Recurrence plots – a tool for exploring repetition in un(der)studied language data

Repetition, with and without variation, pervades language use. We see it, for example, in spontaneous conversation, in memes on social media, in traditional rhetoric and, of course, in poetry and oral tradition. This paper presents recurrence plotting as a visualisation tool for the analysis of exact and inexact repetition in language. It is a particularly powerful tool for the exploration of un(der)studied data, such as those arising through language documentation work, as its reliance on the visual sense offers instant, holistic insights into the structures of large amounts of data. Recurrence plotting can be used with any type of connected source material, including audio (e.g., full-spectra, f0 contours, etc.) and written data (e.g., transcripts, glosses and translations). We illustrate in this paper the diverse potential of recurrence plotting with data from two oral traditions: the Old Indo-Aryan Rigveda, and the oral tradition Igu of the eastern Himalayan society of the Kera’a.