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4.8. PARALLEL STRUCTURES 57• far, further, furthest, when you express distance, time, or in an abstractcontext. E.g.”In Chapter X, we will analyze this problem further” or ”This problemis further analyzed in Chapter X”4.8 Parallel structuresConjunctions and some special phrases are used to combine words, wordgroups (phrases), clauses or sentences. Here we concentrate on combiningparallel elements. A different structure is needed for combining a main clauseand a subordinate clause. → Section Sentences.Parallel structures are used to present parallel ideas.Parallel structure = words, phrases, clauses or sentences combinedby commas and/or conjunctions. Here we call the combined items asparallel items.• Parallel items are combined by parallel conjunctions (and, or, but, ...).• Notice that lists are also parallel structures!• Often the parallel structure lists alternatives or makes some kind ofcomparison: the items belong to the same or smilar classes or to twoopposite classes.• E.g.”Method X has several advantages: it is easy to implement, it worksin polynomial time, and it can use both numeric and categorial data.”contains two parallel structures: three advantages (”it is, it works, itcan”) in a list and ”both numeric and categorial data”4.8.1 Basic rulesThe parallel structure should be consistent in two ways• Semantically: the concepts referred by parallel items should be comparable,i.e. the comparison should make sense.