PARALLELISM

Question

Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women, whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.

Dont we need coloured parts to be parallel?
whose murals are brilliantly colored---> CLAUSE
their geometricalsymmetries embellished with old and new iconography--> PHRASE
in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.-->PHRASE.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

In my opinion, this example is okay.
I take the "their symmetries embellished" phrase/clause as parenthetical, or an appositive.

These paintings are brilliantly colored (embellished with etc.) and [are] in a new style.

The structure is correctly parallel, because both complements work with "are."

The fact that "colored" and "embellished" are both past participles/adjectives is irrelevant.
(The appositive doesn't enter into the "parallel" picture.)

They are spoiled (overindulged), and given to excess.
The "are" distributes to both "spoiled" and "given to excess." That's correct parallelism, I believe.

The parenthetical, or appositive "overindulged" refers only to "spoiled."

You might see it more clearly if you were to throw away the main clause and just deal with the "whose" clause.
I realize you're more concerned with the "clause vs. phrase" issue, but I don't think it applies here.

Whose murals are A1, A2, and B.

The bolds are all subject complements (complements of "are"). A2 is a substitute for A1.
So it's the complements A1 and B which must be parallel.

The phrase "B" does not need to be parallel to the clause "whose murals are A1."

Edit. This is crazy. The more I read it, the more I think the entire passage after "brilliantly colored" is one grand appositive.

pokhMargaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women, whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.

This whole underlined passage stands for "murals." (or "murals are brilliantly colored")

their geometrical symmetries embellished -

- with X and Y (modifies "embellished")

- and in a style etc. (modifies "embellished")

So where does that leave us on the question of parallelism?

pokhDont we need coloured parts to be parallel?

I'd say the simple answer is "No."

Sorry.

- A.

Pokh · Answer

Avangi, If it were an appositive, should the sentence not be as follows:

whose murals , their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house , are brilliantly colored---- but its bit awakward

For example consider the example below: All appositives modify immediately preceding nouns:

The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large cockroach with hairy legs, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large, hairy-legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.

Avangi · Answer

pokh whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.

pokh If it were an appositive, should the sentence not be as follows:
whose murals , their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house , are brilliantly colored

The appositive in the original DOES modify the immediately preceding noun.
There just happen to be a verb and its complements in between.

The cockroach is hungry, his sad little eyes focused intently on my bowl of oatmeal.

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