Grammar as Rhetoric and
Style
Parallel Structures
Generally:
Sentences or parts of a sentence are
parallel when structures within them take
the same form
Parallelism is important at the level of the
word, the phrase, and the clause.
WORDS:
 Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? –
Thoreau
 In this sentence, the words hurry and waste, both nouns,
follow the preposition with; hurry and waste are parallel.
 In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime.Thoreau
 In this sentence, the words true and sublime, both
adjectives, modify the pronoun something; true and
sublime are parallel.
PHRASES:
 Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system,
behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last
man. –Thoreau
 To modify the adjective remote in this first sentence,
Thoreau uses parallel prepositional phrases; in the
outskirts, before the farthest star, before Adam, and after
the last man.
 It has truly been said that never in history have so many
educated people devoted so much attention to so few
children.—Jane Howard.
 In the next example, Jane Howard uses three parallel
noun phrases, each beginning with so; so many
educated people, so much attention, so few children.
PHRASES, con’d
 This is more difficult, because there is no zeitgeist to
read, no template to follow, no mask to wear. –Anna
Quindlen
 And in the preceding sentence, Anna Quindlen uses
three parallel nouns each preceded by no and each
followed by an infinitive; no zeitgeist to read, no template
to follow, and no mask to wear.
CLAUSES:
 “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”— Title of an essay
by Thoreau
 The title of Thoreau’s essay consists of two parallel
dependent, or subordinate clauses; one begins with
where, and the other begins with what.
 We perceived that only great and worthy things have any
permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and
petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. –
Thoreau
 The preceding example contains two parallel dependent
clauses, each beginning with that and functioning as an
object of the verb perceive.
CLAUSES, con’d
 If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats
and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go
about our business.—Thoreau
 This example begins with a dependent clause (If…dying)
followed by an independent, or main, clause
(let…extremities); then after the semicolon, Thoreau
presents another dependent-independent construction,
parallel to the first.
LACK OF PARALLELISM
 To fully appreciate the power of the parallelism created
by Thoreau, Howard and Quindlen in the preceding
examples, consider what happens when supposedly
equal elements of a sentence do not follow the same
grammatical or syntactical form—that is, when they are
not parallel with each other:
 Why should we live with such hurry and to waste life?
 This version of Thoreau’s sentence tries to modify the
verb should live by coordinating a prepositional phrase,
with such hurry, with an infinitive phrase, to waste life.
The two phrases are not parallel with each other, and as
a result, the sentence lacks balance and force.
Here’s another non-parallel sentence:
 It has truly been said that never in history have a lot of
people who are well educated devoted their attention to
such a small number of children.
 The preceding sentence, like the actual sentence by
Howard, still has a dependent clause with a subject (a lot
of people who are well educated), a verb (have devoted),
and an object (their attention) followed by a prepositional
phrase (to such a small number).
 But the subject, verb, object and prepositional phrase no
longer share one arrangement of words; they are no
longer parallel. As a result, the sentence is harder to
read and easier to forget.
Rhetorical and Stylistic Strategy:
 Looking first at the parallel sentences at the beginning of
this lesson and then at the non-paralleling re-writes, you
can see that writers use parallelism on the level of the
word, phrase, or clause as a rhetorical and stylistic
device to emphasize ideas, to contrast ideas, or to
connect ideas.
 Following are the names, definitions and examples of
specific types of parallelism:
ANAPHORA:
 The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning
of successive clauses.:
 But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and
father at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;
when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even
kill your black brothers and sisters;…when you are forever
fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will
understand why we find it difficult to wait. –MLK
 THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD WRITE IN A RHETORICAL ESSAY:
 In this example, form follows function. Just as King is saying
that African Americans have had to endure unjust treatment as
they waited for full civil rights, this series of parallel clauses
makes the reader wait—and wait—for the main point in the
independent clause.
ANTITHESIS:
 The contrast of thoughts in two phrases, clauses, or sentences:
 Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be
demanded by the oppressed.—MLK
 One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just
laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey
unjust laws. –MLK
 That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. –Neil
Armstrong
 THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD WRITE IN A RHETORICAL ESSAY:
 In all three of these examples, the parallel structure creates a
clear comparison between two things in order to emphasize the
difference between them. Given by the oppressor is contrasted
in meaning and in placement with demanded by the oppressed.
Notice also how the parallel prepositional phrases by the
oppressor and by the oppressed call attention to the tension
between oppressor and oppressed.
