Overspecify
Xavier Leclerc
several times to specify what, from the beginning, is cristal clear to
the reader. Sometimes english writers come with quasi absolute
synonyms as if there was a crucial and very subtle nuance between them
the reader must be aware of.
"The universities of both countries enjoy good ACADEMIC relations."
"The immigration report identifies many immigration flaws in
immigration processes that immigration officers will have to deal
with. Responsiveness in immigration is at stake, says the immigration
report and immigration authorities will have to react swiftly."
"This store sells artist material, supply, and equipment."
To a foreign reader, english texts are strewn with pointless
repetitions.
Quite amazing is to consider that in other cases English suddenly
becomes not so clear, because of this obsession to cut drastically in
the number of words used. In these cases, clarity is no object. A good
example is a UN resolution calling Israel to draw back from "occupied
territories". What are we talking about? ALL occupied territories or
SOME of them? To understand you have to read the text in the other
official languages of the United Nations.
Alan Jones
> I frequently come across english sentences that absurdly repeat a word
> several times to specify what, from the beginning, is cristal clear to
> the reader. Sometimes english writers come with quasi absolute
> synonyms as if there was a crucial and very subtle nuance between them
> the reader must be aware of.
>
> "The universities of both countries enjoy good ACADEMIC relations."
> "The immigration report identifies many immigration flaws in
> immigration processes that immigration officers will have to deal
> with. Responsiveness in immigration is at stake, says the immigration
> report and immigration authorities will have to react swiftly."
> "This store sells artist material, supply, and equipment."
Your examples don't all prove your point. Artists' materials [not
"material"], supplies [NB not "supply"] and equipment are three different
kinds of thing: materials are the stuff the picture is actually made from
(paint, paper etc.), supplies are other 'consumables' such as turpentine or
other cleaning substances which will need occasional re-stocking, equipment
would be brushes, easels and so on. The universities may have relations
other than academic (commercial, political or administrative, for instance)
which don't run as smoothly as the contacts between staff and students in
the two countries.
The 'immigration' example is indeed badly written, and its last sentence
appears to say the same thing twice. The repetition of 'immigration' is
unnecessary. Where did you find the example?
Alan Jones
Barry Etheridge
"Xavier Leclerc" <xavier...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:bf5b1821.03041...@posting.google.com...
I was going to give a serious, considered, reasonable, informed,
comprehensive, and comprehensible answer here. But then I read it again and
noted the discrimnatory, xenophobic, prejudicial, and ill considered nature
of the argument's discussion and thought 'blow that for a game of soldiers!'
In every language there is good writing and bad writing! Duh!!!
Harvey Van Sickle
> I frequently come across english sentences that absurdly repeat a
> word several times to specify what, from the beginning, is cristal
> clear to the reader. Sometimes english writers come with quasi
> absolute synonyms as if there was a crucial and very subtle nuance
> between them the reader must be aware of.
>
> "The universities of both countries enjoy good ACADEMIC
> relations."
There's no redundancy there at all. It's specifying and limiting, not
repeating. (They may have zero or bloody awful administrative,
financial, sporting or publication relations.)
> "The immigration report identifies many immigration
> flaws in immigration processes that immigration officers will have
> to deal with. Responsiveness in immigration is at stake, says the
> immigration report and immigration authorities will have to react
> swiftly."
Where's this from? It sounds like an incompetent translation rather
than a native-written sentence.
> "This store sells artist material, supply, and equipment."
They're different things; no repetition there.
> To a foreign reader, english texts are strewn with pointless
> repetitions.
Only if the foreign reader doesn't understand the words that he or she
is reading.
I think you need to work on your comprehension before deciding what is
and isn't a repeated word.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 20 years.
(for e-mail, harvey becomes whhvs)
Dena Jo
> "The universities of both countries enjoy good ACADEMIC relations."
That's a perfectly fine sentence. What if the two universities are
otherwise bitter cross-town rivals in sports?
That's not a joke. I attended UCLA in the mid '70s. To this day,
almost 30 years later, it doesn't matter who's playing USC. I'll
support the other team.
(Old habits die hard.)
--
Dena Jo
(Email: Replace TPUBGTH with denajo2)