Parallelism (rhetoric)

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Parallelism means to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern.

Parallelisms of various sorts are the chief rhetorical device of Biblical poetry in Hebrew.[1] In fact, Robert Lowth coined the term "parallelismus membrorum (parallelism of members, i.e. poetic lines) in his 1787 book, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. Roman Jakobson pioneered the secular study of parallelism in poetic-linguistic traditions around the world, including his own Russian tradition.[2]

In addition, Chinese Poetry uses parallelism in its first form. In a parallel couplet not only must the content, the parts of speech, the mythological and historico- geographical allusions, be all separately matched and balanced, but most of the tones must also be paired reciprocally. Even tones are conjoined with inflected ones, and vice versa.[3]

[edit] Examples

"We charge him with having broken his coronation-oath - and we are told that he kept his marriage-vow! We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hard-hearted of prelates - and the defense is that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him. We censure him for having violated the Petition of Right - and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning." (Macaulay)

"In a democracy we are all equal before the law. In a dictatorship we are all equal before the police." (Fernandes)

“Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).” (Julius Caesar)

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." (Churchill)

"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos)

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  1. ^   "Parallelism". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  2. ^ Jakobson, Roman. 1987. "The Poetry of Grammar and the Grammar of Poetry." In Language in Literature. K. Pomorska and S. Rudy, eds. Pp. 121-144. Cambridge, MA: The Belnap Press of Harvard University.
  3. ^ Chinese Poetry