Explanation
Conduplicatio resumes a key word from one sentence or clause in the following unit. Repetition carries the expression across a syntactic boundary and makes it a hinge between movements of thought. The word may stabilise, intensify, or shift its meaning in the new context. Local transfer, rather than frequency alone, is decisive. Analysis marks occurrences and distance, compares grammatical role and semantic environment, and asks what the second use does to the first. A version without resumption reveals whether memory, inference, or affective emphasis depends upon the repeated node.
Movement of thought
1. The resumed key word and the syntactic boundary between its occurrences are marked. 2. Grammatical function, meaning, and prosodic stress of both uses are compared. 3. The second occurrence is classified as continuation, intensification, reinterpretation, or inference. 4. A substituted or unrepeated version tests what cohesion disappears with the lexical node. 5. Attention follows how the expression carries memory from the first sentence into the next movement.
Scientific use case
Rhetoric and cohesion, prosody, and discourse research examine conduplicatio through repetition distance, syntactic role, and semantic shift. Computational analysis can locate candidates but requires contextual verification of the hinge function.
Example
“We need traceable paths. Paths that do not merely lead to a result but also reveal where they came from.” The repeated word moves from goal concept to bearer of a criterion.
Counterexample
A frequent topic word, extended anaphora, or accidental lexical repetition is not conduplicatio. A key word must be locally transferred from one unit into the following one.
Distinction
Distinguish conduplicatio from anadiplosis, anaphora, diacope, and epiploce. Conduplicatio locally resumes a key word in a following unit; anadiplosis typically links the end of one unit directly to the next opening.
Effect on thought and perception
Conduplicatio increases cohesion, recall, and emphasis and can gradually turn a word into an argumentative guiding concept. Excessive use may instead appear formulaic or insistent.
Resonance
A verbal impulse fades at the end of one movement and is resumed in the next space. Its form remains the same, but the new environment changes its echo.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Conduplicatio“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-HAR9-0003. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-HAR9-0003The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Quintilian distinguishes several placements and effects of repeated wording. A second occurrence may amplify an assertion, arouse pity, resume after a parenthesis or establish correspondence across clauses. This gives conduplicatio a historical setting more precise than the assumption that repetition always performs the same task. The Atlas can ask what changes between the first and second occurrence: the listener’s attention, the emotional force, the syntactic connection, or the meaning of the word itself. A repeated accusation remains one accusation unless further evidence is added. The inspected English translation documents an ancient account of patterned repetition, not the first English adoption of conduplicatio or every restriction later manuals impose. Exact nomenclature and overlap with adjacent repetition figures remain a separate, necessary part of the historical investigation.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Ask what the second occurrence adds. Repeating an accusation does not produce a second independent piece of evidence.
References for the historical section
- Quintilian, Institutio oratoria IX.3; H. E. Butler, English translation, Loeb Classical Library III (1920) · Institutio oratoria IX.3.28–35: repetition and renewed emphasis
Selected passage, not a complete genealogy or an English first-attestation claim. Original Atlas applications are editorial interpretations, not reported experiments. Ancient analysis read in named English translation, not collated with Greek or Latin originals.
- Quintilian, Institutio oratoria IX.3; H. E. Butler, English translation, Loeb Classical Library III (1920) · Institutio oratoria IX.3.28–35: repetition and renewed emphasis
Selected passage, not a complete genealogy or an English first-attestation claim. Original Atlas applications are editorial interpretations, not reported experiments. Ancient analysis read in named English translation, not collated with Greek or Latin originals.