"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Chiasm

 
Chiasm (also known as chiasmus) is a figure of speech by which the order of words in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. The purpose is usually to create an additional point or emphasise something.

Perhaps an example is the easiest way of explaining a chiasm - "Weetabix: The Breakfast of Champions; The Champion of Breakfasts."

The adjective is chiastic. So the above was a chiastic sentence.
 
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1 comment:

  1. Omah's Helping Hands17 June 2009 at 03:24

    HUH? J/K Wow, had no idea. Thanks for the great info. Very fascinating.

    ReplyDelete

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