In literature and rhetoric, a technique called “parallelism” is often used. Next, let's take a closer look at what parallelism is and what role it plays in poetic speech.
What is parallelism: definition and types
Parallelism is a speech technique in which two or more phenomena or objects are compared using their parallel image. This comparison allows you to emphasize the differences or similarities of the compared phenomena/objects.
- Most often, phenomena that are similar in content are compared. Example: “Heavenly clouds are eternal wanderers” (M. Yu. Lermontov). Clouds are compared with wanderers - a parallel comparison can be made between these concepts.
- Syntactic parallelism is also common when comparing homogeneous members in the syntactic structure of a phrase (for example, lines in poetry that follow the same pattern).
- There is also sound parallelism, which is widely used in poetry. Such parallelism is manifested in rhyme, unity of beginning, ending, as well as in the repetition of parts of speech in different forms.
Parallelism is also used in folk art- so, it can be found in ditties and folk songs.
Language plays an extremely important role in human life, and the presence in large quantity words allows you to use both in ordinary speech and in literary texts a variety of designs that enrich speech and make it more refined. Such constructions also include parallelisms.
Basic Concepts
The very concept of parallels as repetition of identical elements is found in many sciences: computer science, geometry, biology. What is parallelism in text and how is it used in Russian?
The word parallelism is translated from Greek as "nearby location", which gives an idea of the meaning of the construction - it is a figure of speech, which represents the placement of similar (in meaning, grammar) elements in a passage.
The design helps to create a coherent image in literature and enriches the text: the student has passed the tests; a student who has passed the tests; student who passed the tests. Often such constructions are called lexical parallelism.
Important! Parallel constructions differ from each other in meaning and style, for example, there are often several subordinate clauses form a separate simple sentence in a complex one, but parallel simple phrases are designated as ordinary members of the sentence.
This is due to the fact that the verb is represented in sentences in different ways: in the personal form (subordinate clause), as a secondary predicate ( participial turnover), as an action-state (participial phrase), as an abstract action (verbal noun).
Due to stylistic differences, parallel designs used in different.
Types of structures
According to their structure and shape, several such forms are distinguished at once, each of which has its own characteristics:
- Syntactic parallelism is the most common. The main difference is using the same structure in sentences, regardless of the genre: the generalizing circumstance is placed at the beginning, and the objects of comparison are in the next part. This allows you to make the circumstance stronger, more vivid, and most often this circumstance plays a vital role in understanding the entire plot.
- Rhythmic - this technique is used to emphasize some important place in the poem. It is so called because it is created by repeating identical rhymes, which gives the work a certain rhythmicity, although sometimes this is achieved by placing identical pauses.
- Strophic - identical syntactic structures are placed in adjacent couplets of the work. Although they are often lexical.
- Negative - it does not differ in construction from the usual direct one, but is characterized by the fact that the negative parallel comes first.
Parallelism is a structural fragment that changes the entire concept of the work. It can be found in folk art, stationery texts and works of art
In literature
Literature is a place where many artistic techniques are concentrated, thanks to which brilliant works are created. Among them, lexical parallelism stands out, which is used for enhancing or emphasizing attention on any passage. Some works even require his presence, for example, appeal poems and poems, since he is expressive means language.
Unlike rhetoric, where this technique means the repetition of a thought, in literature the construction is used to emphasize the similarities or differences of objects. It is often used to emphasize the importance of a passage, and in literature it is used to emphasize the significance of something. In Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” the author writes:
Will I hear a gentle conversation?
This shining example parallelism as an emphasis that shows how important it is for the hero to hear and see his beloved.
Folklore
Parallels like artistic technique began to be used for the first time in texts ancient period. You can especially often find such parallel structures in folklore works, because in those days, people often identified their actions with events occurring in nature, and sought to reflect this in their works. They were used in:
- versification - the technique is an assistant for building and maintaining rhyme. It is in poetry that such a construction can often be found;
- The Bible and other examples of Hebrew literature - to vary similar images and in quality;
- ancient Germanic poems - in such works the technique is used simultaneously with alliteration;
- Finnish folk art - designs alternate with gradation.
Attention! The picture of nature in figurative parallelism is always the first, and after it is a display of relationships and actions between people.
Russian folklore is especially abundant in parallel constructions, in which the technique has several forms:
- binomial (the simplest form) - consists of two parallels “A falcon flew across the sky, a fine fellow walked around the world”;
- polynomial - these are several parallels that are located sequentially in the text;
- reverse parallelism is sequential sentences that differ in that the word order in the second is completely reversed from the first;
- negative - a person’s actions are opposed to any event from outside world“It was not the birch tree that bowed down, but the red maiden that bowed down at its feet”;
- formal - in this parallel the connection between the outside world and people’s actions is lost “I’ll put my ring in the river and my glove under the ice.”
