When I listen to people speak on radio and television, perhaps the thing that affects me the most, in terms of use and abuse of our language, is pleonasm.

The “dictionary.reference.com” definition:

ple·o·nasm [plee–uh-naz-uh m]

noun

1.  the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy.

2.  an instance of this, as free gift  or true fact.

3.  a redundant word or expression.

Again, I wonder if these days anyone in the media edits copy before it is aired.

Even at my favorite television show, CBS Sunday Morning, there seems to be an apparent lack of concern about how we express even the simplest ideas.

I found this at the CBS Sunday Morning site from today’s show – in a story about the Chevrolet Corvette:

“That Corvette idea though, had a champion:  its legendary chief engineer, Zora Duntov.  He persuaded Chevy to replace its standard inline six with a V-8 instead, and the Corvette was soon tearing up the track.”

I cannot imagine why anyone would feel it is appropriate to use the words “replace” and “instead” to express the same idea.

Then, on the same show, in a subsequent story about Notre Dame linebacker, Manti Te’o, the reporter stated that (I’m paraphrasing), “his grandmother and his girlfriend both died on the same day.

The use of “both” and “same” is a longtime favorite of mine.

Maybe we should take up a collection to fund the hiring of some editors.