Anaphora – Repeat after me!
Intentional repetition can be a powerful rhetorical tool.
Below is a transcript of the video.
At school, were you told to avoid repetition? That was great advice at the time because unintentional repetition can be clumsy, painful and jarring.
Intentional repetition however can be a powerful rhetorical tool.
So powerful indeed that the ancients gave it a special fancy word: anaphora.
Anaphora isn’t any old repetition. It’s a type of repetition where you repeat the same word or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses.
CHURCHILL
Let’s take a look at an example.
“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
In other words Churchill knew exactly what he was doing when he chose to repeat “we shall fight” over and over again. He was, after all, trained in classics and would have been well aware of the device of anaphora.
In fact, he probably picked it up from Cicero the famous lawyer and senator who was well known in Roman times for his rhetoric. Let’s take a look at Cicero in action.
CICERO
“Soon all provinces, soon all kingdoms, soon all free states, soon the entire globe, which had always remained open to our fellows, will be off limits to Roman citizens.”
You don’t have to be a Churchill or a Cicero to use anaphora. You can use it in any piece of communication that’s designed to persuade.
In fact, advertisers use it all the time to persuade you and me to buy. Let’s take a look at some examples.
ADVERTISING
‘The future’s bright, the future’s Orange.’
‘Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro country.’
‘Have a break. Have a Kit Kat.’
And my favourite from the 70s:
‘Du pain, du vin, du boursin.’
Now you know how to spot an anaphora, you’ll probably see it all the time.
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