This article examines the functions of word elongation, the duplication of the same letter, in four realistic fiction works: Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love , Green’sThe Fault in Our Stars, Flynn’s Gone Girl and Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. We contend that the psychological depictions of the protagonists of these novels are manifested in their employment of word elongation so as to express an array of emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger. By employing a combination of sociolinguistic and psychological theories, we argue that word elongation is a linguistic means of manipulation and social resistance as the female protagonists of the above-mentioned novels identify and re-identify themselves depending on context. It has also been found that although this linguistic technique is mostly associated with female characters, the intensified emotions by which the characters reveal their identity are not always stereotypical, suggesting change and power.

本文研究了四部现实小说作品中单词延伸、同一个字母的重复的功能：吉尔伯特的《吃祈祷的爱》、格林的《星辰之错》、弗林的《消失的女孩》和亚瑟的十三个理由. 我们认为，这些小说主人公的心理描写，主要体现在他们对词语的延伸运用，以表达喜、悲、怒等一系列情绪。通过结合社会语言学和心理学理论，我们认为词语延伸是一种操纵和社会抵抗的语言手段，因为上述小说的女性主人公根据语境来识别和重新识别自己。人们还发现，虽然这种语言技术主要与女性角色有关，但角色揭示其身份的强烈情感并不总是刻板印象，暗示着变化和力量。