زینب اکبری

 This study presents a comparative cognitive analysis of repartee—a strategic, adversarial form of verbal interaction characterized by rapid response, subversion, and parallelism—across Persian, Arabic, and English. Repartee is conceptualized as a linguistic duel wherein the responder (H) reconfigures the initiator’s (S) utterance through deliberate mirroring, thereby inverting its intended meaning. This research addresses a notable gap in the literature, as most prior studies have focused primarily on European languages, leaving the cognitive and structural underpinnings in non-European traditions underexplored. Focusing on two core mechanisms, the study examines Structural Parallelism—defined as the replication of the syntactic or logical framework of the initiating utterance to produce a counter-response with an inverted evaluative focus—and Polysemous Parallelism, which exploits inherent lexical ambiguity to reassign meaning and subvert the original communicative intent. Employing Langacker’s (2001) Current Discourse Space (CDS) model, the analysis demonstrates how hyper-understanding and figure-ground reversal operate within the CDS to reconfigure shared conceptual structures. Qualitative analysis of 150 repartee instances (50 per language) reveals universal cognitive strategies: (1) responders detect and subvert implicit assumptions via syntactic/lexical mirroring, and (2) reorient evaluative hierarchies by shifting the figure (salient focus) and ground (contextual assumptions) within the CDS.