Great orators do not fear repetition

THE ART OF PERSUASION

March 31, 2014 4:14 pm

Great orators do not fear repetition

By Sam Leith

“War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again . . .” Nobody who has seen Bruce Springsteen cover this song with corded neck could doubt his conviction. But what interests me is the rhetorical line of attack. It is a fine use of hypophora – the word for asking a question and immediately supplying an answer – but it is the last phrase I wanted to highlight. “Say it again,” he exclaims. And he does.

We are accustomed to thinking of repeating ourselves as a bad thing. It isn’t. In written and spoken persuasion – especially spoken – it is vital. Whether you are The Boss addressing Wembley Stadium or a boss addressing a company, to repeat something is to make it memorable – and to be memorable is halfway to being persuasive.

Repetition does not just mean banging the same point home again and again like a politician with a sound bite. It also means creating correspondences at the atomic level of speech. The repetition of consonant sounds (alliteration), vowel sounds (assonance) and stressed syllables shapes the way a speech falls on the ear.

When I was writing my book about rhetoric I bumped into a classicist at a drinks party. Asked what I was up to, I said I was investigating a discipline that involved about 400 different Greek and Latin words for “repetition”. She didn’t demur. The three Rs of rhetoric, I like to say, are “repetition, repetition and repetition”.

In the 250-odd words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, for instance, the words “dedicate” or “dedicated” appear six times, the word “nation” appears five times, “live”, “lives” or “living” four times, “dead” or “died” four times, while others appear twice. And, of course, its last sentence contains that ringing tricolon: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Those words hold the speech together and serve as the fundamental elements of its argument.

The modern habit of analysing political speeches as “word-clouds” – with frequently repeated words appea­ri­­ng more prominently – proceeds from the same thing. It’s why former prime minister Gordon Brown was nicknamed “Prudence”.

So don’t be afraid of saying something more than once. There’s a reason that among the “figures” – the tricks and turns of language to which names have been given – there are so many that deal with repetition. Here are some of the more prominent ones.

Anaphora is the name given to the habit of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Repetition is wholesome. Repetition is persuasive. Repetition is fun.

Epistrophe is upside-down anaphora, in which the repeated element comes at the end. I love Bruce Springsteen. I worship Bruce Springsteen. I hope one day to obtain a small bottle of sweat from Bruce Springsteen.

Then there is symploce, where you combine anaphora and epistrophe. Bruce Springsteen teaches us how to use repetition. Bruce Springsteen is a master of repetition. Bruce Springsteen may be wrong about war, which is good for all sorts of things, but he sure knows how to make a case through repetition.

To go for broke, you can use epizeuxis: the term for repeating a word over and over with nothing else in between. Education, education, education. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Or, though it can’t be decently put into print, Hugh Grant’s opening line in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

So don’t be afraid of saying something more than once. But I’ve said that already, haven’t I?

The writer is the author of ‘You Talkin’ To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama’