Redundancy in Speech

It is common knowledge to us that there are words that are sounded and are spelled differently but mean the same thing. These are what we call synonyms. There are also words that substitute for a noun if the latter is to be used many times in a passage. These are called pronouns.

The concept of redundancy is a common "illness" of many people whenever they communicate with other people. It is the manner of indicating an idea in a needless repetitive fashion. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think they are good speakers or writers but still appear to be "trying hard" because of redundancy.

Here are some instances of how we commit redundancy, followed by some tips:

1. Using the same noun over and over again. Hearing the same noun over and over again not only is annoying to the ear; it also wastes space in paper. To avoid these, pronouns are useful. See the examples below:

- "The mule has a built-in protection from being some animal's dinner: it tastes bad." ("it" for "mule")
- "Minnie is very vocal about her feelings for Joey. Unfortunately, he disses her because of her stalking attitude."
     ("her" for "Minnie" and "he" for "Joey")

2. Using the same adjective or verb over and over again. Describing nouns or actions using the same adjectives or verbs can be very monotonous and painfully boring for a reader, expert or amateur. It is here that synonyms (words of the same meaning) and antonyms(words of the opposite meaning) are useful. See the examples below:

- "An ideal match is for an intelligent man to be married to an equally educated woman."
      ("educated" is a synonym for "intelligent")
- Like David Cook and Eminem who are southpaw performers, David Archuleta is a left-handed singer."
      ("left-handed" is a synonym for "southpaw")
- The dot product is commutative, while the cross product is anti-commutative.
      ("anti-commutative" is an antonym for "commutative")

3. Using "double negatives." Negating a negation when in fact you really intend to convey a negative statement can be very confusing. Just as the product of two negative integers is a positive number, negating a negative sentence must indicate an affirmative one. So if you mean the opposite of something, negate only once. Here are some examples:

- "Some of your words are misspelled incorrectly." ("misspelled" could be changed to "spelled")
- "There won't be no next time" ("won't" can be replaced with "will" or "no" could be changed to "a")

4. Stating the explicit together with the implied. Implying something and then saying it in a separate word is redundant. It can be so funny it reveals one's weakness in employing common sense in speech. It can also be annoying to your audience, since no one likes to be treated as some dumbsh*t that needs much explanation. So, if you imply something, leave it as it is, unless it needs further elaboration. Some examples follow:

- "Please make me some coffee. I'll drink it.
     (Coffee is a drink. If you asked for it, it's obvious you want something to drink.)
- "John and Dean are two male brothers."
     (Brothers are male, so there's no need to say "male brothers", just "brothers.")
- "Come, let's eat some pizza pie."
     (Pizza means pie, so if you mean pizza, just refer to it as pizza, but if you mean some other pie,
      say "apple pie", then refer to it as pie.)