Polysyndeton, or mnogosoyuzie (from the Greek poly - many, syndeton-connected) - a term whose most general meaning is defined as "the principle of text construction, in which subsequent narrative units (or parts of them) are joined to the previous ones by the same (usually compositional) union" (Kruchinina I. N. Mnogosoyuzie // Linguistic Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1990, p. 302). At the same time, it is noted that "in an artistically organized text, M[nogosoyuzie] is simultaneously a stylistic device with a wide range of expressive and semantic functions" (Ibid.). In rhetoric, a polysyndeton is traditionally defined as "a figure of addition<...>, based on the deliberate repeated use of conjunctions" (Khazagerov T. G., Shirina L. S. General rhetoric: A course of lectures. Dictionary of rhetorical techniques. Rostov n / A, 1999, p. 261).
The definition of a polysyndeton as a stylistic figure (figure of speech) can be clarified by indicating that it is structurally opposite to an asyndeton (figure of expressive non-conjunction) and is a grammatical repetition of conjunctions when combining or joining homogeneous members, parts of a sentence, or whole sentences as part of a complex syntactic whole, which gives the utterance an expressive character. -
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ter. For example (redundant chains of conjunctions are highlighted in these and subsequent illustrations):
"The property of these night lights is to approach, overcoming the darkness, and sparkle, and promise, and beckon with their proximity" (V. Korolenko). Cf.: The property of these night lights is to approach, overcoming the darkness, sparkle, promise, and beckon with their proximity; " A lot, for a long time, loudly, sharply - someone it goes, and the warmer it is to sleep, the closer the comfort. And all the air isn't fully asleep yet. And the blankets didn't wake up. And the dreams didn't fold their wings. The room is still asleep" (S. Gorny). Cf.: And all the air has not yet finished sleeping. The blankets d ...
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