to speak out in defense of "South Yugoslavia." Sure, "Yug-" in Slavic means "South," but once the country Yugoslavia arose, one could be in the north, south, east, or west of that country.

    But here's another (non-onomastic) item on redundancy. A much beloved professor of geology at my campus (Tom Beveridge; now deceased) used to travel around the state (Missouri) studying not only geology but also collecting anything else of interest that he came across.. He was particularly fond of collecting interesting signs. One, in a restaurant, was an advertisement to hire a "female waitress." Another of his favorite reodundancies was "an ink pen."
I forget the rest. But (and here I'm just wondering out loud) how do these examples jibe with the supposed Law of Least Effort in language?

        Gerald Cohen
        University of Missouri-Rolla

> ----------
> From:         American Name Society on behalf of Marc Picard
> Reply To:     American Name Society
> Sent:         Saturday, November 13, 2004
> To:   ANS-L at LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Redundancy
>
> On 04-11-13, at 10:08 am, Christopher K. Starr wrote:
>
> Dear Friends:
>       Perhaps one of the real linguists out there (my credentials say I'm an entomologist) would care to confirm or refute my idle suspicion that the place name East Timor is redundant, as in (imaginary examples, as far as I know) South Yugoslavia, North Beijing or East Tokyo.
>
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