Perswazja w prozie Jana Kochanowskiego
Persuasion in Jan Kochanowski’s prose

Summary/Abstract: In this article we will review persuasive language devices used in Jan Kochanowski’s prose textsthat vary in terms of text genres, forms, length and purpose of expression. All the discussed works ofthe poet belong to different text genres, such as: social and political journalism, moralist treatise, his-torical treatise, funeral speech, short witty anecdotes and stories.The text analysis proves that there are often conjunctions at the beginning of many sentences.These words not only link sentence components or complex sentences but they also determine thecohesion of larger units than sentences and mark a referential function. Kochanowski often incorpor-ates parentheses, citing and rhetorical questions. As a result, a persuasive function is achieved due tothe choice of an utterance form and a text genre, appropriate selection of stylistic devices enhancingpersuasion and text construction forms and, last but not least, adequate lexical diversity. In his styleKochanowski followed the rules of rhetoric characteristic of the 16th century. The low/plain style hada didactic purpose, the middle style was chosen to praise or to reprimand others and the high/grandstyle was limited to texts referring to matters of great importance.

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