“Gather”, “Gather together”, “Get together” and “Assemble”

Question

Edited: I need to ask about the following sentence where I doubt whether both verbs make sense and can be used interchangeably or not:

1) Every year all people ............ in this square at Christmas and celebrate this day.

2) ............. all the staff in my room for an urgent meeting. (said the directing manager to one of his colleagues)

a) get together
b) gather together
c) gather
d) assemble

For me, in both sentences, all the verbs work properly, naturally and interchangeably. I need your confirmation on my take.

Answer 1

“Gather together” is an example of redundancy. Also, for #2, “a” does not apply very well, but it still works fine.

I hope this helps and if you want more information, please ask specific questions in the comments.

Answer 2

Sentence 2 needs to be recast a bit to use "get together":

• Get all the staff together in my room for an urgent meeting.
• Have all the staff get together in my room for an urgent meeting.

This is because "gather" and "assemble" work as verbs in the imperative, while "get together" does not in that construction.

I agree that "gather together" is redundant, but in some cases it might be used for rhetorical or poetic effect. But usually it should be avoided.

Once a year the tribe would gather together in a solemn assembly.

The redundancy enhances the sense of ritual, I think.

The Free Dictionary lists "gather together" as an idiom.

Gather Together in My Name is the title of an autobiography (one of several) by Maya Angelou. This phrase evokes biblical language, I suspect from the King James ("authorized") version.

Google books shows many uses of "gather together", a fair number in a religious context, but far from all.