Figures of parallelism
Parallelism is a basic organization mode for discourse, and as such can take place on a large scale (affecting the arrangement of an entire unit of discourse) or a small one. As a figure, parallelism is also blended readily with other strategies, to produce a variety of effects. All of the following figures employ parallelism in one fashion or another:
Homoioptoton -The repetition of similar case endings in adjacent words or in words in parallel position
Zeugma - One part of speech governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in parallel series).
Diazeugma -The figure by which a single subject governs several verbs or verbal constructions (usually arranged in parallel fashion and expressing a similar idea).
Syllepsis - When a single word that governs or modifies two or more others must be understood differently with respect to each of those words. A combination of grammatical parallelism and semantic incongruity.
Isocolon -A series of similarly structured elements having the same length.
Homoioteleuton -this involves a similarity of endings of adjacent or parallel words.
Climax -Generally, the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in a parallel structure.
Syncrisis -Comparison and contrast in parallel clauses.
Tricolon -Three parallel elements of the same length occurring together in a series.
See Also Figures of Balance
Acknowledgement
The above information on individual rhetorical techniques is reproduced from the website “Silva Rhetoricae” (www.rhetoric.byu.edu ) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Credit for this content lies with Professor Gideon O Burton of Brigham Young University.