Topic 7 (session A) - The grammar of complex sentences > Text effects > Task B

Text effects of linking, listing and nesting

Task B - listing

Examine the LISTING in the highlighted part of the passage below (see section B of the linking, listing and nesting checksheet for more explanation of listing).

What effect does it have? What would the difference be if you inserted 'and' between each if the items in the list, thus changing it from a listing to a linking structure?

When I think of my condition at the age of fifty-five when I bought the ticket, all is grief. The facts begin to crowd me and soon I get a pressure in the chest. A disorderly rush begins - my parents, my wives, my girls, my children, my farm, my animals, my habits, my money, my music lessons, my drunkenness, my prejudices, my brutality, my teeth, my face, my soul!

(Saul Bellow , Henderson the Rain King)

Our answer

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