Enriching meaning though combining multiple languages: polyglot’s
approach to poetry

The article analyses poetic creativity of the Russian polyglot Willy
Melnikov. His poetry illustrates how multiple languages can be used as a tool
for creative poetic self-expression. The article does not aim to prove or disprove
Melnikov’s proficiency in respective languages, because languages for him
have not a communicative, but a creative function. Combining many languages
in his poetry, Melnikov attempts to find a new way to transmit verbally the
uniqueness of his personal experience. The psycho-physiological specifics of sounds in different languages is of key importance for Melnikov, who claims
that being combined different languages impose a harmonizing «synergetic»
effect on human beings. Some of his multilingual and macaronic verses are analyzed
in this article. The essence of the polyglot’s poetic creativity is traced
through the mechanism of verbal synesthemia – the interplay of the sensational
and the emotional in sounds of human speech that is deeply felt by polyglots
from their early childhood.