Repetition is a reiteration of the same word or phrase to lay an emphatic stress on certain parts of the sentence. Repetition is widely employed in colloquial speech as well as in poetry, imaginative prose, and emotional public speeches. The element (or elements) repeated attracts the readers (hearers) attention as being the most important.
Repetition in oral communication is used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion, then it shows the exited state of mind of the speaker:
Would you do something for me now?
I‟d do anything for you.
Would you please please please please please please please stop talking? (E. Hemingway).
Various types of repetition can be found in fiction:
1) ordinary repetition, i.e. a repetition of a word in close succession, Minnie remained where she was, sitting quite still, her eyes fixed on the young man‟s averted face. She was happy, happy, happy. The long day ripened and ripened, perfection after perfection (A. Huxley).
2) anaphora: the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated (very often it is used in parallel constructions). V. Kukharenko indicates that the main stylistic function of anaphora is not so much to emphasize the repeated unit as to create the background for the nonrepeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. Here is an illustration:
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep-song on your roof at night
And I love the rain.
(L. Hughes April Rain Song)
3) epiphora: the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated. The main function of epiphora is to stress the final words of a sentence:
The thing was a bit of a fraud; yes, really, he decided, rather a fraud (A. Huxley).
4) framing or ring repetition, i.e. a repetition in which the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the sentence or a group of sentences. The function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence. Between two appearances of the repeated unit there comes the developing middle part of the sentence which explains and clarifies what was introduced in the beginning, so that by the time it is used for the second time its semantics is concretized and specified:
Obviously this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously.
5) anadiplosis or catch repetition, i.e. device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at the beginning of the next, e.g.: They laughed. They laughed because he could not find Tommy Flynn. Everybody against him: no one to help. Oh! If only he could find just one who would help him.
6) chain repetition, i.e. a combination of catch repetitions. In the following example the case of chain repetition creates the effect of the developing action gradually intensified: A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick‟s face. The smile extended into laugh; the laugh into roar, the roar became general (Ch. Dickens).
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Enumeration is a repetition of homogeneous parts of the sentence, aimed at emphasizing the whole utterance, e.g.: He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens (J. Steinbeck).
Summing up the functions of repetition, it should be highlighted that the primary one is to intensify the utterance. Repetition also may stress the monotony of action, suggest fatigue, or despair, or hopelessness, or doom. Any repetition enhances the rhythmical aspect of the utterance.
Polysyndeton (Gk ‗ much compounded ) is opposite to asyndeton and means a repetition of conjunctions in close succession which are used to connect sentences, clauses, or words and make the utterance more rhythmical. In most cases the conjunction and is repeated, as in: The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks (S. Crane).
But as a matter of fact any conjunction can be repeated, for example: I know a little of the principal of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of (Ch. P. Gilman).
Emphatic constructions (the emphatic construction with do‟, it is smb/smth who/that‟, it is by/with/through smth that‟, it is then that) may intensify any member of a sentence, giving it more prominence, e.g .: It was then that Byrne had his first glimpse of the little cloaked man in a yellow hat (J. Conrad). It was the horses he loved; he spoke little to the jockeys (R. Pitman, J. McNally).
Parenthesis (Gk ‗ put in beside ) is a word, phrase or clause put into a sentence which is grammatically complete without the insertion. The functions of parenthesis are those of exemplification, deliberation, or reference.