ANTIMETABOLE:
 The identical or near repetition of words in one phrase or
clause in reverse order in the next phrase or clause:
 We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. –Thoreau
 Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do
for your country.—JFK
 THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD WRITE IN A RHETORICAL ESSAY:
 The example above from JFK is perhaps, his most famous
quote. Part of what makes this quote so “quotable” is that the
repetition inherent in the antimetabole makes it dramatic and
easy to remember. Because the pattern of the two clauses is so
similar, the listener only needs to remember one pattern.
Because that sentence pattern in repeated, it gives the listener
two chances to understand the entire sentence and places
extra emphasis on the second part. It is almost as if JFK is
repeating a point for emphasis. Keep an eye out for
antimetabole in modern political soundbites.
ZEUGMA:
 A figure of speech made when one part of speech (usually a verb, but
sometimes a noun or an adjective) is related to another part of speech
in a way that is consistent in terms of grammar but incongruous in
terms of meaning. Such use is often humorous and usually ironic.
 Someone sent me a T-shirt not long ago that read “Well-Behaved
Women Don’t Make History.” They don’t make good lawyers, either, or
doctors or businesswomen.—Anna Quindlen
 THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD WRITE IN A RHETORICAL ESSAY:
 In this example, the zeugma is created when the verb make takes
many different nouns as its direct object: history, but also, lawyers,
doctors, and businesswomen. While all of these words are nouns, they
do not have the same meanings—history is not an occupation, while
all the other nouns are. There is a consistency in the pattern, but an
inconsistency in the meaning of the words. Quindlen exploits the
ironic inconsistency of the zeugma to draw a connection between two
things that her audience might not otherwise think of as connected:
activists who fought for women’s rights, and women today who are
trying to build their careers.
Effects of All Four Parallelism Forms:
 Anaphora: form follows function; a series of parallel clauses makes
the reader wait—and wait—for the main point in the independent clause.
Often employed in speeches, appealing to pathos.
 Antithesis: clear contrasts emphasize differences between two entities,
may create tension between them. Appeals to pathos or logos
sometimes.
 Antimetabole: creates dramatic effect; emphasizes two chances to
remember what is being said; extra emphasis is on second part of
sentence (the reversed part). This adds memorable-ness, making the
whole statement “catchy”---often a rhetorical strategy employed in ads
and political speeches. Can appeal to logos due to the mental acrobatics
required to comprehend message, but can appeal to pathos due to
emotional “punch” administered at the end of sentence. Boom.
 Zeugma: irony and humor, mainly. Exploits an ironic inconsistency that
draws connections between the two entities that the reading audience
wouldn’t naturally think to connect/relate.
Some Antimetabole Examples:
 “Liebling uses antimetabole to emphasize how, no
matter which way you think about it, she is the “best”
and the “fastest”.
 Hurston uses antimetabole to mimic the idea that no
matter what a woman is doing—trying to remember or
trying to forget—she is able to do it equally well.
 Malcolm uses antimetabole to add emphasis to the
second independent clause and to show how the
Pilgrims had an opposite/reverse experience than the
African Americans did, when first were in America.
Some Antithesis Examples:
 Goethe uses antithesis to emphasize the contrast
between love and marriage, to show that love is an
idealized abstraction but that marriage is what we live.
 The ad uses antithesis to emphasize that while
everybody may dislike something, nobody dislikes the
product, Sara Lee.
 Adams uses antithesis to contrast what we notice
(computers and e-book readers) and what we miss
(pennies and books), in order to make his point that we
are noticing all the wrong things.
Some Zeugma Examples:
 O’Brien uses zeugma for ironic effect, to show his
readers that an officer carries equipment but also a
huge “responsibility for the lives of his men.”
 Tan uses zeugma to emphasize the ordinariness of her
narrator’s marriage of “partners” but not “soul mates”—
that they were incidentally sharing both the common
stuff—like menus—as well as a life together.
 Flanders uses zeugma to emphasize all the things that
can be “raised”—glasses, courage, eyes and a young
man’s hopes—in order to show the effects of a woman
lowering her standards through drink.
Some Anaphora Examples:
 Chandler uses anaphora to emphasize how much he
needs a drink, life insurance, a vacation and a home in
the country, in contrast to what he HAS: a coat, a hat
and a gun, in order to show what bad shape he was in.
 Sanders uses anaphora to emphasize the visual
images of so many abused people in so many public
places—bruised children on the buses, abandoned
children in the churches, battered mothers “at our
doors”—in order to show his audience the unintended
but visible consequences of living with an alcoholic
father and husband.