Parallel patterns

Parallel patterns are the echoing of a syntactic pattern in the proximate segments of the text with different or partially different lexical components. The pa­rallel segments become correlated by way of contrast, resem­blance, analogy, gradation, etc. This very effective means of semantic cohesion and aesthetic arrangement has been a fa­vourite rhetorical figure since ancient times, and has been used in English literature since the earliest period.

As I. M. Astafyeva demonstrates in her thesis (5), pa­rallel patterning can be complete and incomplete. An ideal case of parallel patterns satisfies, according to this author, the following three requirements:—

(i) the members of the reiterated patterns should be equal in number;

(ii) the members of the reiterated patterns should have identical syntactic functions;

(iii) there should be identical word order in the reiterated
patterns.

When all the three requirements are met the parallelism of patterns is complete. Such a complete parallelism can be found:—

(i) in two or more poetic lines or utterances —

I dare not ask a kiss,

I dare not beg a smile... (Herrick)

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. (Pope) First you borrow. Then you beg. (Hemingway; quoted in 5)

(ii) in groups of utterances —

The ore trains never stop. They dump their loads in the hoppers.

The hoppers are never quiet. They spi 11 the rocks on the belts. (Carter; quoted in 5) Very often, however, there is a partial breach of the three requirements and the repetition of patterning is incomplete.

In this case partial syntactic repetition suggests regularity and at the same time allows variance and enhances unpredictability.

I.M. Astafyeva's research classifies the following typical cases of incomplete repetition of syntactic patterns:—

(1) Lack of coincidence in the number of members:—

(a) the appearance of members that have no correspondence in the preceding pattern —

He reflected without bitterness, but with a modicum of envy, that the wealthy somehow kept going in spite of war and taxes. By the fragrance of Kphlberg's coffee, it was real coffee; by the look of the cream he was pouring in his cup, it was real cream; any by the sweet smell of his cigarette, it was real tobacco. (M altz; quoted in 5)

(b) the appearance of ellipsis in one of the patterns. For instance, the omission of subject and predicate —

For every gun of yours, we have six; for every shell of yours, a dozen. (Heym; quoted in 5)

(2) Lack of coincidence in syntactic functions:—

When they... fed him on their best, and thrust him into their softest chair, they eagerly demanded news. (Cronin; quoted in 5)

(3) Lack of coincidence in the word order.

A typical case of this is known in rhetoric as chiasmus, or reversed syntactic repetition, by which the order of the words in the first pattern is reversed in the second. In other words, chiasmus is a balanced double utterance the second part of which is the reversed image of the first:—

(a) As high as we have mounted in delight

In our dejection do we sink as low. (Wordsworth)

(b) Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down. (Coleridge)

The origin of the term "chiasmus" is as follows: if the

two reversed segments are written one below the other, and lines are drawn between the corresponding members, those lines make the Greek letter % (chi), a diagonal cross:—

DOWN dropt the BREEZE

the SAILS dropt DOWN

In the following example chiasmus converges with ana­diplosis:—

Her face was veiled with a veil of gauze, but her feet were naked. Naked were her feet, and they moved over carpet like little pigeons. (Wilde)

Depending on the position of the identical syntactic parts in parallel patterns, incomplete syntactic repetition can be further categorized into syntactic anaphora, syntactic epi­strophe and syntactic framing:—

(i) Syntactic anaphora:

In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents? (Twain)

(ii) Syntactic epistrophe:

He will come to her in yellow stockings, and His a colour she abhors, and cross-garter'd, a fashion she detests. (Shakespeare)

(iii) Syntactic framing with complete lexical repetition:
And death shall have no dominion.

No more may gulls cry at their ears

Or waves break loud on the seashores;

Where blew a flower may a flower no more

Lift its head to the blows of the rain;

Though they be mad and dead as nails,

Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;

Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,

And death shall have no dominion. (Thomas)