LINGUIST List 11.573

Wed Mar 15 2000

Qs: Diglossia Reference, Redundant Word Pairs

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Kathleen Tacelosky, Diglossia reference
2. Scott Newstrom, germanic-root and romance-root redundant word pairings in English

Dear Linguists,

Can anyone help me locate the following:

Mazama, Ama Kimpukulu, 1992. Guadeloupean vs. French: An Unstable
Diglossia. Proceedings of the 1992 Mid-Amercica Linguistics Conference
and Conference on Siouan/Caddoan Languages. Smith, Evan; Zephir, Flore
(eds.). 179-185.

Many thanks,
Tac
- 
Kathleen Tacelosky, Ph.D.
Modern Languages Department
Eastern Nazarene College
617.745.3509

Hello,

I am trying to find a term to describe a particular phenomenon in the
English language, namely, when two nearly synonymous words are linked, one
of them having anglo-saxon roots and the other franco-latin roots. There
are many examples, including "will and testament," "give and bequeath,"
"love and amity." My hunch is that these redundancies are in some way a
by-product of the use of Latin and/or French in the medieval English
courts, as many of the pairings come from legal discourse (e.g. wills) or
other ceremonial events (e.g. marriages).

The rhetorical term "hendiadys" has been suggested, but that doesn't
describe this particular linguistic phenomenon; "binomial" is too broad,
and "doublet" refers to words derived from the same source at different
points (regal/royal) rather than two different language families. Other
people have suggested "conjoined phrases" and "repetitive word pairs."
None of these feels specific enough to this particular phenomenon.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Scott Newstrom
newstromfas.harvard.edu