Parallelism (grammar)

<h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
<p>Compare the following examples:
</p>
<table><tbody><tr><th>Lacking parallelism</th><th>Parallel</th></tr><tr><td>"She likes cooking, jogging, and <i>to read</i>."</td><td>"She likes cooking, jogging, and reading."<p>"She likes to cook, jog, and read."</p></td></tr><tr><td>"He likes <i>to play baseball</i> and running."</td><td>"He likes playing baseball and running."<p>"He likes to play baseball and to run."</p></td></tr><tr><td>"The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and <i>sprinted away</i>."</td><td>"The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted down the alley."</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>All of the above examples are grammatically correct, even if they lack parallelism: "cooking", "jogging", and "to read" are all grammatically valid conclusions to "She likes", for instance. The first nonparallel example has a mix of <a href="/facts/Gerund/xtsBS4yG">gerunds</a> and <a href="/facts/Infinitive/yhBoXDsQ">infinitives</a>. To make it parallel, the sentence can be rewritten with all gerunds or all infinitives. The second example pairs a gerund with a regular noun. Parallelism can be achieved by converting both terms to gerunds or to infinitives. The final phrase of the third example does not include a definite location, such as "across <i>the yard</i>" or "over <i>the fence</i>"; rewriting to add one completes the sentence's parallelism.
</p>
<h2 id="in-rhetoric">In rhetoric</h2>
<p class="note">Further information: <a href="/facts/Parallelism_(rhetoric)/NFDaKL6o">Parallelism (rhetoric)</a></p>
<p>Parallelism is often used as a <a href="/facts/Rhetorical_device/SeAhSYdg">rhetorical device</a>. Examples:
</p>
<ul><li>"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." — <a href="/facts/Winston_Churchill/Wm8LXNzH">Winston Churchill</a>, House of Commons, 22 October 1945<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Foregrounding/2d11gjqc">Foregrounding</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Prosody_(linguistics)/UDzAIz46">Prosody (linguistics)</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Repetition_(rhetorical_device)/gA4uCh0Y">Repetition (rhetorical device)</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100704180457/http://www.nipissingu.ca/English/HORNBOOK/faultpa.htm">Faulty Parallelism</a>, Nipissing University</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, The Elements of Technical Writing, pg. 71. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. ISBN 0020130856 <a href="/wiki/Gary_Blake" target="_blank">/wiki/Gary_Blake</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>For the point about processing, see Carlson, Katy. Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Ellipsis Sentences. Routledge, 2002, pp. 4–6. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lIJ7quEJl8gC&pg=PA4" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=lIJ7quEJl8gC&pg=PA4</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Parallelism". American Rhetoric. Archived from the original on 15 January 2018. <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/parallelism.htm" target="_blank">http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/parallelism.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Vice of Capitalism". International Churchill Society. Retrieved 15 January 2018. <a href="https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/vice-of-capitalism/" target="_blank">https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/vice-of-capitalism/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Parallelism (grammar) open-in-new

Parallelism (grammar)