ABSTRACT
Simpler kinds of lexical variation are found in many registers as a means of cohesion and to avoid repetition (see also equivalence.)
(2) Variation was introduced into studies of Old English poetic language in the late nineteenth century to describe a characteristic feature of the alliterative verse that distinguishes it from the Germanic verse of the Continent: the repetition of an idea, whether expressed in a word, phrase or clause, in different words or synonyms, often with grammatical parallelism.
