REPET: Repetition
| REPET: Repetition | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Repetition & Reinforcement |
| Balagha-Corpus.com | |
| Corpus data | See examples |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | CA-13 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q74 |
| OpenAlex | |
| ID | W4415372213 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q74 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
| Provenance | |
| Sources | 4 |
Definition
Repetition is an Arabic rhetorical operation involving the recurrence of the same linguistic material within an utterance. The repeated material may consist of a lexical item or expression, or of smaller phonological material such as a recurrent sound.
In al-tikrār and al-tardīd, the repeated material consists of the same lexical item or expression. In al-tikrār, the repeated item retains the same meaning and application; in al-tardīd, the same lexical item is repeated with a different application, and may additionally carry a different lexical meaning.[1][2][3]
In this encyclopedia, Contextual Matching (al-mushākala) is treated as a type of Repetition because the reviewed examples involve repeated or morphologically related wording whose later use is influenced by an earlier expression occurring in its context. Alliteration (al-mujānasa al-istihlāliyya) is likewise treated as a type of Repetition because its defining operation consists of recurrence of the same word-initial sound across nearby lexical items. The reviewed sources do not themselves classify either phenomenon as a subtype of al-tikrār.
Contextual Matching is the mention of one thing using the wording of another because it occurs in its company or context (dhikr al-shayʾ bi-lafẓ ghayrihi li-wuqūʿihi fī ṣuḥbatihi).[4][5][6][7]
Linguistic Operations
- The general operation consists of recurrence of the same linguistic material within an utterance. Individual types differ according to what material recurs and the conditions governing that recurrence.
- In Same-Application Repetition (al-tikrār), the same lexical item or expression appears more than once with the same meaning and application.[1]
- In Varied Repetition (al-tardīd), the communicator takes a lexical item used earlier in the utterance and repeats the same item with a different application. The repeated item may additionally carry a different lexical meaning, but this is not required.[2][3]
- In Contextual Matching (al-mushākala), one thing is expressed using wording associated with another because the two occur together in the context.[4][5][6][7]
- In Alliteration (al-mujānasa al-istihlāliyya), the same initial sound occurs at the beginning of multiple lexical items in close succession.[8]
- Repetition is distinguished from mere redundancy: al-Khaṭṭābī held that repetition may be either praiseworthy or blameworthy; the blameworthy kind is that which adds nothing beyond what was already conveyed, while the praiseworthy kind is employed in important matters that deserve care and attention, and where error or forgetfulness is feared.[9]
Contextual Matching and Alliteration are grouped under Repetition in this encyclopedia on operational grounds. The reviewed sources attest their respective mechanisms independently but do not explicitly classify them as forms of al-tikrār or al-tardīd.
Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements
The following effects are attested for Repetition in the reviewed sources. No specific rhetorical effect for Contextual Matching (al-mushākala) is stated in the four sources reviewed for that type.[4][5][6][7]
- Emphasis and affirmation.[1][10]
- Reinforcing a warning: the repetition of a warning phrase with the conjunction thumma (then) signals that the second warning is stronger than the first.[9]
- Completing acceptance of a claim and removing suspicion (tuhma).[9]
- Enumeration of related items requiring particular attention, so that error or forgetfulness is guarded against.[9]
Applying the Recognition Framework
The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:
Recognition
Repetition may be present when:
- The same lexical item or expression appears more than once — either with the same meaning and application (al-tikrār) or, in the case of the same lexical item, with a different application (al-tardīd).[1][2]
- In Same-Application Repetition (al-tikrār), the repeated element may serve an evident rhetorical purpose such as emphasis, description, praise, or warning, rather than being an unintentional redundancy.[9]
- Contextual Matching may be present where one thing is expressed using wording associated with another because the two occur together in the context.[4][5][6][7]
- Alliteration may be present where multiple nearby lexical items begin with the same sound.[8]
For Alliteration, a repeated initial sound should form a noticeable local pattern rather than arise from an isolated or accidental coincidence.
Types of Repetition
Type 1: Same-Application Repetition (al-tikrār)
The use of the same word or words more than once in the same form and with the same meaning and application, for the sake of emphasis in description or praise or some other purpose.[1]
The sources do not consistently specify whether the repeated items must appear in immediate succession. Abdul-Raof (2006) implies immediate succession in his examples, but Cachia's definition (§53) does not impose this positional constraint.[1] The requirement of immediate succession should therefore not be treated as part of the core definition.
This device concerns repetition insofar as it functions as a lexical and rhetorical pattern based on the recurrence of the same lexical item or expression. For repetition considered specifically as a form of discourse expansion through the addition of wording beyond the minimal expression of meaning for rhetorical benefit, see VERBOS: Verbosity.
- Source Example
فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًۭاVerily with hardship comes ease.
Verily with hardship comes ease.
— Qur'ān 94:5–6- Explanation
- The phrase inna maʿa l-ʿusri yusrā (Verily with hardship comes ease) is repeated verbatim with the same meaning, affirming the notion of relief through repetition.[10]
- Source Example
كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَBut no! You will soon come to know.
Again, no! You will soon come to know.
