Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

e) Repetition

Repetition as an expressive means of language ser­ves to emphasize certain statements of the speaker, and so possesses considerable emotive force. It is employed when

the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion. E.g.:

Behold Mrs. Boffin...running to Bella and folding her to her breast with the words: "My deary, deary, deary girl, that Noddy and me saw married... My deary, deary, deary wife of John and mother of his little child! My loving, loving, bright, bright, pretty, pretty! Welcome to your house and home, my dear!" (Dickens)

The overflow of Mrs. Boffin's emotions is shown through the multiple repetition here.

It is not a single word that can be repeated, but a word combination and a whole sentence too:

"Stop!" - she cried, "Don't tell me! I don't want to hear; I don't want to hear what you've come for. I don't want to hear". (J. Galsworthy)

The repetition of "I don't want to hear" is not a stylistic device; it is a means by which the excited state of mind of the speaker is shown. This state of mind always manifests itself through intonation, which is suggested here by the words "she cried".

The excited speech is always broken, fragmentary, illogical and that's why the repetition of some words, word-combinations and parts of the sentence is quite natural.

When used as a stylistic device, repetition acquires quite different functions. It doesn't aim at making a direct emotional impact. On the contrary, the stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an enphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance:

"For that was it! Ignorant of the long and ste­althy march of passion; ignorant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of Fleur's reckless desperation... - ignorant of all this, everybody felt aggrieved." (Galsworthy)

We shall mention several main types of repetition, most frequently occurring in English literature:

1. Anaphora - the repeated word or phrase stands at

the beginning of each sentence, clause or phrase:

"...good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye big house, good-bye power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams."

2. 
   Epiphora -'the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences, clauses and phrases:
   

"Through his brain slowly shifted the things they had done together. Walking together. Dan­cing together. Sitting silent together. Watching people together." (P. Abrahams)

In these cases repetition has the function of creating the background against which the preceding statements become more prominent.

2. 
   Anadiplosis or Catch repetition - the repe­tition of the same unit at the end of the preceding and the beginning of the following sentence:
   

"Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squ­alor; squalor led in the final stage to stagnation.'

2. 
   Framing or Ring repetition - the repetition of the same unit at the beginning and at the end of the same sentence. Framing makes the whole utterance more compact and more complete:
   

"Poor doll's dressmaker! How often so drag­ged down by hands that should have raised her up; how often so misdirected when losing her way on the eternal road and asking guidance! Poor, little doll's dressmaker!" (Dickens)

It is expressive in poetry and in singling out a para­graph in prose.

2. 
   Chain repetition the last word or phrase of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginmng of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together:
   

"But two minutes later the sun vanished be­hind flying cloudy contents, a relative darkness descended on the summer afternoon, and rain too descended - descended in such soaking over­whelming quantities that..." (I. Murdoch)

2. 
   Root repetition - not the same word, but the same root is repeated:
   
   1.