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#181334 12/30/08 09:34 PM
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Isn't there a place (e.g. square, plaza, street,etc.) in London
called the Pall Mall? Is there a connection?


----please, draw me a sheep----
LukeJavan8 #181338 12/30/08 10:37 PM
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Is there a connection?

Probably not, or Anu would've mentioned it. The street in London, Pall Mall, is named after the game pall-mall (via French palle maille) from Italian pallamaglio, literally 'ball mallet'. We get our word mall as in shopping mall from this, too.

Pell-mell is from French pêle-mêle < Old French pesle mesle probably a reduplication of mesle the imperative of mesler 'to mix'.

English (as well as other languages) has many examples of these rhyming pairs of words: cf. helter-skelter, Hoppelpoppel German 'scrambled egg dish'.


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zmjezhd #181341 12/31/08 09:52 AM
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"As well as other languages " I give 'kris kras', meaning about the same as 'pell mell'.

BranShea #181348 01/01/09 04:23 AM
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Which is not technically rhyming, nor assonance, but the agreement of the consonant sounds... what do you call that?

Examples: kris kras, criss cross, jim-jams, tic-tac, etc

The Pook #181351 01/01/09 07:57 AM
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Which is not technically rhyming, nor assonance, but the agreement of the consonant sounds

Alliteration. And reduplication.


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zmjezhd #181358 01/01/09 01:40 PM
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Of course, aliteration refers only to the repetition of the initial consonant sounds, hence the addition of 'reduplication'.

zmjezhd #181382 01/02/09 11:31 AM
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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
Which is not technically rhyming, nor assonance, but the agreement of the consonant sounds

Alliteration. And reduplication.


What Faldo said. It's more than alliteration, which refers only to the initial letters. Reduplication? Maybe. But isn't there a more poetical term for it?

Last edited by The Pook; 01/02/09 11:32 AM.
The Pook #181388 01/02/09 03:59 PM
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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; 01/02/09 04:10 PM.

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zmjezhd #181400 01/02/09 10:51 PM
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[
Quote:
quote=zmjezhd]Is there a connection?

Probably not, or Anu would've mentioned it. The street in London, Pall Mall, is named after the game pall-mall (via French palle maille) from Italian pallamaglio, literally 'ball mallet'. We get our word mall as in shopping mall from this, too.

Pell-mell is from French pêle-mêle < Old French pesle mesle probably a reduplication of mesle the imperative of mesler 'to mix'.
English (as well as other languages) has many examples of these rhyming pairs of words: cf. helter-skelter, Hoppelpoppel German 'scrambled egg dish'. [/quote]


Appreciate the answer, especially in light of my comment today on shilly shally
being akin to dilly dally, etc. Must be a very common gramatic fun way to say
things.


----please, draw me a sheep----
zmjezhd #181416 01/03/09 02:52 AM
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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
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'

Grammatical reduplication is often used in Australian aboriginal languages to indicate plurality or magnitude. For example, the place name Wagga Wagga means place of many crows.

Quote:
Reduplication is used for different things, e.g., making words plural, present-past distinction, etc.

I knew reduplication was used in Greek to form the Perfect, but it still seems too clinical, matter of fact and grammatical a word to use for poetical nonsense where it is the sheer joy of the juxtaposed similar sounds, and not their meaning, that is the reason for doing it.

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