Redundancy manifests itself usually in one of three more or less distinct forms:

a. Tautology. In this form of redundancy, the idea is repeated in words of the same or similar meaning. For example:

In the Attic commonwealth, it was the privilege (and birthright) of every citizen (and poet) to rail aloud and in public.

It is a matter notorious (and of common repute) throughout the length and breadth of the land.

One of the most common forms of tautology is the coupling together of synonyms. "Make-up and disposition," "trying and exasperating," in one of the sentences quoted above, are examples of this fault. The coupling of synonyms in this way is justifiable only when the second word really adds a shade to the meaning expressed by the first. In the case of a few phrases, such as "end and aim," "kith and kin,” usage has sanctioned the tautology.

b. Pleonasm. Here there is an addition of entirely superfluous words, that is, words not required to bring out the meaning of the sentence. For example:

He went home laden with (a great many) bundles.

He volunteered (of his own free will and motion) to second any attempt made in that direction.

They (silently) ignored our presence.

As a rule, pleonastic expressions should be avoided. Occasionally, however, if skillfully employed, they

serve to add emphasis. Thus, "We have seen with our eyes," "We have heard with our ears," may in the proper place be more forcible than "We have seen," "We have heard."

c. Circumlocution. This form of redundancy consists in the use of a round-about mode of expression. It cannot be cured, like tautology and pleonasm, simply by cutting out the superfluous words; the only, remedy is complete remodeling of the sentence. For example:

People of this class are timid and suspicious, and owing to this fact prefer to stay in their own rooms, which are usually squalid and dingy in the extreme, rather than be taken to the hospital, where they would have clean and airy quarters.

At least ten words can be saved by recasting this sentence in the following form:

People of this class are timid and suspicious, and would rather, therefore, stay in their own squalid and dingy rooms than be taken to the hospital, where they would have clean and airy quarters.

Common forms of circumlocution are cheap witticisms such as "tonsorial artist" for "barber," euphemistic expressions such as "departed this life” for "died," and such so-called elegant expressions as "devouring element" for "fire," "palatial residence" for "house."

57. Congruity. - Words, like men, have their peculiarities, and, like men, are not apt to attain their

highest efficiency unless they are in perfect accord with their surroundings. A skillful writer, therefore, will seek to adapt his words one to another. He will use no word or phrase whose associations are not in harmony with those of the other words he employs.

Lack of congruity in phrasing is most commonly seen in discourses where frequent use is made of figures of speech or of language bordering on the figurative. In the following sentence from a speech advocating an increase in pensions we have an example of this fault at its worst:

By the light of the twentieth century, amid the din and roar of your boasting patriotism, Union veterans are knocking at the door unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

Less striking instances of the same fault are the following:

His name has been carved in golden characters upon the corridors of time, and its never-fading letters will herald the message of his greatness to the ears of the generations to come. With voice and pen - both powerful tools in his hands he labored for its adoption.

or

58. Euphony. Discourse, whether written oral, is always addressed to the ear. The written discourse, to be sure, may never be read aloud, and so may never actually appeal to the ear; but the reader, as his eye catches the written words, cannot help imagining to himself how they would sound if they were uttered aloud. Hence the effect is virtu

ally the same as if they really were spoken. It behooves a writer, therefore, to pay some attention to the question of euphony.

"Each phrase in literature is built of sounds, as each phrase in music consists of notes. One sound suggests, echoes, demands, and harmonizes with another, and the art of rightly using these concordances is the final art in literature." 1

Harsh-sounding combinations of words are disagreeable and should, accordingly, be avoided. The following sentence, for example, would be faultless did it not contain such a harsh-sounding phrase as "rarely seriously:"

In a college football game, where the men are hardened and properly prepared, the players are only rarely seriously injured.

As to how euphony can be secured, not much can be said. This is a matter that must be left almost entirely to the ear of the writer; and if he has not naturally an ear for the musical effects of language, little can be done for him in the way of giving him advice. The avoidance of harsh-sounding combinations of words is, of course, but a negative virtue. What the writer wants to do is to give his style a positively pleasing character.

In general, it may be said that, to secure euphony, there must be, in the first place, free use made of the more pleasing consonantal sounds, such as the liquids

1 R. L. Stevenson, Style in Literature.

and labials; and, in the second place, skillful variation of the stressed vowel sounds. A moderate and unobtrusive use of alliteration also helps to give a pleasing effect. The alliteration, however, must not be overdone. On this question of the use of alliteration Stevenson's remarks are especially worthy of being borne in mind: "It used to be a piece of good advice to all young writers to avoid alliteration; and the advice was sound, in so far as it prevented daubing. None the less for that, was it abominable nonsense, and the mere raving of the blind who will not see. The beauty of the contents of a phrase, or of a sentence, depends implicitly upon alliteration and upon assonance. The vowel demands to be repeated; the consonant demands to be repeated; and both cry aloud to be perpetually varied. You may follow the adventures of a letter through any passage that has particularly pleased you; find it, perhaps, denied awhile, to tantalize the ear; find it fired again at you in a whole broadside; or find it pass into congenerous sounds, one liquid or labial melting away into

another." 1

The following passage from De Quincey is not, perhaps, quite a fair sample of English prose, even at its best, inasmuch as it is pitched almost in a poetic key; but notice its lavish use of liquids and labials, the variety of its vowel sounds, its skillfully concealed alliteration, its fluid movement, and the exquisite cadence of its sentences: