Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Ministry of Higher Education

Umm Al-Qura University
College of Arts and Management Sciences
Department of English

Parallelism in Selected Childrens Poems

by Eloise Greenfield: A Stylistic Study
A thesis submitted to the department of English in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of M.A. in
Linguistics
Presented by
Aisha Saadi AL-Subhi
Teacher's Assistant in Department of English
College of Arts and Management Sciences
Umm Al-Qura University

Supervised by
Dr. Shadia Yousef Saadu-Ldeen Banjar
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
College of Education- Humanities
King Abdul-Aziz University

Second Semester
1429-1430 H / 2008- 2009 A.D.

ABSTRACT
The present study is mainly stylistic and exclusively concentrates on the linguistic
analysis of parallelism as a stylistic device in Eloise Greenfield children's poetry. It
adopts a stylistic formalist approach that emphasizes the formal structures of a literary
text on different linguistic levels. It examines sound parallelism, grammatical
parallelism, and lexical/semantic parallelism in a corpus of twenty- five poems selected
from illustrious works of Eloise Greenfield's poetry. Each type is detected in the selected
poems, and then stylistically analyzed according to the patterns of parallelism in order to
illustrate how parallelism creates unexpected effects upon the readers.
The results of the study confirm the prominent existence of parallelism as
foregrounded regularities on the three linguistic levels: phonological, grammatical, and
semantic. They also show that the effect of parallelism varies according to the type of
parallelism. Furthermore, the study has recorded variations of parallelisms on the three
linguistic levels. On the phonological level, sound parallelism plays a dominant role over
other types of parallelism in the poems. It constitutes 48% out of all parallelisms. Rhyme
is the most frequently used pattern. Specifically, masculine rhyme and full rhyme are
predominant, whereas broken rhyme is completely absent. Alliteration of the
approximant /w/ and the fricative // are the mostly used sound patterns, whereas
alliteration of the affricate /d/ is rare. Assonance of diphthongs has dominance over
assonance of long and short vowels. Moreover, consonant parallels of the plosives /t/ &
/d/ are used more in comparison with other consonant parallels. On the grammatical
level, grammatical parallelism accomplishes a similar statue to sound parallelism and
scores 40% of all parallelisms. Morphological parallelism is less used than syntactic
parallelism. On the morphological level, parallel nouns and verbs are more frequently
used than adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns. On the syntactic level, parallel noun phrases
are the most frequent type. In addition, the declarative type of parallel constructions is
the dominant type, whereas exclamatory type is the least used. Not surprisingly, simple
parallel constructions are the prevailing used structure, whereas complex-compound
constructions are totally missing. Moreover, isocolon is the dominant pattern of
grammatical parallelism. On the semantic level, lexical/semantic parallelism shows a
much lesser existence with only 12% of all parallelisms. Hyponymous parallels show the
highest frequency. In addition, anaphoric parallelism is the prevailing pattern, whereas
emblematic parallelism is the absent pattern. Interestingly, most of the patterns of
lexical/semantic parallelism stand in contrast to one another. The overall results have
shown that parallelism activates on different linguistic levels simultaneously. Thus,
parallelism operates as a foregrounding device showing the regularities of sounds, words,
and structures that characterize the style of Eloise Greenfield.
Finally, this study hopes to pave the way for future avenues of investigations in the
world of children's literature under the category of stylistics.
Student:
Aisha Sa'adi AL-Subhi

Supervisor:
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

II

Dean of College:
Dr. Anjab Ghulam Nabi Gutbaldeen



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Table of Contents
Page

Abstract..... II
Acknowledgements...Iv
Table of contents...vI
List of Abbreviations...XIII
List of tables...XIV
List of figures.XIX

Introduction
0.0. Introduction...1
0.1. Organization of the Study..3
0.2. Statements of the Problem4
0.3. Reasons for Choosing the Topic..4
0.4. Objectives of the Study...5
0.5. Significance of the Study...6
0.6. Limitations of the Study.6
0.7. Review of literature....7
0.8. Data and Methodology..13
0.9. Children's Poetry14
0.10. Eloise Greenfield: The Poet...16

