2. Parallelism is a grammatical and
rhetorical term for creating a sense of
linguistic balance by repeating
elements within a sentence, over the
course of several sentences, or in a
longer work or speech.
3. In grammar, it refers to ensuring
agreement in elements like number,
verb tense, and adjective types.
Maintaining this balance keeps
writing clean, concise, and
comprehensible. The rhetorical
definition involves using this balance
as a device to make speeches and
works of literature more impactful
4. Example of Parallelism:
• “What you see is what you get.”
• “Easy come, easy go.”
• “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
• “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
7. Anaphora
Anaphora is a rhetorical device in
which a word or phrase is repeated
at the start of subsequent sentences,
phrases, or clauses. Anaphora is a
literary device that authors can use to
highlight, explain, and reinforce
meaning. This stylised technique,
which uses the same word at the start
of each phrase in a series of phrases
or clauses, may be particularly
powerful in speeches, lyrics, poetry,
and prose.
8. Example:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles
Dickens.
“It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch
of incredulity, it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness…”
9. Dickens emphasizes to the reader that
the time he is describing is one that was
marked by oppositions and extremes by
using the word "it was" repeatedly.
Additionally, the anaphora gives the
reader the impression that it is the same
manner now as it was when they first
read it. As a result, the reader can get
engaged in the story right away.
11. The juxtaposition of two opposed
elements using a parallel
grammatical framework is known as
an antithesis in literature. The word
"antithesis," which means the total
opposite, comes from the Greek for
"setting opposite," which denotes
when one item or person is the exact
opposite of another.
13. The reader experiences a distinct,
enduring, and lyrical effect as a result of
Pope's usage of the figure of speech
antithesis. To further help readers
comprehend that making mistakes is
common for humans and that it is
acceptable for other people to forgive
them when they do, Pope contrasts
human error with divine mercy.
15. Asyndeton, a stylistic device employed
in literature and poetry to consciously
omit conjunctions between the phrases
and in the sentence while maintaining
grammatical accuracy, is derived from
the Greek term asyndeton, which means
"unconnected." This literary device aids
in simplifying the phrase's ambiguous
meaning and presenting it in a clear
manner. It first appeared in Latin and
Greek literature.
16. Example:
1. Used between words
and phrases within a
sentence.
“Are all thy conquests,
glories, triumphs,
spoils, Shrunk to this
little measure?”
(Julius Caesar, Act 3,
Scene 1, by William
Shakespeare)
2. Used between
sentences or clauses.
“Without looking,
without making a
sound, without talking”
(Oedipus at Colonus, by
Sophocles)
18. The word "epistrophe" comes from a
Greek word that means "turning
upon," which indicates that the same
word appears again at the end of
each phrase. The repetition of
phrases or words at the endings of
clauses or sentences is known as an
epistrophe, a stylistic device.
Examples of epistrophe are widely
found in literary works, persuasive
writing, and speeches. It is also
known as "epiphora."
19. Example:
“I love eating pancakes, my partner
feels like eating pancakes, and we just
saw a commercial where people were
happily eating pancakes.”
21. The use of a repeated element at the
start of phrases and a separate
repeated element at the end of
phrases results in parallelism in this
combination of anaphora and
epistrophe.
22. Example:
“Man created religion, man questioned
religion, man attacked religion, and
man defended religion”. Each phrase
begins with the word man and ends
with a past tense verb and the word
religion.
24. Chiasmus occurs when the grammar
of one sentence is repeated but
inverted in the following phrase. The
repeating words are written in the
reverse chronological sequence.
32. • More "grammatical" emphasis
• The following passage from
Shakespeare's Othello is cited by
Short (1985) as the "greatest
example ever" of parallelism:
“ I kissed thee ere I killed thee”
34. • Repetition of vocabulary words
• There is no requirement that lexical
equivalent in two sentences have
the same syntactic function or parts
of speech.
• They could be related by lexico-
semantic relationships like
synonymy, hyponymy, and
antonymy, or they could be
identical in form and meaning.
35. Example:
• Mary likes hiking, swimming, and to
ride a bicycle.
• Mary likes hiking, swimming, and
riding a bicycle
37. • Typically used in extended
parallels in jokes, books, and
humorous stories.
38. Example:
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore die and go to meet God.
Al goes first.
God asks him: “Who are you?‟
Al replies: “I am the Vice-President of the United States of America!‟
God says: “Very well, come and sit on my left-hand side.‟
Bill goes next.
God asks him: “Who are you?‟
Bill replies: “I am the President of the United States of America!‟
God says: “Very well, come and sit on my right-hand side.‟
Hillary goes last.
God asks her: “And who are you?‟
Hillary replies: “I am Hillary Clinton, and what are you doing sitting
in my place?!!‟
40. It might be challenging to
differentiate parallelism from
repetition. They are comparable
literary devices in that they both
depend on repetition for effect to
function. The deliberate use of a
word or phrase two or more times
quickly apart is what is meant by
repetition, though.
41. Parallelism can feature repeated
words or phrases, but it also needs to
show repeated grammatical or
structural aspects. The primary need
for parallelism as a literary device,
aside from word or phrase repetition,
is the repetition of grammatical
features and/or structure in a written
work.
42. Example:
A soliloquy by William Shakespeare's
Macbeth's titular character serves as a
good illustration of the differences
between parallelism and repetition. The
line, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and
tomorrow”
43. There is word repetition in it. Due to the
phrasing's grammatical structure, which
uses "and" as a conjunction, it also
contains parallelism. This grammatical
resemblance underlines the idea and
meaning of "tomorrow" as an ongoing,
repeated aggregation of time and
experience and improves the rhythm of
the phrase.
44. In another line from Macbeth's
soliloquy, repetition occurs without
parallelism: “Out, out, brief candle!” In
this line, the word “out” is repeated
twice, but there is no indication of a
repeating grammatical element.
45. There is less of a lyrical quality to the
line than the repetition and parallelism
of the word "tomorrow," even as the
repetition emphasizes the word "out" in
terms of extinguishing the candle,
which symbolizes death.
46. Therefore, as literary devices, repetition
highlights a word or phrase and can
undoubtedly strengthen its meaning;
but, parallelism frequently adds even
deeper meaning through the recurrence
of grammatical structure.
