Sunday 22 July 2012

Mock drill

Wordsmith.org defines tautology as the unnecessary repetition of an idea, especially in different words; for example, a good-looking beautiful woman. 

A few days ago I came across an example of it in The Times of India:
 
A mock drill was conducted at New Delhi railway station on Wednesday to check the preparedness of various agencies in responding to emergency situations.

A drill is an exercise, not a real emergency; mock means the same thing, so there is no need to add it.  

Here are some more instances:
  • past experience
  • major disaster
  • repeat again
  • free gift
There are many more which are equally common and have almost become fixed expressions which we use without thinking.


3 comments:

  1. I can see some reasons for the evolution of such phrases:

    1. Differentiation
    (a) consider that there are many sorts of experiences - recent, immediate, past ...
    (b) disasters vary: major disaster (tsunami), minor disaster (our neighborhood flooded)

    2. Emphasis
    Some languages use little words to show emphasis, "iku ze" [Japanese] "look, I'm leaving!" [English].
    Saying "repeat again" is away of saying "Look! I am repeating myself".

    Language is more than the logic of the "actual" meanings of the words -- words have many functions outside of meaning: tone, allusions, sounds and more.

    So, could you imagine ways "mock drill" could evolve to be more than just a silly tautology? I can.

    Like you, I love language. Nice to meet you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sabio, thanks for your comments and nice to meet you too :-)

      I understand what you mean by differentiation and your examples do make sense. Nevertheless, "experience" is usually good enough; one need not say "past experience". Or perhaps "early experience" can be used instead.

      However I don't agree that such phrases are a way of showing emphasis.

      Coming to "mock drill", how is this different from "drill"?

      Delete
  2. another example:
    "repeat again" could mean:
    I repeated myself 10 minutes ago and I am again going to repeat myself.

    Concerning drills, consider:
    practice drill
    mock drill
    rehearsal drill

    All are tautology, but perhaps it is like "really, really good" -- redundancy for emphasis.
    Point: language events evolve for reasons -- not just from pure stupidity. To not understand that, is to not understand language.

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