STYLISTIC DEVICES MAKING USE OF THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE UNITS
Repetition (повтор)
One of the most prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of members of the sentence decidedly belongs to repetition. We have already seen the repetition of a phoneme (as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming, or plain morphemic repetition). As a syntactical SD repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two and more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:
Lexical repetition is often used to increase the degree of emotion:
'Oh, No, John, No, John, No, John, No!'(from a folk song) And like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, I'll do. (Shakespeare)
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea. (Coleridge)
The repetition of the same elements at the beginning of several sentences is called anaphora. Anaphora: the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated: a..., a..., a... . 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. The background-forming function of anaphora is also evident from the kind of words which are repeated anaphorically. Pay attention to their semantics and syntactical function in the sentence when working with Exercise I.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld long syne? (Burns)
The repetition of the same elements at the end of several sentences is called epiphora. Epiphora: the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated: ...a, ...a, ...a. The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.
/ am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that. (Dickens)
Framing: the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the "frame" for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance): a... a. 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.
Catch repetition (anadiplosis): the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one: ...a, a... . Specification of the semantics occurs here too, but on a more modest level.
And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her.
Chain repetition presents several successive anadiploses: ...a, a...b, b...c, c... . The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.
The maiden looked at the butler, the butler looked at the servant, the servant looked at the maiden, the whole kitchen inquisition …
Ordinary repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit occurs in various positions: ...a, ...a..., a... . Ordinary repetition emphasizes both the logical and the emotional meanings of the reiterated word (phrase).
Halfway along the right-hand side of the dark brown hall was a dark brown door with a dark brown settee beside it.
Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated units: ...a, a, a.... This is the most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.
On her father being groundlessly suspected, she felt sure. Sure. Sure.
As you must have seen from the brief description, repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance.
The term Syntactic repetition refers to repetition of syntactic elements or constructions. This may include syntactic tautology (синтаксическая тавтология), such as, for example, the repetition of the subject of a sentence, which is typical of English folklore:
Little Miss Muffet
She sat on a tuffet. (Nursery rhyme)
and also of later stylisations of the ballad character:
Ellen Adair she loved me well,
Against her father's and mother's will. (Tennison)
The skipper he blew a whiff from his pipe
And a scornful laugh laughed he. (Longfellow)
Syntactic tautology may be used in literary works to
represent the speech of a person of little education:
Well, Judge Thatcher, he took it. ...(M. Twain)
Repetition of the subject may also be combined with giving it some more specific additional information:
She has developed power, this woman — this — wife of his!
(Galsworthy)
Oh, it's a fine life, the life of the gutter. (Shaw)
A special variant of syntactic repetition is syntactic parallelism, which means repetition of similar syntactic constructions in the text in order to strengthen the emotional impact or expressiveness of the description.
The function of rhythm and balance is the major one in parallel constructions which may be viewed as a purely syntactical type of repetition for here we deal with the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical "flesh". True enough, parallel constructions almost always include some type of lexical repetition too, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, foregrounding at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.
The seeds ye sow — another reaps,
The robes ye weave — another wears,
The arms ye forge — another bears. (Shelley)
Few of them will return to their countries', they will not embrace
our holy religion', they will not adopt our manners. (B. Franklin)
There were real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china
cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes. (Dickens)