Chiasmus!

Chiasmus

Do you know what this is? If you did, you could impress your friends and colleagues with your knowledge of little known grammatical terms.

Chiasmus is a sentence where major parts of parallel phrases are inverted to make an interesting and powerful statement.

You already are familiar with chiasmus, even if you have never heard the term.

Probably the most famous chiastic sentence is from John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Speech:

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

By rearranging the “your country can do” and “you can do” phrases, you have a powerful and memorable sentence.

Dr. Mardy Grothe is the foremost collector of chiastic phrases, and the most ardent cheerleader for spreading the words of famous people in history who are known for chiastic, oxymoronic, and other interesting turns of phrase.

Check it out (scratch the surface) at www.chiasmus.com.

You can receive weekly emails from him that detail interesting people and their famous quotes.

He has published several books and has websites to learn more!

Try making your own! It’s fun!