Investigating the Rhetorical Functions of Association of Ideas in Nafthat ol-Masdur

Nafthat ol-Masdur is a historical-literary work of Shahabuddin Mohammad Zaidari Nasavi, which is written in the style of euphuism. One of the figures of speech that has been effective in the rhetoric of this book is ‘Equivoque’. One of its types is the ‘association of ideas’ which is one of the features of Nasavi's style. The present study intends to explore the rhetorical functions of the association of ideas in Nafthat ol-Masdur. The central questions of this research are: Can the association of ideas in Nafthat ol-Masdur be studied only in terms of traditional rhetoric at the sentence level or with the help of Structural stylistics? Is it possible to explore it in connection with the context? To answer the questions, first, 570 examples of the association of ideas were found. After examining them, we found that the association of ideas is sometimes only related to the sentence and sometimes is related to the context. It also makes the work more coherent and rhetorical, and ultimately helps to the brevity of the whole text. We have also examined the psychological dimension and found that there is a connection between the subject of lines and the frequency of the association of ideas.