What is an example of a chiasmus?

What is an example of a chiasmus?

What is chiasmus? Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which the grammar of one phrase is inverted in the following phrase, such that two key concepts from the original phrase reappear in the second phrase in inverted order. The sentence “She has all my love; my heart belongs to her,” is an example of chiasmus.

What does chiasmus mean?

Definition of chiasmus : an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases (as in Goldsmith’s to stop too fearful, and too faint to go)

What is the plural of chiasmus?

Noun. chiasmus (countable and uncountable, plural chiasmi or chiasmuses)

Why would an author use chiasmus?

Chiasmus is an ancient literary device, as old as Hebrew scripture and ancient Greek verse. Its use in English literature is often a callback to those ancient origins, but just as often, it’s used as a simple way to add emphasis to a particular pair of phrases.

What’s the difference between chiasmus and antithesis?

In rhetoric, chiasmus is a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed. Note that a chiasmus includes anadiplosis, but not every anadiplosis reverses itself in the manner of a chiasmus.

What does it mean to remember chiasmus?

The word is Greek, and the “ch” is pronounced as a “k” as in “chaos,” “character,” “chameleon,” or “Christ.” The “i” is long. Ki-AS-mus. In a chiasmus, the first subject mentioned becomes the last one in the passage. It’s a type of inversion. The word means “crossing” in Greek.

What is Diacope in literature?

Diacope is a rhetorical device that involves the repetition of words, separated by a small number of intervening words. It comes from the Greek word thiakhop, meaning “cutting in two.” The number of words in between the repeated words of a diacope can vary, but it should be few enough to produce a rhetorical effect.

How do you come up with a chiasmus?

The structure of a chiasmus is pretty simple, so they aren’t difficult to craft. All you have to do is make up the first half of the sentence, and then flip a couple of words around for the second half.