Construções tautológicas: tradição gramatical, lógica e argumentação

Abstract

Considering that tautology received different treatments in grammatical tradition, propositional logic and rhetoric, this article aims to discuss the treatment of tautology in each of these domains of language study and analyze data that show the value argumentative nature of these constructions, confronting the idea that they have an informative void. A range of data collected from the Internet through the Web-BootCat computational program revealed that tautological construction presents argumentative values in coding widely accepted truths and have wide productivity in different types of discourse. The argumentative value of the equative constructions lies in the fact that the enun-ciator, through tautology, influences and persuades the interlocutor to accept the truth of the proposition as a truth that it says on its own, without requiring demonstration. This study therefore highlights the functional and dynamic nature of language, including through often stigmatized uses such as tautology.