VI

Chapter One: Stylistics and the Notion of Parallelism

1.0. Introduction26
1.1. Style and Stylistics...26
1.2. Schools of Stylistics34
1.2.1. Formalist Stylistics.....37
1.2.2. Foregrounding Theory....38
1.3. The Notion of Parallelism...42
1.4. The Difference between Parallelism and Repetition46
1.5. The Rule of Parallelism.47
1.6. Types of Parallelism.51
Chapter Two: Sound Parallelism
2.0. Introduction.. 55
2.1. Sound Parallelism... 55
2.2. Sound Parallelism in the Selected Poems....57
2.3. Patterns of Sound Parallelism in the Selected Poems..67
2.3.1. Rhyme....... 67
2.3.1.1. Full Rhyme.... 68
2.3.1.2. Imperfect Rhyme....72
2.3.1.3. Identical Rhyme..73
2.3.1.4. Internal Rhyme.....74
2.3.1.5. Eye Rhyme...75

VII

2.3.1.6. Masculine Rhyme...........................................................................................75

2.3.1.7. Feminine Rhyme.............................................................................................79
2.3.1.8. Triple Rhyme. 80
2.3.1.9. Broken Rhyme.. 81
2.3.2. Alliteration....83
2.3.2.1. Alliteration of the Voiced Bilabial Plosive /b/....84
2.3.2.2. Alliteration of the Voiceless Alveolar Plosive /t/.....85
2.3.2.3. Alliteration of the Voiced Alveolar Plosive /d/..........86
2.3.2.4. Alliteration of the Voiceless Velar Plosive /k/....86
2.3.2.5. Alliteration of the Voiceless Labiodental Fricative /f/..............87
2.3.2.6. Alliteration of the Voiced Dental Fricative //.87
2.3.2.7. Alliteration of the Voiceless Alveolar Fricative /s/......88
2.3.2.8. Alliteration of the Glottal Fricative /h/...............89
2.3.2.9. Alliteration of the Voiced Bilabial Nasal /m/.......................90
2.3.2.10. Alliteration of the Voiced Alveolar Lateral /l/......91
2.3.2.11. Alliteration of the Voiced Alveolar Approximant / r/ ..91
2.3.2.12. Alliteration of the Voiced Velar Approximant /w/.92
2.3.2.13. Alliteration of the Voiced Alveo-Palatal affricate /d/.......93

2.3.3. Assonance.....97
2.3.3.1. Assonance of Short Vowels.........98
a. Assonance of the Short Vowel / /..........99
b. Assonance of the Short Vowel /e/..100

VIII

c. Assonance of the Short Vowel // ........101

d. Assonance of the Short Vowel / /......102
e. Assonance of the Short Vowel / /.......103
f. Assonance of the Short Vowel / /....103
2.3.3.2. Assonance of Long Vowels.......104
a.

Assonance

of

the

Long

Vowel

i /..........104
b.
/

the

Long

Vowel

Assonance

of

the

Long

Vowel

of

the

Long

Vowel

of

the

Long

Vowel

/......105
d.

of

/..........105
c.

Assonance

Assonance

/..................105
e.

Assonance

/u /..............106
2.3.3.3. Assonance of Diphthongs.......107
a. Assonance of the Diphthong /e
/.....107
b. Assonance of the Diphthong
/a /......108
c. Assonance of the Diphthong
/

/......110
d. Assonance of the Diphthong /a /....110

IX

e. Assonance of the Diphthong / /....111

f. Assonance of the Diphthong /e /111
2.3.4. Consonance......114
2.3.4.1. Consonance of the Alveolar Fricatives /s/ - /z/.....115
2.3.4.2. Consonance of the Alveo-Palatal Fricative / / & the Affricate /t

/...117

2.3.4.3. Consonance of the Alveolar Plosives /t/ & /d/....118

2.3.4.4. Consonance of the Nasals /m/ -/ n / - / /.......120
2.3.4.5. Consonance of the Alveolar Approximant /r/..121
2.3.4.6. Consonance of the Voiced Alveolar Lateral /l/.......121
2.4.The Effect of Sound Parallelism in the Selected Poems.125
Chapter Three: Grammatical Parallelism
3.0. Introduction...136
3.1. Grammatical Parallelism... 136
3.2. Grammatical Parallelism in the Selected Poems....138
3.2.1. Morphological Parallelism...138
3.2.1.1. Parallel Nouns.........................................................................................139
3.2.1.2. Parallel Verbs..141
3.2.1.3. Parallel Adverbs...144
3.2.1.4. Parallel Adjectives..........................144
3.2.1.5. Parallel Pronouns.146
3.2.2. Syntactic Parallelism.......150
3.2.2.1. Syntactic Parallelism on the Phrase Level...150
3.2.2.2. Syntactic Parallelism on the Sentence Level...153
X

