Anadiplosis, parallelism and chiasmus

Anadiplosis (linking or reduplication or catch repetition) is the repetition a word or a phrase at the juncture of two sentences or clauses. A word or a phrase is taken from the previous statement and repeated at the beginning of the next one to emphasize the idea or to throw up a new light on it, i.e. the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one. Ex.: “With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy; happy at least in my way.” (Brontë)

As you can see, repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. The latter function is the major one in parallel constructions (or parallelism).

Parallelism 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. In other words parallelism means a more or less complete identity of syntactical structures of two or more contiguous sentences or verse lines:

Ex.: If she married a husband, he beats her, if she employed a broker, he cheats her, if she engaged a cook she drank.

Ex.: “The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter.” (Wordsworth)

Reversed parallelism is called chiasmus.

Chiasmus is a special variety of parallelism. It is a reproduction of the given sentence of the general syntactical structure as well as of the lexical elements of the preceding sentence, the syntactical positions of the lexical elements undergoing inversion, i.e. the second part of a chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction. It can be the word order that is reversed, or the sequence of the main and subordinate clauses, or the form and the meaning of the statement. Thus, if the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order, the second one will have it inverted:

Ex: “The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail.” (Dickens)

She said nothing, there was nothing to say.

Synonymic repetition, syntactical tautology and gradation (climax)

Synonymic repetition (or the repetition of idea) is the repetition of the same idea by using synonymous words or phrases which by adding a slightly different nuance of meaning intensify the impact of the utterance. It can be used to foreground the idea without actually repeating the words.

Ex.: “…are there not capital punishments sufficient in your statutes?

Is there not blood enough upon your penal code?” (Byron)

Here the meaning of the words “capital punishments” and “statutes” is repeated in the next sentence by the contextual synonyms “blood” and “penal code”.

Ex.: You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O’Henry)

Synonymic repetition can be unnecessary or tautological repetition of idea. Ex.: I’ve got a house that is like a hotel. I mean a big house with many servants.

Syntactical tautology (or grammatical prolepsis) is the repetition of the noun-subject in the form of personal pronoun, i.e. syntactical tautology, based on the use of a second subject that is called tautological subject. . Ex.: “Miss Tillie Webster, she slept forty days and nights without waking up.” (O’Henry)

The subject is repeated in the form of a noun at the end of the sentence after a comma. It helps to put a finishing touch to the sentence or throw a new light on it. Ex.: She was not a little pleasing, this woman, he decided.

Syntactical tautology is especially typical of uncultivated speech: Ex.: “Bolivar, he’s plenty tired, and he can’t carry double.” (O’Henry)

So, when introduced in the form of a noun or a proper name, the second subject is used in the form of a pronoun immediately following it (or vise verse). This type of tautological subject is often used in poetry:

Ex.: And this maiden she leaved with no other thought,

Than to love and be loved by me.

Ex.: Helen Adair she loved me well

Against her father’s and mother’s will.

Syntactical tautology is acceptable in oratory because it helps the audience to grasp the meaning of the utterance.

Climax or gradation - is based on the arrangement of words in a sentence or sentences in a paragraph in ascending order of importance with gradual increase in logical significance or emotional tension.

Ex.: God knows I loved her. For eight years I worshipped the ground she trod on.

She was intelligent and well read. She was tender, unselfish and disinterested. In fact, she was too good to be true.