And in this way the water comes down at Lodore

And thumping, and plumping, and bumping, and jumping,

Recoiling, turmoiling, and toiling, and boiling

Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing,

And dashing, and flashing and splashing and clashing;

We observe here how polysyndeton is used to make an utterance more rhythmical and expressive.

The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance more rhythmical - the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables.

In addition to this, polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. It generally combines homogeneous elements of thought into one whole resembling enumeration. But, unlike enumeration, which integrates both homogeneous and heterogeneous elements into one whole, poly­syndeton causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspic­uously. That is why we say that polysyndeton has a disintegrating func­tion. Enumeration shows things united; polysyndeton shows them iso­lated.

E.g. Of sun and wind and hard physical work and human companionship he felt he could never have too much. (I. Murdoch)

Not infrequently, polyisyndeton promotes a high-flown tonality of narrative, as in the following case:

“ And only one thing really troubles him sitting there – the melancholy craving in his heart - because the sun was like enchantment on his face and on the clouds and on the golden birch leaves, and the wind’s rustle was so gentle, and the yew-tree green so dark, and the sickle of a moon pale in the sky. (J. Galsworthy)

The elevated tonality of polysyndeton is very probably explained by associations with the style of the Bible, in which nearly every sentence, or at least almost every paragraph begins with the conjunction AND:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7)

Functions and stylistic effect

- to enhance the idea of equal logical (emotive) importance of connected words or phrases

- to make an utterance more rhythmical (due to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables)

- a disintegrating function (it causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspic­uously, and shows them isolated)

- to promote a high-flown tonality of narrative

The elevated tonality of polysyndeton is very probably explained by associations with the style of the Bible, in which nearly every sentence, or at least almost every paragraph begins with the conjunction AND:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it. ( Matthew 7)

5. Parenthetic sentences, These are sentences and phrases which being inserted into a syntactical structure are not grammatically connected with it.

E.g. It was only when he had been decisively turned down by everyone approached – banks, trusts, insurance companies, and private lenders – that his original confidence waned. (A. Haily)

Parenthetic elements are characterized by a positional independence from the main sentence, thus creating two layers of narration. Commas, dashes, and brackets usually mark them.

These structures either express modality of what is predicated (presumable, possibly, I guess) or imply additional information, mostly evaluating what is said or supplying some kind if additional information. One of the most important potentialities of such parentheses is the creation of the second plane, or background, to the narrative, or a mingling of “voices” of different speech parties (the metaphorical term introduced by M. Bakhtin: “polyphony”.

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