It's obvious!---(a blend)

[Charles Doyle]

And what, I wonder, causes some such "redundant" verb
constructions to be stigmatized and others not (so much)?

Does anyone object to "rise up" or "go away" or "lie down"?

--Charlie
____________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:42:03 -0700
>From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>Subject: Re: It's obvious!---(a blend)
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>as i've said here before (several times), just because an
expression type *can* be analyzed as a blend doesn't mean it
*should* be; something rather different might have been
going on in the speaker's/ writer's mind.  in particular,
the urge to "pile on" elements for emphasis is very strong;
this produces combinations that some advice books treat as
redundant, pleonastic, or merely unnecessarily wordy, as in
the following from MWDEU under "redundancy" (MWDEU is not
necessarily proscribing them):
>
>pick out
>refer back
>from off
>return/revert back
>repeat over
>continue on
>off of

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