Resumptive Repetition?introduction to a Universal Discourse Feature

Abstract

When repetition is used to resume a previous topic after a digression, interruption or some other interlude, then we can call this ?resumptive repetition?. The focus of this paper introduces resumptive repetition as a leading cognitive device used for topic continuity in the environment of digressions. Resumptive repetition is an important universal discourse feature because it is a cognitive part of human language that ?wraps around? or ?encapsulates? the syntax of any language. It is one of the few features of language that transparently shows the human mind working the same way cross-linguistically in the area of topic continuity