Repetitive Redundant Repetition in Hebrew

Dr. Westbury serves as Scholar-in-Residence at Faith Life/Logos, and he regularly composes posts on Hebrew. He recently wrote about a well-known observation in Hebrew called tail-head linkage in an article entitled, "Hebrew Quotative Frames and the Power of Redundancy":

As children we naturally learn to avoid redundancy when speaking or writing—for the simple reason that redundancy can make it hard for people (our “addressees”) to process what we are trying to say. But when used intentionally, redundancy can have a powerful effect.

For example, we sometimes use a redundant device called Tail Head Linkage when we tell stories. If we’re telling scary stories, we might say something like, “I heard a sound in the basement, so I walked down stairs. And as I was walking down the stairs . . .” Notice how the action at the end of the first sentence (the tail) is repeated at the beginning of the second sentence (the head). The redundant information slows down the story in order to build suspense. This has the effect of signaling that something important and surprising is about to occur.

In fact, the biblical writers use the power of redundancy in the same way to create similar effects.

Dr. Westbury then outlined some reasons that biblical Hebrew employs "redundant quotative frames":

1. Simplifies the complexity of Frame #1 (e.g., Lev 16:1-2)
2. Increases the complexity of Frame #1 (e.g., 1 Sam 1:14-17)

He also listed some patterns of quotative redundancy:

• Leveraging an extra speech verb (e.g., 1 Sam 1:14-17)
• Reusing the quotative frame in a situation where the frame is not required, in order to: 
• 1) segment the text at natural transition points of the discourse (e.g., Jdg 8:24), or also to
• 2) highlight the speech that follows as "especially important or surprising" (e.g., Ruth 2:20)