Iteration in Language. 433 



catches up some music-hall phrase and uses it ad nauseam is only 

 obeying a very primitive instinct of speech. 



1. First, we may place what may be called the Infantile or 

 Primitive form of Iteration, of which words like mama, papa, are 

 standing instances. Every one is aware of how large a part Iteration 

 plays in the language of the nursery. No doubt a good deal of this 

 is traditional, and is learnt from elders who pass on the primitive 

 language of their own infancy to the next generation, and rejoice 

 greatly when their youthful offspring first gives utterance to the 

 ma-ma, pa-pa, ta-ta, which herald the introduction into the complex 

 paths of human speech. But apart from what is the result of mere 

 imitation there is no doubt, whether it is the speech of children or 

 the speech of savage races that we study, that here Iteration plays 

 a very important part. 



2. Closely connected with this first form of Iteration, and hardly 

 to be separated from it, is the combination of Onomatopoeia with 

 Iteration. Here also the language of the nursery gives numerous 

 examples. The impulse to imitation, which lies at the very founda- 

 tion of language and its acquisition, is obviously essentially connected 

 with Iteration. Sounds, and still more words, are not acquired by 

 one attempt, so that imitation and iteration go naturally hand in 

 hand. Moreover, the sounds which are imitated in onomatopoeia 

 are the distinctive sounds which are constantly repeated, and iteration 

 in connection with them is therefore natural and obvious. We need 

 not give more than an instance or two of such words : Puff-puff, tick- 

 tick, or with slight change of vowel or consonant, bow-wow, tick-tack. 



3. A third division may be made — though it is closely connected 

 with the other twO' — where Iteration is used for Comic or Contemp- 

 tuous expression. The real point of distinction here is that there 

 enters in a new factor, which we may call Sub-Consciousness on the 

 part of the speaker. Note that the history of language is practically 

 the history of unconscious change and development. Language, 

 except in the rarest instances, such as the deliberate inventions of 

 new words for new inventions, is anonymous, and we cannot point to 

 the honoured names of the fathers of speech. But in spite of this 

 we must admit a kind of sub-conscious effort on the part of each 

 individual which culminates in the unconscious progress of a language 

 in one direction or another. When an urchin in the street repeats 

 an opprobrious epithet directed at some object of his spleen, the 

 repetition may in one sense be as unconscious as the repetition of the 

 nursery, but there is at the same time what we may call a sub-con- 

 sciousness that the repetition makes the epithet far more effective. 

 The number of such comic or contemptuous iterations is very great — 

 -examples like tittle-tattle, skimble-skamble, hoity-toity, etc., may 

 suffice. It may be noted that they are generally accompanied by some 

 change of consonant or vowel. 



4. We may next notice a very common type of Iteration, which 

 is best specified as the Iteration of Emphasis. In one sense this 

 headmg might be used to characterise all iteration, but it is con- 

 venient to limit it to the cases where emphasis is the predominant 