3.2.2.2.1. Simple Declarative Parallel Sentences...155

3.2.2.2.2. Simple Negative Parallel Sentences.157
3.2.2.2.3. Simple Interrogative Parallel Sentences..........157
3.2.2.2.4. Simple Exclamatory Parallel Sentences.....158
3.2.2.2.5. Simple Imperative Parallel Sentences........................158
3.2.2.2.6. Compound Declarative Parallel Sentences....159
3.2.2.2.7. Compound Negative Parallel Sentences..160
3.2.2.2.8. Complex Declarative Parallel Sentences.....161
3.2.2.2.9. Complex Iinterrogative Parallel Sentences......161
3.2.2.2.10. Complex Imperative Parallel Sentences..162
3.3. Patterns of Grammatical Parallelism in the Selected Poems...164
3.3.1. Antithesis.................164
3.3.2. Chiasmus..165
3.3.3. Isocolon Parallelism......166
3.3.4. Tricolon Parallelism..169
3.3.5. Climax.......171
3.3.6. Ellipsis..........172
3.4. The Effect of Grammatical Parallelism in the Selected Poems....175
Chapter Four: Lexical/Semantic Parallelism
4.0. Introduction...194
4.1. Lexical/Semantic Parallelism........ 194
4.2. Lexical/Semantic Parallelism in the Selected Poems.......196
XI

4.2.1. Synonymous Parallel Lexical Items.........196

4.2.2. Antonymous Parallel Lexical Items..........197
4.2.3. Hyponymous Parallel Lexical Items.........198
4.2.4. Meronymic Parallel Lexical Items.........199
4.2.5. Paronymic Parallel Lexical Items.......200
4.2.6. Connotative Parallel Lexical Items...201
4.3. Patterns of Lexical/Semantic Parallelism......204
4.3.1. Synonymous Parallelism.......204
4.3.2. Antithetical Parallelism....209
4.3.3. Zeugma...212
4.3.4. Diazeugma....215
4.3.5. Anaphoric Parallelism....219
4.3.6. Epistrophic Parallelism..221
4.3.7. Polysyndeton..222
4.3.8. Asyndeton.........223
4.3.9. Syncrisis.........224
4.3.10. Synthetic Parallelism.........225
4.3.11. Introverted Parallelism.........226
4.3.12. Emblematic Parallelism......227
4.4. The Effect of Lexical/Semantic Parallelism in the selected Poems...230
Chapter Five: Conclusion
5.0. Introduction248
XII

5.1. Statistical Findings and Tabulated Results .... 248

5.1.1. The Phonological Level.252
5.1.2. The Grammatical Level..261
5.1.3. The Semantic Level...271
5.2. The Effect of Parallelism on Greenfield's Style...................................277
5.3. Concluding Statement...281
5.4. Recommendations for Further Studies283
Bibliography.286

List of Abbreviations
Adj. Adjective
Adv. Adverb
Art .. Article
Aux. Auxiliary
Be. Verb To Be
Comp Complement
Conj Conjunction
Det.. Determiner
Inf Infinitive
Iso P . Isocolon Parallelism
Int PIntroverted Parallelism
InV . Intransitive Verb
M P Morphological Parallelism
Neg . Negative
N

Noun

No. .. Number
O

XIII

Object

0.0. Introduction
The analysis of the language of literature has been the subject of study
for many linguists. Many linguists have accepted the usefulness of
linguistic theories and concepts in the study of literary texts. In this sense,
it is possible to say that stylistics examines the use of linguistics in the
analysis of literature. Stylistics is the branch of linguistics that studies the
use of language in specific contexts and attempts to account for the
regularities that mark the language use by individuals or groups. Stylistics
or what has been called "literary linguistics" is concerned with the
linguistic choices that distinguish genres (poetry, drama, noveletc) and
with the ways in which individual writers exploited language (Hancock
1986:446). This is both a linguistic and a literary exercise, since language
is the medium of literature and style contributes to meaning. Thus,
stylistics serves as a bridge between linguistic and literary disciplines.
According to McMenamin and Dongdoo 2000, linguistic stylistics is the
scientific analysis of individual style-markers as observed and identified in
the idiolect of a single writer. In fact, the present study tackles the notion
of parallelism as a unique style marker that is highly observed on different
linguistic levels in the poetry of the African-American poet Eloise
Greenfield. Parallelism is the most useful and flexible aspect of poetic
language (Leech 1969). It refers to the use of words, phrases, clauses, or
1