— Qur'ān 102:3–4- Explanation
- The phrase sawfa taʿlamūna (you will soon come to know) is repeated with the same meaning. The conjunction thumma (then/again) indicates that the second warning is stronger and more emphatic than the first.[9]
- Source Example
فَقَدْ كَانَتْ أُمًّا ضَعِيفَةً . . . ضَعِيفَةً فِي فَقْرِهَا ، ضَعِيفَةً فِي وَحْدَتِهَا ، ضَعِيفَةً فِي حَيْرَتِهَا مَعَ الأَقْدَارِ
She was a weak mother . . . weak in her poverty, weak in her isolation, weak in her loss with her fate.
- Explanation
- The word ḍaʿīfa (weak) is repeated four times with the same form and same meaning, reinforcing the description through repetition.[10]
- Source Example
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ
So which of the favours of your Lord would you deny?
— Qur'ān 55- Explanation
- The phrase fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbikumā tukadhdhibān is repeated 31 times throughout Sūrat al-Raḥmān, functioning as repetition for affirmation.[11]
- Constructed Example
إِنَّ الأُمَّةَ تَحْتَاجُ إِلَى الْعَدَالَةِ . . . تَحْتَاجُ إِلَى الْعَدَالَةِ فِي تَوْزِيعِ الثَّرْوَةِ ، وَتَحْتَاجُ إِلَى الْعَدَالَةِ فِي تَوْزِيعِ الْفُرَصِ ، وَتَحْتَاجُ إِلَى الْعَدَالَةِ فِي تَطْبِيقِ الْقَانُونِ
The nation needs justice . . . it needs justice in the distribution of wealth, it needs justice in the distribution of opportunities, and it needs justice in the application of the law.
- Explanation
- The phrase taḥtāju ilā l-ʿadāla (needs justice) is repeated four times with the same form and meaning, with each repetition adding a new domain to which the claim applies. The accumulation reinforces the breadth and urgency of the call for justice.
Type 2: Varied Repetition (al-tardīd)
The use of the same lexical item more than once, each time with a different application.[2][3]
Nābulsī specifies that the repeated lexical item need not carry a different lexical meaning on each occurrence. He nevertheless regards repetition with different meanings as preferable, noting that this can remove the distinction between al-tardīd and al-jinās (paronomasia).[2]
ʿAkkāwī (1996) records that al-Ḥātimī defined al-tardīd as the poet taking a word from a verse with one meaning, then repeating it in the same verse with a different meaning.[3] Ibn Rashīq called it al-tardīd; al-Baghdādī and al-Tabrīzī called it al-taʿaṭṭuf.[3]
- Source Example
وَهو العَظيمُ مِنَ الرّبِّ العظيمِ أتَى يُبْدي العَظيمَ مِنَ الآياتِ والحِكَمِ
He is the great one, [apostle] of the Great Lord, who came
To display great signs and wisdom.
— Al-Nāblusī[2]- Explanation
- The word al-ʿaẓīm appears three times with different applications: first as a predicate referring to the Prophet, second as a qualifier referring to the Lord, and third as part of the direct object referring to the signs. Nābulsī additionally draws attention to the word appearing in each of the three grammatical cases: nominative, genitive and accusative.[2] The example illustrates that al-tardīd does not require the repeated lexical item to acquire wholly different lexical meanings; change of application is sufficient.[2]
- Constructed Example
جَاءَ الكَبِيرُ مِنَ القَوْمِ، وَسَلَّمَ عَلَى الكَبِيرِ فِي السِّنِّ، وَتَحَدَّثَا عَنْ الكَبِيرِ مِنَ الأُمُورِ
The great man of the people arrived, greeted the man great in age, and they spoke about the great matters.
- Explanation
- The lexical item al-kabīr (great/elder/major) is repeated with different applications: first to a person of status, second to a person of advanced age, and third to matters of importance. The repeated item therefore changes application across its occurrences.
Type 3: Contextual Matching (al-mushākala)
Contextual Matching is treated here as a third type of Repetition. The classical sources reviewed define it independently and do not explicitly classify it as a form of Repetition.
Contextual Matching is the mention of one thing using the wording of another because it occurs in its company or context (dhikr al-shayʾ bi-lafẓ ghayrihi li-wuqūʿihi fī ṣuḥbatihi).[4][5][6][7]
- Source Example
وَجَزَاءُ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا
The requital of an evil is an evil like it.
— Qur'ān 42:40- Explanation
- The first sayyiʾa denotes the evil deed. The second denotes its corresponding punishment, but is expressed using the same wording because of its contextual association with the first.[12]
- Constructed Example
طَبَخَ لِي طَعَامًا، فَطَبَخْتُ لَهُ عُذْرًا
He cooked me a meal, so I cooked him an excuse.
- Explanation
- The first use of “cooked” refers to preparing food. The second use adopts the same wording because of its contextual association with the first occurrence.
