PARALLELISM
PARALLELISM
PARALLELISM
Here’s a handy definition:
Parallelism means that two or more words,
phrases, or clauses have the same
grammatical form and an identical
grammatical relationship to the same
thing.
Was that clear?
Or are you kind of confused?
Let’s just look at some examples:
In its energy, its lyrics, its advocacy of
frustrated joys, rock is one long symphony
of protest.
Time Magazine
(Three parallel objects of the preposition
“in”)
The Department of Justice began a vigorous
campaign to break up the corporate
empires, to restore the free and open
market, and to plant the feet of industry
firmly on the road to competition.
--Thurman Arnold
(Three parallel infinitive phrases, all
modifying “campaign.”)
Wowza—look at this!
Here is where the hot wind blows and the
old ways do not seem relevant, where the
divorce rate is double the national average
and where one person in every thirty-eight
lives in a trailer.
Joan Didion
(The three where-clauses are parallel subjects of “is”; the
first of these constructions actually consists of two
clauses in parallel.)
One more example:
To complain of the age we live in, to murmur
at the present possessors of power, to
lament the past, to conceive extravagant
hopes of the future, are the common
dispositions of the greatest part of
mankind… Edmund Burke
What is parallel in this sentence?
Let’s pause for a grammar rule:
Parallel constructions must be identical in their
grammatical form.
Thus, to use Burke’s example: His four subjects
are expressed as infinitive phrases. If one of
them was in another form: “To complain of the
age we live in, murmuring (versus: to murmur)
at the present possessors of power…” =
grammar crime!!!
We call this mistake a:
SHIFTED CONSTRUCTION
When part of a parallel sentence is in a
different form. AVOID THIS!!!
Why do writers like parallelism?
• It is impressive and pleasing to hear—
elaborate yet rhythmic and ordered,
following a master plan with a place for
everything and everything placed.
• Easier for readers/listeners to follow.
• Logical form of sentence makes people
think the ideas are also logical.
Want some more?!!!
The men dozed, waked, sighed, groaned.
--Joseph Conrad
What is parallel?
And here?
It was certainly true that Starr had played
with his children, that the two families had
seen a good deal of each other, and that
he had been alone with Starr on many
occasions.
Morris Markey
Before me lies a bundles of these sermons,
rescued from six-score years of dust,
scrawled on their title pages with names of
owners dead long ago, worm-eaten, dingy,
stained with the damps of time, and
uttering in quaint old letter-press the
emotions of a buried and forgotten past.
Last One
If the movies had never gone beyond
photographing plays on stage, if they had
not created their own rhythm of
presentation through cutting and camera
movements, they would have remained a
small and shabby thing.
Gilbert Seldes
Parallelism is fun! And you if you
learn it you will NOT become a