Of all types, the negative form cannot act as an independent means, on which you can build an entire work. It is usually used to reveal the denouement or in individual episodes.
Moreover, this technique can be found more often in folk poetry, and in works of art only when the author uses it to imitate folk art.
In modern and classic literature This technique came from folklore. Parallelism in European literature borders on rhetorical oppositions and repetitions of similar sounds to achieve rhythm and create a certain sound effect.
Examples from fiction
Forms of parallelism in works can be expressed both in words and phrases, and in whole sentences. Poets use it especially often, because thanks to this technique you can not only enhance emotional coloring poems or passage, but also to make the work more rhythmic.
Examples of parallelism can be found in A.S. Pushkin:
“Will I see your bright gaze?
Will I hear a gentle conversation? in the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”;
“The stars shine in the blue sky,
In the blue sea the waves are lashing;
A cloud is moving across the sky,
A barrel floats on the sea" in the fairy tale "About Tsar Saltan".
From V. Bryusov:
"Your mind is as deep as the sea,
Your spirit is as high as the mountains" in the work "Experiments".
From G. Derzhavin: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” in the ode "God".
Attention! In fiction, parallelism is a creation of the author’s personal imagination to enhance the expressiveness of emotions.
Without lexical and semantic constructions, works of art would be more like clerical speech and dry science articles. Parallelisms are one of the forms that makes texts more vivid, focuses attention, draws parallels and conveys to the reader the thoughts and feelings of the author. This technique can be successfully used both in literature and for greater expressiveness of oral language.
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Syntactic parallelism
Representing the arrangement of speech elements that are identical or similar in grammatical and semantic structure in adjacent parts of the text, creating a single poetic image. Parallel elements can be sentences, their parts, phrases, words.
Folklore and ancient literature
Parallelism is widespread in folklore and ancient written literature. In many ancient systems in versification he acted as the principle of stanza construction. In ancient Germanic verse of the Middle Ages, parallelism has great importance and connects with alliteration, as well as rhyme.
Parallelism is widely used in Finnish folk verse, in particular Finnish epic"Kalevala", where it is connected with obligatory gradation:
He finds six grains
He raises seven seeds.
Parallelism is associated with the structure of the choral action - amoebic composition. Folklore forms of parallelism are widely used in artistic (literary) song (German: Kunstlied).
Russian folklore
The simplest type of parallelism in Russian folklore is binomial:
A falcon flew across the sky,
Well done, he walked around the world.
It is assumed that more complex types have evolved from binomial parallelism. Polynomial parallelism represents several successive parallels. Negative concurrency- one in which a parallel taken from the external world is opposed to human action, as if denying it:
It is not the white birch tree that bows to the ground -
The red maiden bows to the priest.
IN formal parallelism there is no (or lost) logical connection between the comparison of the external world and human actions:
I'll put the ring in the river,
And a glove for ice,
We signed up for the commune,
Let all the people judge.
Biblical texts
Parallelism - popular stylistic device V poetic texts The Old Testament, especially in the Psalter. Its essence boils down to the fact that two verses following each other, or two halves of one verse, express the same thought, while the second half complements or clarifies the thought expressed in the first half with other words (often other poetic images, metaphors), hence the term lat., adopted by biblical scholars. parallelismus membrorum, lit. parallelism of members [of grammatical construction].
For example:
May prayer be corrected like a censer before You,
Raising my hand is the evening sacrifice.
European literature
Written literatures of later times borrow parallelism from folklore and ancient written literatures. In particular, the development of parallelism is characteristic of ancient literature. Under the influence of this, parallelism is thoroughly studied in ancient rhetoric.
In European fiction, parallelism becomes more complex: its combination with anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus and other figures is widespread.
An example of parallelism with anaphora and antithesis: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” (Derzhavin.).
Forms of folklore are often reproduced in literature.
PARALLELISM - (from Greek- located or walking nearby) - compositional technique, emphasizing the connection of usually two or three elements of speech in work of art. These elements are arranged in parallel in adjacent phrases, poems, stanzas, due to which their commonality is revealed and a single poetic image is created. It is customary to distinguish several types of parallelism.
