confusing, waiting
for potential future that
might never return
Potential future?
Potential future that may never return?
Is that tautologic?
Or pleonasmistic?
A Yogi Berraism, in other words?
Coach Berra was famous for saying things that he claimed he never said.
Most of his sayings, mis-remembered or not, were kinda goofy.
Coach Berra said he would have his pizza cut into 4 slices because he couldn’t eat 8.
Stuff like that.
I remember once talking with my brother Tim and I quoted Coach Berra’s, “It gets late early out there.”
He was talking about deep left field in Yankee Stadium.
I don’t remember what the point was that I was making to my brother.
But Tim looked at me and said, “I know just what you mean.”
Potential Future?
Potential future that may never return?
I just read that this morning in the article, “US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?”
According to wikipedia. “In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement which repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, “saying the same thing twice”.
Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature.
Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of style when unintentional. Intentional repetition may emphasize a thought or help the listener or reader understand a point.”
Well, there it is.
Potential future.
Saying the same thing twice.
Or is it.
I would argue that potential future is not that same as future potential.
But that is not what was written in the article.
“Potential future that might never return.”
If you said that to me, would I bit confused?
A little bit.
On the other hand.
I know just you mean.
