Faulty Parallelism
Definition:
In literature, the term ‘parallelism’ is used to refer to the practice placing together similarly structure related phrases, words or clauses. Parallelism involves placing sentence items in a parallel grammatical format wherein nouns are listed together, specific verb forms are listed together and the
suchlike. When one fails to follow this parallel structure, it results in faulty parallelism. The failure to maintain a balance in grammatical forms is known as faulty parallelism wherein similar grammatical forms receive dissimilar/unequal weight.
Example:
On the TV show The Simpsons, lead character Bart Simpson says, “they are laughing, not with me”.
Comments
7 comments postedNone of the previous comments use parallelism OR faulty parallelism correctly.
Bad: "They are laughing, not WITH ME." There is nothing for "with me" to parallel.
Good: "They are laughing AT ME, not WITH ME." The preposition and pronoun are repeated, helping the two phrases "parallel" each other.
Bad: "He liked to PLAY basketball and RIDING horses." These verbs are not in the same tense.
Good: "He liked to PLAY basketball and RIDE horses." These verbs are in the same tense.
Good: "He liked PLAYING basketball and RIDING horses." Again, same tense.
Faulty parallelism is something to be avoided.
Thank you! this helped a lot, but are faulty parallelisms a literary device or something to avoid?!?!
of course they are. they gave examples of FAULTY parallelism. so congratulations, you caught onto it SOMEWHAT.
all the boys to the yard, my milkshake brings
is it just reversed
No.
Approve of this, Yoda does.
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