9 • Disjunction and Conjunction (faṣl wa waṣl)
abstract
This chapter, part of a series of eight, each of which addresses a different topic within the Persian science of meanings (ʿilm-i maʿānī), examines ‘disjunction and conjunction’ (faṣl wa waṣl). It explores the reasons why a linker, which is generally the and-conjunction wa, is or is not required between two utterances. In this chapter, connected and disconnected discourse are discussed in terms of semantic congruence, syntactic contiguity, and the risk of misunderstanding. Examples, mainly from Persian poetry, are given as illustrations.