A semantic study of pleonasm in English and Arabic Political Speeches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36473/ujhss.v62i4.2266Keywords:
pleonasm, superfluous, politicians, political speechesAbstract
The present research paper aims at studying the concept of pleonasm in English which is defined as the repetition of the same idea by utilising the two or more diverse words within the same sentence such as," I saw with my own eyes"," I heard with my own ears". The data is taken from a number of interviews with two politicians whose native languages are English and Arabic. Two interviews are selected; one for the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004 and the other one is for the former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Alawi also in 2004. The study has concluded that the redundancy of words found in the analysed Arabic and English political speeches is apparent in the sense that the words used in both texts are really superfluous and useless. However, these words seem to be sometimes necessary to emphasise or clarify a particular idea depending on the culture of the speakers and receivers of such words. The analyses also have revealed that the presence of superfluous words in the speech of some characters is a matter of style and is a part of the speaker's character.
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