Simple Repetition: Epizeuxis, Conduplicatio, and Epimone

Examples of rhetorical devices that use simple repetition include epizeuxis, conduplicato, and epimone. Simple repetition is an essential part of rhetoric. It can be employed in a wide variety of ways — for example, repetition of words and phrases at the beginning or ending of sentences and phrases. There’s also repetition of sentence structure, and so on. 

A good example of effective and simple use of repetition is Gwendolyn Brooks (1945), the mother: 

I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children.

I have contracted. I have eased

My dim dears at the breasts . . .

The above is a more complicated form of repetition, namely anaphora, where elements are repeated at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases.

However, our focus will be on three of the most basic forms of repetition — epizeuxis, conduplicatio, and epimone.

What is epizeuxis?

Epizeuxis is the repetition of words consecutively. 

What is conduplicatio?

Conduplicatio refers to the repetition of the same word, but with each instance separated by other words. For example, in the Brooks poem, the repetition of the word voices in the line “. . . the voices of the wind the voices of my children” is an example of conduplicatio. 

What is epimone?

Epimone refers to the repetition of entire phrases. In this article, we will discuss how each of these rhetorical devices can be used effectively and provide appropriate examples. 

1. Epizeuxis examples

Epizeuxis (pronounced e-pi-zeux-is) is the most basic form of rhetorical repetition and simply involves repeating the same word consecutively. Here are examples of it below: 

Othello, 2, 3: 

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.

Thoreau, Walden (1854): 

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.

Richard III, 5, 4: 

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

2. Conduplicatio examples

In conduplicatio (pronounced con-do-plih-CAE-sheeoh), as mentioned earlier, also involves the repetition of the same word or words; however, other words intervene between the repeated elements. 

Walcott, Derek, A Far Cry From Africa (1962):

Betray them both, or give back what they give? 

In the case of Walcott, conduplicatio achieves the effect of enhancing the meaning of the point being made. However, in longer paragraphs, it has the effect of making the repeated words a theme that leaves a din in the readers’ ear. 

Dickens, Great Expectations (1861):

Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because the admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.

It can also be used to expound on meaning, as in the example below. 

Lincoln, debate with Stephen Douglass at Peoria (1854):

I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska — and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it.

3. Epimone examples

Epimone (pronounced eh-pim-o-nee) is an enlargement of epizeuxis as it is the repetition of entire phrases instead of words.

Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1773):

I tell you, sir, I'm serious! and now that my passions are roused, I say this house is mine, sir; this house is mine, and I command you to leave it directly.

Romeo and Juliet, 4, 5: 

O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!

Most lamentable day, most woeful day                           

That ever, ever, I did yet behold!

O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!

Never was seen so black a day as this.

O woeful day, O woeful day!

The speech of Juliet from the above passage may be guilty of overdoing it. Using repetition as a refrain of a longer phrase has a more subtle effect, as in the following example.

The Merchant of Venice, 3, I: 

There I have another bad match!—a bankrupt, a prodigal who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto, a beggar that was used to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond. He was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond. He was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond.

References

Farnsworth, W. (2010). Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. David R. Godine.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (October 07, 2024). Simple Repetition: Epizeuxis, Conduplicatio, and Epimone. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/simple-repetition-epizeuxis-conduplicatio-and-epimone