Definition
According to Russian language textbooks for a high school course, homogeneous sentence members are characterized as belonging to the same word, answering the same questions, and being one member of a sentence. Some authors also point out that homogeneous must necessarily be one part of speech. In terms of meaning, they are equal, do not depend on each other, a connecting union and can be inserted between them. A sentence with homogeneous members can be simple and complex, either a composing or non-union syntactic connection is established inside it. In oral speech, insolence is expressed through intonation (the special intonation of the enumeration), while union is expressed by intonation and compositional unions in writing. Examples:
My favorite sweets are cookies, chocolates, custard cakes (homogeneous sentence members with no-union connection).
My favorite sweets are both cookies and chocolates, as well as custard cakes (homogeneous members joined by creative unions).
Any members of a sentence — subject, predicate, or one of the secondary ones — can be homogeneous. Their number is also not limited. They can be part of both simple and complex sentences, one-part and two-part.
Depending on the type of sentence, homogeneous members of a sentence are drawn differently by punctuation marks.
Some explanations and subtleties
• If the proposal is widespread, voluminous, it may include two or three rows of homogeneous members. Therefore, it is important to learn to distinguish in which constructions the homogeneous members of a sentence are connected simply by repeating unions or allied words, and in which several rows with homogeneous members connected within single rows by single unions. Examples: Foliage and herbs in the early summer and in the first weeks of autumn are juicy and fresh, green and bright (there are three groups of homogeneous members: two homogeneous subjects, two homogeneous predicates and two homogeneous circumstances). A light rain sprayed both on the field, and on the edge of the forest, and on a wide strip of the river (this proposal consists of one series of homogeneous circumstances that apply to the verb “ sprayed” ).
• One of the means of expressing homogeneous members of a sentence may be idioms. It should be remembered that in a phraseological phrase all words are considered as one member of a sentence, regardless of what part of the speech they relate to: a thunderstorm struck suddenly, we got wet to the skin, froze and banged our teeth from the cold (phraseological units “ got wet to the skin ”, “ banging their teeth ”and the verb“ frozen ”are homogeneous predicates).
The concept of "homogeneity" in a complex sentence
As homogeneous can be not only individual words, but also whole sentences. This is typical of subordinate sentences.
In this case, homogeneous subordinate clauses are highlighted with commas, as are homogeneous clauses in a simple clause. It is taken into account whether there are co-operative unions between subordinate parts, whether they are repeated or not, what are their shades of meaning and quantity.
1. When homogeneous subordinate clauses are not connected by a composing union, a comma should be put between them: I remembered how midges sleepyly rings in a forest on a hot afternoon, how a cuckoo lazily and infrequently gives a voice, how even a breeze reluctantly moves from branch to branch .
2. If a dividing or connecting union connects two adverbs, you do not need to put a comma: Approaching my house, I noticed that neighbor Vaska was hiding between the lilac bushes at the gate and there was a completely unfamiliar cat hiding there, angrily rumbling at my red-headed guest.
3. If the proposal contains a homogeneous subordination of subordinate parts connected by a union, a comma should not be placed in front of it. Proposals of this type should definitely be distinguished from those in which there is an alliance “ and” joining the next part of a complex submission to the existing ones: I hope that this will not happen again and that you will continue to consult with me in such matters. The train rumbled along the rails, and the car fan was buzzing like an angry bumblebee, and you could still hear the evening rain drumming on the roof, and in front of us lay a wide tablecloth of the steppe, greens of flood meadows, and a sparkling streak of river.