Chiasmus Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Chiasmus is a figure of speech based on inverted parallelism. It's a rhetorical figure in which a pair of clauses are related to one another through a reversal of terms, in order to make a larger point.
- Perhaps the most famous example of chiasmus is a quote by John F. Kennedy from his inaugural address: "...ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
- Jimmy Carter used it in his presidential farewell address: America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way round. Human rights invented America. [1]
- Dwight D. Eisenhower used chiasmus in a January 1958 speech to the Republican National Committee: What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
- A less-presidential example is from Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933): Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men.
- The physicist John Wheeler explained general relativity as, "Matter tells space how to curve. Space tells matter how to move."
Several examples of chiasmus exist in the Book of Mormon. The entire chapter 36 of the book of Alma is written in a chiasmus format. Many believe that such overt use of chiasmus was beyond the abilities of Joseph Smith, and is considered additional evidence for the truth of the ancient book.
Chiasmus is not limited to an exchange of words; it can also involve the exchange of letters or syllables:
- I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me (Than A Frontal Lobotomy)
The term derives its name from the X-shaped Greek letter chi (χ).
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