Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

c) Parallel Constructions

Constructions formed by the same syntactical pattern, closely following one another present the stylistic device of parallelisms. E.g.:

1. 
   Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Mic- awber has not. (Dickens)
   
2. 
   Nostrils wide, ...his senses picked up some­thing alien in the atmosphere. Naked bocfy, ...his dark eyes searched the distance. (Prichard)
   

Parallel is strongly affects the rhythmical organizati­on of the paragraph, so it is imminent in oratorical speech:

"The pulsating of Malay camp at night was everywhere. People sung. People cried. People fought. People loved. People nated. Others sad. Others gay. Others with friends. Others lonely. Some were born. Some died." (P. Abrahams)

Parallelism can be completed when the construction of the second sentence fully copies that of the first one:

"The sky was dark and gloomy, the air damp and raw, the streets wet and sloppy." (Dickens)

The ellipsis in the example is repeated completely. Parallelism can be partial when only the beginning or the end of several sentences are structurally similar:

"Men's talk was better than women's... Not the state of the house but the state of the Army. Not the children next door but the rebels in France. Not what broke the china but who broke the treaty. Not what spoiled the washing but who spilled the beans..." (Du Maurier)

Here only the frame of successive sentences remains unchanged: "not the...but" while the structure of each separate sentence is independent from its neighbours.

In a vast quantity of cases parallelism is strengthened by repetition or antithesis.

Parallel constructions are used in different styles with different stylistic functions. In belles-lettres style it car­ries an emotive function.

It is also used as a means in building up other stylistic devices, in particular antithesis and climax.

There are two main functions of parallel const­ructions: semantic and structural. The first constr­uction implies either equal semantic significance or oppo­sition of the repeated parts. The second implies a rhyth­mical design to the parts of the parallel construction (es­pecially in poetry). E.g.:

Nothing to see but sights, Nothing to quench but thirst, Nothing to have but what we've got. Thus through life we are cursed. (B. King)

Very often parallel constructions are used in folk songs and nursery rhymes:

Work while you work, Play while you play, That's the way To be happy and gay!