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Concept
Parallelism (rhetoric)
Summary
Parallelism is a rhetorical device that compounds words or phrases that have equivalent meanings so as to create a definite pattern. This structure is particularly effective when "specifying or enumerating pairs or series of like things". A scheme of balance, parallelism represents "one of the basic principles of grammar and rhetoric".
Parallelism as a rhetorical device is used in many languages and cultures around the world in poetry, epics, songs, written prose and speech, from the folk level to the professional. An entire issue of the journal Oral Tradition has been devoted to articles on parallelism in languages from all over. It is very often found in Biblical poetry and in proverbs in general.
The following sentences and verses possess "similarity in structure" in words and phrases:
She tried to make the law clear, precise and equitable.
In the quote above, the compounded adjectives serve as parallel elements and support the noun "law".
Her purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.
In the above quote, three infinitive verb phrases produce the parallel structure supporting the noun "purpose". Note that this rhetorical device requires that the coordinate elements agree with one another grammatically: "nouns with nouns, infinitive verb phrases with infinitive verb phrases and adverb clauses with adverb clauses."
When the coordinate elements possess the same number of words (or in the example below, the same number of syllables) the scheme is termed isocolon:
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,My gay apparel for an almsman's gownMy figured goblets for a dish of wood.
– Shakespeare, Richard II
Synonymous parallelism in which one couplet expresses similar concepts can also be combined with antithetical parallelism in which a second couplet contrasts with the first. For example, synonymous and antithetical parallelism occur in Revelation 22:11:
A Let the evildoer still do evil,
A' and the filthy still be filthy,
B and the righteous still do right.
Official source
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