sentences that are similar in structure, in sound or in meaning. It is useful

in the sense that it allows a writer or speaker to hammer home an idea,
image, or relationship, and to force the reader or listener to pay attention.
It also imparts grace and power to literary writing. Moreover, it intensifies
the readers excitement and suspense. More importantly, the vital role
parallelism plays in poetry serves to convey the meaning of poetry more
comprehensively. In other words, it is basic to meaning. It is where
syntactic arrangement most deeply engages with reason. Thus, it is
fundamental to the logical structure of language. This poetic feature of
rhetorical beauty is most obvious in poetry and proverbs. The balance of
verse with verse, is an essential characteristic feature in childrens poetry.
The present study is a modest contribution that aims at analyzing
selected childrens poems by Eloise Greenfield for exploring parallelism on
different linguistic levels. It investigates the notion of parallelism which
characterizes the style of Eloise Greenfield in her children's poetry. It
adopts a stylistic analysis approach, which according to Davies & Elder: "a
way of applying linguistic models to literary texts that pays attention to the
formal features of the text" (Davies & Elder 2006: 332).

0.1. Organization of the Study

The study comprises an introduction and five chapters as follows:
The introduction presents the domain, the objectives of the study, data
and methodology, and finally the relevant studies.
Chapter one deals with the theoretical preliminaries and the main
concepts tackled in the study such as style, stylistics, formalist stylistics,
foregrounding theory, and parallelism.
Chapter two is devoted to the phonological level and the phonological
analysis of parallelism in Eloise Greenfield's poems. A comprehensive
investigation of all patterns of sound parallelism was made. The chapter
also examines the various effects which result from using patterns of sound
parallelism in the poems and shows how these patterns reinforce the poet's
message and enhance her art.
Chapter three deals with the level of grammar and the grammatical
analysis of parallelism in Eloise Greenfield's poems. A detailed analysis of
morphological and syntactic parallel structures as well as an investigation
of grammatical patterns of parallelism have taken place. The attention is
also paid to the numerous effects of grammatical parallelism in the poems.
Chapter four displays the semantic level and the analysis of
lexical/semantic parallelism in Eloise Greenfield's poems. In this chapter,
lexical parallels were discussed under the heading of semantics. Different

patterns of lexical/semantic parallelism were presented as well as the effect

this type of parallelism achieves in the analyzed poems.
Chapter five presents the statistical findings of this study. It also
provides the stylistic features of Eloise Greenfield's poetry and some
suggestions for further studies.

0.2. Statement of the Problem

The study will seek to answer the following research questions:
1- What is the vital role and the effect of parallelism as a foregrounded
stylistic device used in childrens poetry?
2- What are the different types of parallelism that are obvious in the
selected childrens poems?
3- How does parallelism contribute to the meaning of the poem?
4- How does parallelism characterize Eloise Greenfields style?

0.3. Reasons for Choosing the Topic

The topic under study is chosen particularly for the following reasons:
1- The area of childrens literature especially childrens poetry is one of the
most interesting areas to investigate.
2- Choosing to explore the linguistic patterns of parallelism is due to the
fact that parallelism is a strong foregrounded device that captures the
reader's attention, serves to deliver the writer's message, and marks the
4

style of any piece of literary writing.

3- Choosing Eloise Greenfield is due to the fact that she is one of the most
prominent African-American figures in childrens literature. She is possibly
the foremost African-American children's poet today. For over two decades,
Eloise Greenfield has been a steady voice for African Americans and for
children.
4- After checking King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and
the UMI Dissertations Express online as well as other electronic libraries
and universities, the researcher has found that no study has been done on
the chosen topic. Therefore, the researcher is prompted to conduct this
study.

0.4. Objectives of the Study

The main concern of the present study is to explore parallelism as a
significant stylistic device used in the selected childrens poems. However,
the main objectives behind conducting this study are:
1- to provide a full account of parallelism as a dominant stylistic device
used in literature in general and in childrens poetry in particular.
2- to analyze the selected childrens poems and identify the different
linguistic patterns of parallelism.
3- to illustrate the effect of parallelism on each poem.
4- to establish parallelism as one of the stylistic devices that characterizes
Greenfield's style.
5

0.5. Significance of the Study

It is a well-known fact that parallelism is one of the most noticeable and
significant rhetorical devices. It is nowadays accepted not only as a
traditional rhetorical device used in classical literature, but also as a
common feature of style that characterizes literary writing. In spite of this
fact, rhetorical devices in childrens poetry were given little attention in
most academic studies. Thus, the present work aims at drawing more
attention to the stylistic devices that characterize the style of Greenfield by
investigating parallelism in Greenfield children's poems.
Since stylistics is the interface between literature and linguistics, the
present study will hopefully add to literary studies as well as linguistic
studies. Moreover, the study will provide some insights into the nature of
the language of childrens poetry.

