Reduplication? Maybe. But isn't there a more poetical term for it?

Reduplication shows up in many languages. Either the entire morpheme is doubled with no changes, e.g., English putt-putt, kiSwahili pigapiga 'to strike repeatedly' (< piga 'to strike'), with changes, e.g., Japanese hashi-bashi 'odds and ends' (< hashi 'end; edge; tip; margin; point'), just the first part of the morpheme, or other kinds of changes, e.g., Greek leipo 'I leave', leloipa 'I left'. Then there is rhyming redpulication English hokey-pokey, Yiddish english shmenglish and ablaut reduplication English criss-cross. Reduplication is used for different things, e.g., making words plural, present-past distinction, etc.

So, pell-mell is rhyming reduplication.

[Addendum: there's also a rhetorical term, anadiplosis
Quote:
([T]he rhetorical repetition of one or several words; specifically, repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next.

Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business. Francis Bacon

Senatus haec intellegit, consul videt; hic tamen vivit. Vivit? Immo vero etiam in senatum venit. Cicero In Catilinam
(Link.) But it's not quite the same thing.

Last edited by zmjezhd; 01/02/2009 4:10 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.