SYNTACTIC PATTERNS OF TAUTOLOGIES AND THEIR SEMANTIC INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The present paper aims to reveal the syntactic patterns of English tautological structures, and to examine their functional-communicative peculiarities in line with Gricean Principle of Cooperation. By virtue of their simple predicative structure, tautologies save the speaker’s/writer’s time and efforts in the process of speech production, whereas, on the plane of content, they possess a multilayered semantic potential. The analysis shows that the speaker/ writer opts for the given syntactic pattern of tautology in accord with their communicative intention in the given speech situation.