Repetition (original) (raw)

1999, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology - J LINGUIST ANTHROPOL

we have repetition, we have "the same thing" happening again, over time. What, however, makes something "the same" as something else? Judgments of identity and difference are the basis for all classification, and repetition of "the same" units underlies the recognition of pattern. Repetition is therefore fundamental to the definition of all cultural objects: of the phoneme, of particular kinds of act, of chunks of ritual, art, music, and performance, all of which involve meaningful re-enactments in some sense. Repetition is a prerequisite for learning, providing the possibility of assimilating experience, committing it to memory, and thus also the basis for prediction. Repetition is pervasive in social life, oiling the waters of social interaction, from the micro level (the rhythm of conversational interaction punctuated by repeated units of speech, gesture, prosody), to the level of daily routine (the predictability across contexts of politeness routines, social rituals, mealtimes, work schedules), to the annual cycle, and the life cycle. Repetition of events, based on our cultural definitions of what constitutes "the same event" (such that we can recognize another instance of it as a repetition), provides a variety of kinds of meaning to our social and cultural lives. In the realm of language, repetition enters at the basic level of what constitutes a code. Although two exemplars of a linguistic expression cannot ever be identical, on the basis of a code members of a linguistic community treat some features as criterial and thereby some sequences as if they were the same.