0.6. Limitations of the Study

There are two worth mentioning limitations of language analysis of the
poems under investigation: one author and one stylistic device. Thus, the
analysis is limited to the selected children's poems by Greenfield, and the
research is designed to get results that account for parallelism as a stylistic
device.

0.7. Review of Related Literature

Despite the vast literature on stylistic studies, few studies on parallelism
were carried out. Most of these studies examined parallelism in the Bible.
According to Berlin "Most biblical studies focused on parallelism. They
started as studies of biblical poetry, but sooner became studies of
parallelism" (Berlin 1992:18). However, the following studies are the most
relevant ones to the chosen topic.
J. F. Davis (1870) studied parallel structures in Chinese poetry. He
emphasized the importance of parallelism in Chinese verse. To him,
parallelism was the most interesting feature of all. Similarly, further
studies of parallelism in Chinese literature have been conducted following
the same path of Davis. These studies consider not only structural
parallelism but also phonological and rhythmical parallelism.
Riley Kernodle (1930) studied formal parallelism in Elizabethan drama.
Different patterns of repetition and parallelism in three plays: Eastward
Hoe, The Wild-Goose Chase, and Love's Labour's Lost were studied. The
study concluded that formal parallels are fairly obvious in drama and that
formal parallelism is of especial value to the playwright.
Jessie Brome Sackler (1972) in a study entitled "A Linguistic Technique
for Marking and Analyzing Syntactic Parallelism" used rhetorical texts to
determine a way in which rhetorical syntactic parallelism can be analyzed.
7

This study made it possible to compare parallel constructions according to

(1) the amount of parallelism as determined by the number of identical or
similar tagmas in each sentence, (2) the "depth" of each construction as
determined by the number of tagmas in the longest strand, (3) the "breadth"
of each construction as determined by the number of strands in each
construction, (4) the "effectiveness " of each construction as determined by
the number of variable tagmas, (5) the "strength" of each construction as
determined by the amount of lexical identity, and (6) the "rigor" of each
construction as determined by the number of identical rather than similar
tagmas in each.
Danielle Roemer (1982) focused on kindergarten-aged children's use of
parallel constructions in their peer storytelling which reflects children's
interest in the organizational principle of theme and variation. The study
showed that semantic and syntactic parallelism represent two of many ways
in which some youngsters employ theme and variation in their storytelling.
Also, the constructions give a sense of cohesiveness to narrative efforts and
provide a mechanism for organizing descriptions of the fictive world. The
study concluded that in using these parallel constructions the children hold
constant the stated and then implied syntactic frame as well as the central
idea of the meaning set, and variation develops as they consider the range
of phenomena that can be appropriately described within that central idea.

A very related study is conducted by Ruth Lichtmann (1982). This study

examined parallelism in the essays and poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins,
setting his use of parallelism against the context of its interpretation in
biblical criticism. Parallelism, a congruence of form and meaning,
encompasses for Hopkins recurrences on three levels: parallelism of
structure or sound, parallelism of expression, or metaphors and antitheses,
and parallelism of thought, or contemplation of the poem by the reader.
Parallelism is, then, the integrative principle or "inscape" of Hopkins'
poems. The study showed that parallelisms of resemblance create a
parmenidean unity of thought and expression, parallelisms of antithesis
create a heraclitean entropy and opposition. Both unity and antithesis were
fundamental to Hopkins' poetics, and the tension between them was only
resolved in the contemplative response to the poem. Parallelisms, of
resemblance and antithesis, evoke surprise, a response resembling Hopkins'
own "instress," an awe and self-emptying in the contemplation of nature.
Christine Massey et al (1983) conducted a study on Children's Sensitivity
to Stylistic Features in Literature. They examined children's sensitivity to
two kinds of stylistic features in literature: "poetic" and "syntactic"
features. Poetic features include parallelism, rhyme, meter and similes
while syntactic features include active/passive voice, subject/predicate

