Chapter 152Parallelism, Couplets, and Paired Expressions
Paired numbers, contrasting words, repeated structures, and their use in prose as well as verse.
152.1 Paired expressions
Parallel expressions repeat a grammatical pattern while changing part of its wording. Nakagawa distinguishes pairs with related meanings, contrasting meanings, and numerical expressions. He notes that many pairs can occur in either order Nakagawa (2024: 595–598, §25.4.1).
His examples include the intensifying pair wen cironnup / toy cironnup ‘bad fox / terrible fox’ and the contrasting kunne hene / tokap hene ‘night and day’. In another pair, carving an ordinary sword sheath and carving a treasured sword sheath evoke a peaceful domestic scene Nakagawa (2024: 595–596, examples 1277, 1280, 1284).
Endō describes such pairings alongside metaphor and formulaic expressions. Her account does not require matched lines to rhyme or assign every pairing a fixed composition rule Endō (2022: §4).
152.2 Two, three, and abundance
Pairs with tu ‘two’ and re ‘three’ commonly convey multiplicity. Nakagawa distinguishes repetition of a noun–verb sequence from two paired nominal expressions followed by a shared predicate Nakagawa (2024: 597–598).
‘Building two storehouses, building three storehouses…’
Nakagawa 2024: 597; Chitose, Example 1291
The passage describes a diligent woman's abundant harvest, requiring several storehouses. The paired numbers express abundance in that context.
The following embroidery formula instead shares a final predicate. Endō describes it as an exaggerated image of fine stitching Endō (2022: §4, example 16).
‘Two flashes of light, three flashes of light pass across.’
Endō 2022: §4, example 16; Nakagawa 1995: 45, s.v. imeru; Chitose, Shirasawa Nabe, recording N8709011.KY
Endō excerpts a longer formula in the Chitose dictionary, omitting its initial tu uturu. Kur denotes reflected light or shade here.
Nakagawa also gives the more elevated otu / ore pair and combinations with wan ‘ten’. Their interpretation depends on the expression. A two–three pair does not require the hearer to add the numbers into a literal total Nakagawa (2024: 598, examples 1294–1299).
152.3 Parallelism in prose
Paired expressions also occur in prose tales. Nakagawa's Chitose example repeats a whole clause with ‘old’ and ‘new’, describing signs that people live nearby.
‘There are traces of cutting old trees. There are traces of cutting new trees.’
Nakagawa 2024: 597; Chitose, Example 1289, citing Midoribon 1988:34
Nakagawa explicitly identifies this as prose, then supplies a verse counterpart as example 1290. That counterpart has additional words and different line divisions.
Another expansion repeats a noun before its positional expression: a=kor nupuri / nupuri tapka ‘my mountain / the mountain's summit’. Nakagawa describes this device in both verse and ornate prose. The repetition can distribute an expression across lines without adding another participant Nakagawa (2024: 599, §25.4.2).
Line length and accent are separate aspects of the performance, discussed in Chapter 151 (Sakehe, Refrains, and Verse Structure). Other grammatical expansions appear in Chapter 153 (Poetic and Elevated Language).