If a gift is "inherently free," isn't it just free? On this edition of "That's What They Say," host Rina Miller and Professor Anne Curzan discuss those often annoying redundancies in the English language.
Other redundancies include the clunky "hot-water heater" in your basement, or perhaps that "plan going forward" that you've been anticipating. It's obvious that this trait in the English language just isn't logical, and Anne Curzan agrees.
"They aren't logical, and I'm not going to sit here and make an argument that they are logical," explains Curzan. "But what I am going to say is that languages aren't always logical, that I think we sometimes think they should be completely logical. But human languages are sometimes logical, and sometimes not."
So we know that our language is rife with illogical redundancies in both grammar and speech, but can these redundancies actually be helpful?
"I think it can be helpful," explains Curzan. "Talk goes fast, and so there's a way in which, if you say something twice in an utterance, it can be helpful to a listener, because if they missed it the first time, perhaps they'll hear it the second time. So redundancies in the language may actually be helpful in processing real language in real time."