order, and clause structure. The study concluded that children revealed a
greater sensitivity to poetic than to syntactic features.
Roye Williams (1991) studied parallelism in the Hodayot from Qumran.
The study aimed to analyze parallelism in the Hodayot, thus grammatical
parallelism, semantic parallelism, internal parallelism, and ellipsis were
fully studied. The study concluded with statistical results that show the
congruence between grammatical and semantic parallelism and between
semantic and internal parallelism.
Welland Crowell (1994) examined the Iliad as a whole from the
standpoint of parallelism as a poetic means of creating significance. He
investigated rhetorical strategies involving relationships of similarity and
contrast. He argued that parallelism has a principal role in the coherent
organization of the Iliad. The study concluded that parallel patterns of
similarity and contrast contribute to the Iliad's structural design, narrative
unity and poetic power.
Luz Cortez (1999) examined the function of metaphor and parallelism as
constructive strategies in Jos Mara Arguedas' novel Los Ros Profundos.
In particular, it is claimed that the protagonist's quest for his own origin and
identity is used systematically as a primary semiotic component in both
types of construction. The theoretical framework assumed is essentially

10

based on Roman Jakobson's analysis of metaphor and parallelism in their

relationship to the poetic function of language. The work also drew upon
Christian Metz' clarification of the sintagmatic and paradigmatic
possibilities of metaphor. The study concluded that parallelism and
metaphor function as contributors to the poetic quality of the novel and as
formal devices in the general constructive strategy of the literary text.
Saisunee Visonyanggoon (2000) studied syntactic parallelism in Thai.
The researcher addressed parallel characteristics of the syntax of noun
phrases and clauses in Thai. The study showed that Thai noun phrases and
clauses are uniformly head-initial. Although the noun always appeared
before a classifier, the crucial evidence supporting the head-initial analysis
of noun phrases came from instances where nouns were modified by
'referential' adjectives or demonstratives, which the head-final approach
failed to account for. Therefore, the apparent head-final structure of the
noun phrase resulted from NP movement across the classifier. In addition,
the analyses of parallel clauses made use of the two tests, predicator and
negation. The study helped confirm the syntactic status of the data under
examination.

Pilar Somacarrera (2000) focused on the systematical study of

parallelism in Margaret Atwood's poetry. The use of this rhetorical scheme
in his poetry was related to three main functions: definition, balance and
11

reasoning. Through the rhetorical analysis of these functions, the researcher

argued that the poems were written with the persuasive intention of
undermining certain destructive myths which have prevailed in the
relationships between men and women.
Maria Scherre (2001) examined the role of phrase-level parallelism on
noun phrase number agreement in Puerto Rican Spanish and Brazilian
Portuguese. The study demonstrated that Puerto Rican Spanish and
Brazilian Portuguese exhibit more similarities than differences regarding
linguistic parallelism (i.e., the tendency of similar forms to occur together
within a stretch of discourse). A detailed analysis of Brazilian Portuguese
data was presented, and the results were compared with those found by
Poplack (1980a) for Puerto Rican Spanish. In conclusion, it was claimed
that the phrase-level parallelism effect on noun phrase number agreement
was embedded in a universal principle of linguistic use, parallel processing.
More recently, parallelism has been the subject of considerable Arabic
research:

For example, Essam Shartah (2005) studied some stylistic

features of Badwi AL-Jabal's poetry and among them are: deviation and
parallelism. Patterns and functions of parallelism and deviation were
indicated.

12

Adel AL-Zebadi (2007) investigated parallelism in a pre-Islamic verse at

three linguistic levels, phonological, morphological, and syntactical. He
adapted Jakobson's theory of parallelism in analyzing the verse. The study
had shown that parallelism is one of the most important devices of poetic
language and it played a crucial role in conveying the message of the poet.
Adam Yosef (2007) detected parallelism and repetition in Dakhel ALKhalifah's poetry. The study clarified the difference between parallelism
and repetition and stated that both are prominent stylistic devices that
characterized AL-khalifah's style.
To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been done on
parallelism as a main stylistic device used in children's poetry. Thus, the
present study is conducted as an attempt to account for parallelism in
Greenfield's poetry on different linguistic levels.

0.8. Data and Methodology

The data of the proposed study consist of twenty-five poems selected
from children's poetry by Eloise Greenfield which display parallelism.
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the language of the
selected poems will be analyzed stylistically. The analysis will detect the
different patterns of parallelism on different linguistic levels. Thus, all
forms of parallelism in the selected poems are going to be discussed on the
four microlinguistic levels, phonological, morphological, syntactic and
semantic.
13