‘Diga por qué, diga por qué...’. La repetición en el debate político-electoral

In this paper the author analyses the repetitions in a political discourse type, the debates between two Spahish political leaders in the 1993 general elections. From the formal standpoint several classes of repetition and their discursive conditioners in the debate are analyzed. Functionally it is shown how repetition carries out important roles at diverse levels of the analysis. From favouring the production and understanding of linguistic messages to the creation of various interactional effects that have a profoundly negativa and conflictive nature in the debate. It performs also the textual functions of opening, recovering, or concluding topics during the political argumentation and is used as a sing that allows speakers to signal diverse stages in the turn-taking system. Finally, it cant not be forgotten the stylistic factor that retoric has in the study of political oratory and that is also present in political debates. Some final considerations about the productivity of this discourse strategy are also considered