Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Higher Education Umm Al-Qura University College of Arts and Management Sciences Department of English

Parallelism in Selected Children’s 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 Sa’adi 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 /ð/ are the mostly used sound patterns, whereas alliteration of the affricate /dʒ/ 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: Supervisor: Dean of College: Aisha Sa'adi AL-Subhi Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar Dr. Anjab Ghulam Nabi Gutbaldeen

II

مستخلص الدراسة

بشكل أساسي و حصري على الدراسة اللغوية لنسق التوازي كأسلوب بالغي بارز يف شعر األسلوبيةتركز هذه الدراسةوتتبع هذه الدراسة املنهج األسلويب الشكلي والذي يركز على التراكيب الشكلية للنص األديب . إيلوي جرينفيلد لألطفالوهي تتناول بالبحث نسق التوازي الصويت والنحوي والداليل يف عينة تتألف من مخس . لفةيف املستويات اللغوية املخت

مث قدمت أنواع نسق التوازيوكشفت الدراسة عن . وعشرين قصيدة خمتارة من أشهر األعمال للشاعرة إيلوي جرينفيلد مدى التأثري البالغي لنسق التوازي على حتليال أسلوبيا لكل نوع من األنواع الثالثة مع قوالبه املتعددة من أجل توضيح

. القارئ الصويت والنحوي : املستويات اللغوية الثالثةيفوقد أكدت النتائج على الظهور البارز لنسق التوازي كأسلوب بالغي بارز

عن باإلضافة إىل ذلك كشفت الدراسة. وأوضحت الدراسة بأن تأثري نسق التوازي خيتلف على حسب كل نوع. والداليلأوضحت الدراسة بأن استخدام نسق التوازي الصويت هو ، فعلى املستوى الصويت. اختالفات يف املستويات اللغوية الثالثة

واتضح كذلك بأن القافية هي . من اموع الكلي لنسق التوازي% ٤٨السمة الغالبة على عينة البحث والذي يشكل ً و . املكسورة أن القافية املطلقة واملذكرة هي السائدة بينما فقدت القافيةأكثر قوالب نسق التوازي الصويت استخداما

االحتكاكي سائدا بينما ندر اجلناس اإلستهاليل لألصوات / الذال/التقرييب و / الواو/وكان اجلناس اإلستهاليل لصويت ة أكثر من األصوات الصائتة الطويلة وتبني أيضا أن األغلبية يف السجع الصويت حتققت مع األصوات الثنائية الصائت. املزجية

االنفجاريني أكثر / الدال/و / التاء/كان اإلنسجام الصويت يف املفردات املتوازية لصويت ، باإلضافة إىل ذلك. والقصريةحقق نسق التوازي النحوي مستوى مقارباً لنسق التوازي ، وعلى املستوى النحوي. استخداماً من بقية األصوات الصامتة

وبينت الدراسة بأن نسق التوازي الصريف أقل نسبيا من نسق . من اموع الكلي لنسق التوازي% ٤٠ويت و شكل الصوعلى . وعلى املستوى الصريف اتضح أن األمساء واألفعال أكثر استعماالً من الصفات واألحوال والضمائر. التوازي النحويو اجلمل اإلخبارية هي . المسية أكثر استعماال من أشباه اجلمل األخرىتبني أن التوازي بني شبه اجلمل ا، املستوى النحوي

ومن املتوقع أن اجلمل البسيطة املتوازية هي . النوع السائد بني التراكيب املتوازية بينما سجلت اجلمل التعجبية نسبة قليلةجي هو أكثر قوالب نسق التوازي وباإلضافة إىل ذلك فإن نسق التوازي اإلزدوا. السائدة بينما فقدت اجلمل املركبة

أوضحت النتائج بأن نسق التوازي الداليل أقل وجوداً من سابقيه وشكل فقط ، وعلى املستوى الداليل. النحوي تواجداً وتبني أيضاً أن الكلمات املتوازية املنضوية هي األكثر استخداماً و أن نسق. من اموع الكلي لنسق التوازي% ١٢

أن معظم قوالب نسق التوازي هومما يشد اإلنتبا. ي هو القالب الشائع بينما فقد نسق التوازي الرمزيالتوازي التكرار . الداللية تقابلية

يعد نسق التوازي ، لذلك. وقد أظهرت النتائج اإلمجالية بأن نسق التوازي يتواجد يف مستويات لغوية خمتلفة يف الوقت ذاتهوأخريا . توازية لألصوات واملفردات والتراكيب ومييز أسلوب الشاعرة إيلوي جرينفيلدأسلوب بالغي بارز يظهر القوالب امل

تتمىن الباحثة أن متهد هذه الدراسة الطريق للعديد من األحباث املستقبلية بإذن اهللا يف جمال أدب األطفال يف إطار علم . األساليب: عميدة كلية اآلداب والعلوم اإلدارية: املشرفة: الطالبة

أجنب غالم نيب قطب الدين. ر د بنجشادية يوسف سعد الدين. د عائشة سعدي رجاءاهللا الصبحي

III

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 Problem……………………………………………………………………4

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 Poetry…………………………………………………………………………………14

0.10. Eloise Greenfield: The Poet…………………………….………………..………………16

VI

Chapter One: Stylistics and the Notion of Parallelism

1.0. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………26

1.1. Style and Stylistics……………………………………………………………………………...26

1.2. Schools of Stylistics……………………………………………………………………………34

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 Repetition…………………………46

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

80 2.3.1.8. Triple Rhyme…………………………………….……………………………

81 2.3.1.9. Broken Rhyme………………………………………..………………………

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 /ð/……………….…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 /dʒ/……....…...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 /æ/ …….…………....……..….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. Assonance of the Long Vowel

/��/………………..…........……105

c. Assonance of the Long Vowel

/��/………………...……...……105

d. Assonance of the Long Vowel

/��/…………….…….................105

e. Assonance of the Long Vowel

/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 /ə�/………………..…..…………111

f. Assonance of the Diphthong /eə /………………………………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 / - /ŋ /…………….....…..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. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………248

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 Studies……………………………………………283

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 P………………………………………………Introverted Parallelism

InV ………………………………………………. Intransitive Verb

M P ……………………………………………… Morphological Parallelism

Neg ………………………………………………. Negative

N ………………………………………………… Noun

No. ……………………………………………….. Number

O ………………………………………………… Object

XIII

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, novel…etc) 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 reader’s 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 children’s poetry.

The present study is a modest contribution that aims at analyzing

selected children’s 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).

2

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

3

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 children’s poetry?

2- What are the different types of parallelism that are obvious in the

selected children’s poems?

3- How does parallelism contribute to the meaning of the poem?

4- How does parallelism characterize Eloise Greenfield’s style?

0.3. Reasons for Choosing the Topic The topic under study is chosen particularly for the following reasons: 1- The area of children’s literature especially children’s 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 children’s 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 children’s 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 children’s poetry in particular.

2- to analyze the selected children’s 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.

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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 children’s 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 children’s 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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 José María Arguedas' novel Los Ríos 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

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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

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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.

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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 AL-

Khalifah'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.

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