Anthony Haynes writes: 'Added bonus'; 'free gift'; 'forward planning'; 'pre-prepared': pleonasms - usages that involve redundant words - are all around us. In this episode, Engy Moussa and I have fun with the English language.
 
We ask:

• what are the most common pleonasms?
• what types of pleonasm are there?
• do pleonasms matter?
• is pleonasm always a bad thing?
• how should we respond to pleonasm?

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Reference and allusions

Thomas Gray, 'Elegy written in a country churchyard'.

Our use of 'one-uppersonship' (which we're hoping is a first: OED please note) alludes to Stephen Potter's writing on one-upmanship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-upmanship.

The allusion in the title of this episode is to the second stanza of Bob Dylan, 'It's alright, Ma (I'm only bleeding)'. (My rewrite of the text would be 'plays wasted words, proves to warn/ That he not busy thinking is rather sleeping'.)

Credits

Sound production: Bart Hallmark

Music: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra

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About the publisher

This episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences.

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