PARALLELISM

      According to Fabb: 1997, Parallelism is sameness relationship between two section of a text, example; "out of sight-out of mind". Parallelism is the most useful and flexible aspect of poetic language (Leech: 1969).  Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. Parallelism examples are found in literary works as well as in ordinary conversations. This method adds balance and rhythm to sentences giving ideas a smoother flow and thus can be persuasive because of the repetition it employs.

      In literature, parallelism is used in different ways to impress upon the readers in order to convey messages or moral lessons.

      The use of parallel structures in speech or writing allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency within their work and create a balanced flow of ideas. Moreover, it can be employed as a tool for persuasion as well because of the repetition it uses.

      Parallelism can be divided into;

- Phonological parallelism

Repetition of similar sounds includes; assonance, alliteration, consonance and rhyme.

* Assonance is repetition of vowel, example on Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem “The Raven”, is: “the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” (repetition of “ur” sound). 

* Alliteration is repetition of consonant sounds at the begining of the words, for example in Harry Potter series, “Severus Snape”, “Luna Love good”, “Rowena Raven claw”, etc. 

* Consonance is repetition of the same  consonant several times in a row, but this time the consonants can appear anywhere in the words, example “Humpty Dumpty”. 

* Rhyme is repetition of similar sounding words. There are a lot of different types of rhyme, but usually they are things like “tap” and “map”; “best and worst”.

- Morphological parallelism

Morphological parallelism is the repetition of morphemes, this type is less used than syntactic parallelism, example “I kissed thee ere I killed thee” (repetition in tensed morpheme “ed”)

- Syntactic / grammatical parallelism

This type focuses more grammatical. From Shakespear, Othello:Act III:Sc. III:pg.358 (1985) “I kissed thee ere I killed thee”. Another example from novel “To the light

* Sentence parallelism: ....that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing...(113)

* Main-clause parallelism:...she would never for a single second regret her decision, evade difficulties, or slur over duties.(11)

* Sub-clause parallelism: As summer neared, as the evenings lengthened, there cameto...(179)

* Phrase parallelism: Once in the middle of the night with a roar, with a rupture, as after a centuries...(177)

* Word parallelism:...able only to go on watching, asking, wondering.(198)

- Semantic / lexical parallelism

Semantic parallelism is repetition of lexical items. The lexical equivalents need to have the same syntactic function or parts of speech in the two sentences in which they occur. It may identical in form and in meaning, or they may be related by lexico-semantic relationship, such as synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy. For example: “Mary likes hiking, swimming and riding bicycle.”;“He is talented, intelligent and charming.”