Type 4: Alliteration (al-mujānasa al-istihlāliyya)
Alliteration is treated in this encyclopedia as a type of Repetition because its defining linguistic operation consists of recurrence of the same sound in word-initial position across nearby lexical items. Abdul-Raof attests the phenomenon and the Arabic term al-mujānasa al-istihlāliyya, but does not classify it as a subtype of al-tikrār or al-tardīd.[8]
Alliteration occurs where a number of nearby words have identical initial letters.[8]
- Source Example
وَمَكَرُوا۟ مَكْرًا وَمَكَرْنَا مَكْرًا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
Qur'an 27:50
They planned a plan, and We planned a plan.- Explanation
- The initial sound represented by mīm recurs across the nearby lexical items, producing Alliteration.[8]
- Source Example
وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
Qur'an 33:71
Whoever obeys God and His messenger will achieve a splendid triumph.- Explanation
- The initial sound represented by fāʾ recurs in faqad fāza fawzan.[8]
- Source Example
وَقَدْ جَلَسَ مَعَهَا فِي خَلْوَةٍ خَلَقَهَا خَالُهُ لَهُمَا
He sat with her in an isolated place arranged by his uncle for both of them.
- Explanation
- The initial sound represented by khāʾ recurs in khalwa khalaqahā khāluhu.[8]
The recurrence can produce phonetic cohesion or harmony by linking otherwise different lexical items through a shared initial sound.
- Constructed Example
سَافَرَ سَامِرٌ سَرِيعًا إِلَى سَمَرْقَنْد
Sāmir travelled quickly to Samarkand.
- Explanation
- Alliteration is represented by the initial letter sīn across the successive lexical items sāfara sāmirun sarīʿan samarqand (travelled, Sāmir, quickly, Samarkand).
Different From
- Paronomasia — Both Varied Repetition (al-tardīd) and Paronomasia may involve formally identical lexical items associated with different meanings. Different lexical meanings are not, however, required for al-tardīd: its defining feature is repetition of the same lexical item with a different application. Nābulsī observes that when the repeated item is additionally used with different meanings, the distinction between al-tardīd and al-jinās may disappear.[2]
- Alliteration differs from Paronomasia in that it requires only recurrence of the same initial sound across nearby lexical items. Paronomasia instead requires a stronger formal relationship between lexical components that are similar or identical in wording while differing in meaning. A passage may independently instantiate both devices where both operations are present.
See also
Notes
- Ibn Rashīq's name for al-tardīd is the same (al-tardīd); al-Baghdādī and al-Tabrīzī called it al-taʿaṭṭuf; Jirmānūs Farḥāt also used al-tardīd.[3]
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) notes that al-Jāḥiẓ gave particular attention to this device, and that al-Khaṭṭābī distinguished between praiseworthy and blameworthy repetition, placing the distinction in whether the repetition serves a meaningful purpose.[9]
- Some rhetoricians (noted in ʿAkkāwī 1996) classed al-tardīd under the rubric of ṭibāq (antithesis), calling it ṭibāq al-tardīd; Ibn Ḥijja al-Ḥamawī stipulated that for this classification to be valid the discourse must not be a case of radd al-ʿajuz ʿalā l-ṣadr (echoing the end to the beginning).[3]
Technical
- Contextual Matching overlaps structurally with Varied Repetition (al-tardīd). In both, related lexical material may recur with a changed application. The distinction used in this encyclopedia is that al-tardīd is defined by repetition with changed application, whereas Contextual Matching is independently defined by the later wording being used because of its contextual association with another expression. The reviewed sources do not explicitly compare or distinguish the two devices.
- Alliteration differs from the other types on this page in the linguistic unit that recurs. Same-Application Repetition and Varied Repetition operate primarily through lexical recurrence, whereas Alliteration operates through recurrence of a word-initial sound across different lexical items. It is nevertheless treated as a subtype because removal of the positional constraint leaves the more general operation of repetition recoverable.
- The Arabic term al-mujānasa al-istihlāliyya is attested in Abdul-Raof's treatment of Alliteration. Its placement under Repetition is the taxonomy adopted by this encyclopedia and should not be taken to imply that the reviewed classical sources themselves classify it under al-tikrār.
References
- ↑ a b c d e f Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), pp. 32-33; §53, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), pp. 33-34; §54, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 303-305.
- ↑ a b c d e Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 371-372, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ a b c d e Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998); §97, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 649.
- ↑ a b c d e Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), p. 63-64, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Hussein Abdul-Raof, Arabic Rhetoric: A Pragmatic Analysis (Oxford: Routledge, 2006), 259-260, ISBN 9780415386098. DOI: 10.4324/9780203965399
- ↑ a b c d e f g Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 169.
- ↑ a b c Hussein Abdul-Raof, Arabic Rhetoric: A Pragmatic Analysis (Oxford: Routledge, 2006), 250-251, ISBN 9780415386098. DOI: 10.4324/9780203965399
- ↑ Hussein Abdul-Raof, Arabic Rhetoric: A Pragmatic Analysis (Oxford: Routledge, 2006), 249-250, ISBN 9780415386098. DOI: 10.4324/9780203965399
- ↑ Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), p. 63, ISBN 9783447040327.
Page History
- 2026-02-10 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CC-1: Repetition to REPET: Repetition.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-05-28 - Page created: Repetition.
