Double words in a sentence, what is this called?

Question

Trying to find out what double words in a sentence are called. I know there's got to be a word for it. There is for everything!

Examples:

I had had a good day, until you arrived.

We know better now that that is complete bullshit.

I gave her her hat back.

The closest word I can think of is polyptoton, but I know that's not quite right here. If it just occurs naturally in language, there may not be a word for it. — Cameron, Jul 12 '12 at 00:04
Looks like this question is going away soon, but I found another word from rhetoric that could fit, depending on the construction: Anadiplosis. — Cameron, Jul 12 '12 at 00:12
@Cameron That looks like a word to describe the messy disaster that occurs when a giant anaconda tries to swallow a diplodocus. :) — tchrist, Jul 12 '12 at 00:16
@JimReynolds The question has been re-opened. Feel free to post an answer. — Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_, Sep 07 '19 at 17:44

Jim Reynolds · Answer 1 · 2019-09-09T11:56:57.077

Linguists use the term reduplication for repetitions of words or parts of words.

First, however, it's much more important in other languages than it is English, in which it's generally thought of as unremarkable or at best, a peripheral phenomenon. In Chinese, for example, 人 means person and 人人 means everybody.

Second, except under the broadest definition, which is simply the repetition of a word or part of a word, your examples wouldn't qualify because the repetitions are basically a coincidence or a byproduct of normal use of the language. Compare to

Oh! You live in an apartment? I thought your house was a house house.

In this example, the duplication is employed to contrast a prototypical or "real" house with some other kind. This has been called contrastive reduplication. Since it is a morphological device that is employed with a wide range of words, some linguists have given it at least some attention. Another example: A: I want to eat. B: Here's a cracker. B: No. I mean I want to eat eat. (That is, "Really eat; eat something substantial; eat a meal.)

See https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication

This has largely been covered before, at for instance Is there a word for using a word twice to imply something different? and Are there other acceptable juxtapositions of polysemes — Edwin Ashworth, Sep 09 '19 at 14:12

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

2

I'm afraid it's not the case that every possible concept has a single accepted representative term in the English language. Double words as you described them is as appropriate as anything else we could cook up.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Community

1

answered Jul 12 '12 at 00:02

Daniel

57,547

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 00:04

0

There is no special phrase for double words, in a grammatical sense, although there are a few poetical terms you could use. Perhaps you are thinking of Alliteration?

answered Jul 12 '12 at 00:04

Benubird

2,236

Double words in a sentence, what is this called?

3 Answers3

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