Syntactic parallelism occurs most often and consists in the fact that the same sentence structure is observed in adjacent verses. For example:
Only in the world is there a tent shady with slumbering maples. Only in the world is there that radiant, childish, thoughtful gaze. Only in the world is there a fragrant headdress for Sweetheart. Only in the world is there this pure parting running to the left. (A.A. Fet)
Stanzaic Parallelism consists in the fact that in adjacent stanzas of the poem the same syntactic and sometimes lexical structure is repeated. For example:
If you love, it’s crazy, If you threaten, it’s not a joke, If you scold, it’s rash, If you chop, it’s reckless! If you argue, it’s too bold, If you punish, then it’s a good thing, If you forgive, then with all your soul, If you feast, then it’s a feast! (A.K. Tolstoy)
Rhythmic parallelism is expressed in the fact that the motives of the poem are emphasized by the corresponding repetition of the rhythmic pattern. For example:
The garden is all in bloom, The evening is on fire, It makes me so refreshing and joyful! Here I stand, Here I go, As if I’m waiting for a mysterious speech. This dawn, This spring is so incomprehensible, but so clear! Am I full of happiness, Am I crying, You are my blessed secret. (A.A. Fet)
In addition to direct parallelism, negative parallelism is found in poetry:
It is not the cold winds that rustle, nor the quicksand that flows, but grief rises again, Like an evil black cloud.
This form of parallelism is often found in folklore, although it is also not uncommon in original poetry.
The meaning of the word Parallelism according to Efremova:
Parallelism - 1. Equal distance of lines and planes from each other throughout.
2. transfer The constant correlation and concomitance of two phenomena, actions. // Analogy, similarity, commonality characteristic features; repetition, duplication of smth.
The same syntactic and intonation structure of several sentences as poetic device(in poetry).
The same interval in the movement of voices during polyphonic singing (in music).
The meaning of the word Parallelism according to Ozhegov:
Parallelism - The concomitance of parallel phenomena, actions, parallelism
Parallelism in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
Parallelism - in poetics - an identical or similar arrangement of elements of speech in adjacent parts of the text, which, when correlated, create a single poetic image. Along with verbal-figurative, or syntactic, parallelism (“Waves splash in the blue sea. Stars sparkle in the blue sky” - A. S. Pushkin; see also Antithesis, Chiasmus) they talk about rhythmic, verbal-sound and compositional parallelism .
The meaning of the word Parallelism according to Ushakov’s dictionary:
PARALLELISM, parallelism, m. (see parallel) (book). 1. units only Equal spacing of lines and planes from each other throughout (mat.). 2. portable, units only The constant correlation and concomitance of two phenomena, actions. These facts indicate complete parallelism between improving student achievement and improving discipline. || Complete coincidence, correspondence in something. between different objects, repetition, duplication of something. Parallelism in the work of two institutions. 3. Identical arrangement of similar parts of a sentence in two or more adjacent sentences (lit.). || A poetic connection between individual images and motifs, expressed in their identical, parallel arrangement in two or several adjacent sentences (lit.), for example: a thread clings to the wall, Dounia hits her mother with her forehead (song).
Definition of the word “Parallelism” according to TSB:
Parallelism- paraphyly, parallel development, the principle of evolution of groups of organisms, which consists in their independent acquisition of similar structural features based on features inherited from common ancestors. Thus, during the evolution of equids in the Northern Hemisphere and fossil South American ungulates - litopterns, descending from a common five-toed ancestor, a parallel reduction in the number of fingers to one is observed. IN different groups saber-toothing arose in parallel among predatory mammals. P. is explained by the similar direction of natural selection acting on the initially diverged ancestral groups (see Divergence). Sometimes P. is defined as the convergence of closely related groups.
Parallelism - in poetics, identical or similar arrangement of speech elements in adjacent parts of the text, which, when correlated, create a single poetic image. Example: “Ah, if only there were no frosts on the flowers, And in winter the flowers would bloom; Oh, if I weren’t sad, I wouldn’t worry about anything...”
P. of this kind (an image from the life of nature and an image from the life of man) is common in folk poetry; sometimes it is complicated by the introduction of negation and other techniques (“Not an epic in an open field staggered - My homeless little head staggered...”). P. was mastered early written literature: The poetic style of the Bible is largely based on it; its development is the 3 most ancient figures of Greek rhetoric (isocolon - the similarity of the length of the members, antithesis - the contrast in the meaning of the members, homeochelevton - the similarity of the endings in the members). By analogy with the described verbal-figurative P., they sometimes speak of sound P. (alliteration, rhyme), rhythmic P. (strophe and antistrophe in Greek lyric poetry), and compositional P. (parallel storylines in a novel), etc.
M. L. Gasparov.