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I'm looking for other examples of or the name of this kind of structure from The Stanley Parable:

"The end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end end is never the end..."

Is there a term for this kind of thing? A phrase that makes sense when repeated over and over.

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  • This exmaple is grammatically problematic already. The end is never the end cannot be followed by "Is never the end." This idea is interesting though. Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 1:49
  • Theoretically, using conjunctions, any sentence could go on forever, albeit redundantly: "The end is never the end, and is never the end, and is never the end...." But I think that would just be called a redundant run-on sentence. Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 1:53
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    I think you might be able to work recursion or recursive into this. Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 3:20
  • The technical term, narishkeit, is used in Yiddish: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/narishkeit Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 4:10
  • Reminds me of the Jack Nicholson film "The Shining"! Didn't he perseverate on the typewriter with the sentence ""All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"? Commented Jan 5, 2019 at 19:42

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I have a question up on here to do with a related pattern (epizeuxis - immediate repetition of a word or phrase).

Epizeuxis doesn't really cover the looping quality of your example. Other examples that come to mind are Gertrude Stein's '[A rose is a] [R]ose is a rose is a rose' lines, and indeterminate loops in computer code.

Other works that have this quality are songs such as 'There's a Hole in My Bucket', Michael Finnegan, Solomon Grundy, which I've heard rendered as an annoying loop, or the effect created by a Liar's Paradox.

Your 'over and over', by the way, is an Epanalepsis.

I recently came across a book of poems by John O'Loughlin called Ultracontemplations all of which employ repetition and looping.

You may want to also consider palindromes, the oruborus and the phrase Mary Queen of Scott took as one of her mottos, 'en ma fin git ma commencement' (in my end lives my beginning), which has a history that goes back to other examples, eg Machaut's double canon setting (score here).

I hope these provide suitable answers to your question and hope they lead to answers to the question I have up on here to do with a related pattern (epizeuxis - immediate repetition of a word or phrase).

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