Chiasmus (хиазм)

This term denotes repetition of the same structure but with the opposite order of elements (a reversed version of syntactic parallelism/reversed parallelism). The second part of chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction. Thus, if the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order – SPO, the second one will have it inverted – OPS.

Down dropped the breeze,

The sails dropped down. (Coleridge)

In the days of old men made the manners;

Manners now make men. (Byron)

The cloud-like rocks, the rock-like clouds

Dissolved in glory float. (Longfellow)

The sea is but another sky,

The sky a sea as well (ibid)

Exercise I. From the following examples yon will get a better idea of the functions of various types of repetition, and also of parallel­ism and chiasmus:

1. I wake up and I'm alone and I walk round Warley and I'm alone; and I talk with people and I'm alone and I look at his face when I'm home and it's dead. (J.Br.)

2. Babbitt was virtuous. He advocated, though he did not practice, the prohibition of alcohol; he praised,—though he did not obey, the laws against motor-speeding. (S.L.)

3. "To think better of it," returned the gallant Biandois, "would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would be to be deficient in chivalry­ towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my character." (D.)

4. Halfway along the right-hand side of the dark brown hall was a dark brown door with a dark brown settle beside it. After I had put my hat, my gloves, my muffler and my coat on the settee w three went through the dark brown door into darkness without any brown in it. (W.G.)

5. I might as well face facts; good-bye Susan, good-bye a big car. good-bye a big house, good-bye power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Br.)

6. I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. (O.W.)

7. I wanted to knock over the table and hit him until my arm hi more strength in it, then give him the boot, give him the give him the boot—I drew a deep breath. (J.Br.)

8. Now he understood. He understood many things. One can be a per­son first. A man first and then a black man or a white man. (P. A.)

9.She stopped, and seemed to catch the distant sound of knocking. Abandoning the traveller, she hurried towards the parlour; in the passage she assuredly did hear knocking, angry and impatient knocking, the knocking of someone who thinks he has knocked too long. (A.B.)

11.When he blinks, a parrot-like look appears, the look of some heavily blinking tropical bird. (A.M.)

12.And everywhere were people. People going into gates and com­ing out of gates. People staggering and falling. People fighting and cursing. (P.A.)

13.Then there was something between them. There was. There was. (Dr.)

14.He ran away from the battle. He was an ordinary human being that didn't want to kill or be killed. So he ran away from the bat­tle. (St.H.)

15.Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the fi­nal stages, to the smells and stagnation of B. Inn Alley. (D. du M.)

16."Secret Love", "Autumn Leaves", and something whose title he missed. Supper music. Music to cook by. (U.)

17.Living is the art of loving.

Loving is the art of caring.

Caring is the art of sharing.

Sharing is the art of living. (W.H.Davies)

18. I came back, shrinking from my father's money, shrinking from my father's memory: mistrustful of being forced on a mercenary wife, mistrustful of my father's intention in thrusting that marriage on me, mistrustful that I was already growing avaricious, mistrustful that I was slackening in gratitude to the dear noble honest friends who had made the only sunlight in my childish life. (D.)

19. If you know anything that is not known to others, if you have any suspicion, if you have any clue at all, and any reason for keeping it in your own breast, think of me, and conquer that reason and let it be known! (D.)

20. I notice that father's is a large hand, but never a heavy one when it touches me, and that father's is a rough voice but never an an­gry one when it speaks to me. (D.)

21. From the offers of marriage that fell to her Dona Clara, deliber­ately, chose the one that required her removal to Spain. So to Spain she went. (O.W.)

22. There lives at least one being who can never change—one being who would be content to devote his whole existence to your hap­piness —who lives but in your eyes—who breathes but in your smile—who bears the heavy burden of life itself only for you. (D.)

23. It is she, in association with whom, saving that she has been for years a main fibre of the roof of his dignity and pride, he has nev­er had a selfish thought. It is she, whom he has loved, admired, honoured and set up for the world to respect. It is she, who, at the core of all the constrained formalities and conventionalities of his life, has been a stock of living tenderness and love. (D.)

ASSIGNMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

• What types of repetition do you know?

• Which type of repetition have you met most often? What, in your opinion, makes it so popular? >

• What constructions are called parallel?

• Have you ever observed chiasmus? What is it?

Stylistic Inversion

By inversion is meant an unusual order of words chosen for emphasis greater expressiveness. The notion of stylistic inversion is broader than the notion of inversion in grammar, where it generally relates only to the position of subject and predicate. Thus, in stylistics it may include the postposition of an adjective in an attributive phrase:

Adieu, adieu! My native shore

Fades o 'er the waters blue. (Byron)

A passionate ballad gallant and gay.... (A. Tennyson)

Little boy blue,

Come blow your horn (Nursery rhyme)

It may also refer to a change in the standard position of all other members of the sentence (Subject — Predicate — Object). Thus, in poetic language secondary members (object, adverbial modifier) may stand before the main members:

Yon sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in his flight. (Byron)

The sea is but another sky,

The sky a sea as well,

And which is earth and which is heaven,

The eye can scarcely tell! (Longfellow)

At your feet I fall. (Dryden)

As for the position of the predicate before subject, we may distinguish cases of 1) full inversion:

The cloud-like rocks, the rock-like clouds

Dissolved in glory float,

And midway of the radiant flood,

Hangs silently the boat. (Longfellow)

On goes the river

And out past the mill. (Stevenson)

On these roads from the manufacturing centres there moved many mobile homes pulled by trucks. (Steinbeck); Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mathew)

1. cases of partial inversion, usually when an adverbial modifier, object or a predicative begins the sentence and only part of the predicate comes before the subject:

Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep. (Milton); How little had I realized that, for me, life was only then beginning. (Christie); Many sweet little appeals did Miss Sharp make to him about the dishes at dinner. (Thackeray); Terribly cold it certainly was. (Wilde)