Tautology December 18, Figures of Speech




A panel of experts convened to explain
why "UP" is higher than "DOWN"

 Tautology: If paradox had a precise antonym, it might be tautology.  From the Greek tautos + logos, "to say the same thing."  In The Wizard of Oz, when the Scarecrow sings he'd like to know "why the ocean is near the shore," he's uttered a tautology.  When Calvin Coolidge opined that unemployment results when large numbers of people are out of work, it was a tautology.  This is somewhat different than a redundancy in that instead of mere repetition, a tautology professes to be a kind of logical proof.