Repetition as a Rhetorical Device in Donald Trump and Haider Al-Abaadi’s Political Discourse

Abstract

It might be a generally accepted idea that people say something once in interactional situations .Nevertheless, in any confrontational debate including the political one, there are many ways of expressing similar views, although not absolutely similar .Repetition is one of these variants which play an important role  in communication, for speakers adopt a specific strategy in their choice  to achieve certain functions. This paper examines the phenomenon of repetition , its peculiarities , classifications , the motives behind the manifestation of its different types , and the ideological function in the political discourse of two world politicians. These are Donald Trump, the president of the United States and Haider Al-Abadi, the prime minster of Iraq. The study adopts Kemertelidze and Manjavidze’s (2013) to identify the types of repetition and van Dijk’s (1988) ideological square in speeches that belong to two languages of diverse nature. The paper reveals that Trump rather than Al-Abadi  realizes well how anaphora and epiphora  repetition enhance the rhythmic combination of speech owing to the improvement of intonation and sound uniqueness at initial or final position of a sentence and this is reflected in the over use of these types in his speeches. Further,  Trump and AL-Abadi  intend deliberately to repeat  a word , a phrase , and even a sentence to accomplish goals like illumination, prominence , persuasion , warning , making a point memorable , and creating cohesion .Using such a fundamental tool  helps  both speakers to have their own influence or power  upon listeners  ,manipulate them ,and  consequently form an opinion.