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From: sms@eisx.UUCP (Samuel Saal)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Oxymorons, Pleonasms and various forms of Bull
Message-ID: <831@eisx.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Dec-84 14:29:24 EST
Article-I.D.: eisx.831
Posted: Tue Dec 11 14:29:24 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Dec-84 06:15:50 EST
Organization: AT&T Info. Sys. Labs, South Plainfield NJ
Lines: 83





       From "More on Oxymorons, Foolish Wisdom in Words and
       Pictures".

       Oxymoron:   two antithetical words, adj vs. noun.  eg.
                   Living Death (can be extended: They agreed to
                   disagree)

       Pleonasm:   sort of the opposite of an oxymoron, the adj or
                   adv agrees with the noun. eg. Wet Water  (what
                   else could water be?) Tautology: a pleonasm
                   whose terms are joined by a copula.  eg. At the
                   center is the middle.

       Bull:       the linguistic name for such linguistic pearls
                   of logic, enabling one to label examples of:

                      - self-contradiction (To be ignorant of one's
                        ignorance is the malady of the ignorant).

                      - self reference (Brain: an apparatus with
                        which we think that we think).

                      - the obvious (Who died? I'm not sure, but I
                        think it's the one in the hearse).

                      - "read the sentence twice and be amazed that
                        it was written" (The sudden rise in
                        temperature was responsible for the
                        intolerable heat) (Nobody goes to that
                        restaurant anymore, it's too crowded)



       Sort the following according to the above rules:

         1.  The best cure for insomnia is to get a  lot of sleep.
             (W.C.Fields)

         2.  You will always find something in the last place you
             look.

         3.  He hadn't a single redeeming vice. (Oscar Wilde)

         4.  Nothing succeeds like success. (Alexandre Dumas)

         5.  New Innovation.

         6.  In these matters the only certainty is that there is
             nothing certain. (Pliny the Elder)

         7.  For those who like this sort of thing, this is the
             sort of thing they like.  (Abraham Lincoln)

         8.  Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his
             head examined. (Samuel Goldwyn)

         9.  To visually see.

        10.  Bachelors' wives and old maids' children are always
             perfect. (Nicolas Chamfort)

        11.  One effect of the better lighting is the improved
             visibility.

        12.  He lived his life to the end.

        13.  I have made mistakes but I have never made the mistake
             of claiming that I have never made one. (James Gordon
             Bennett)

        14.  She's genuinely bogus.

       HINT: There are 2 examples of each category (not counting
       "Bull" but rather the subdivisions mentioned)

       "Words are but a window on the word...."

       Sam Saal
       ...ihnp4!eisx!sms