What Is the Difference Between Chiasmus and Antimetabole s1

What is the difference between chiasmus and antimetabole?

Chiasmus is a literary or rhetorical device used for spicing up language, and making it more interesting. It reverses the order of modifiers, or simply sentence structure in two connected, called parallel, clauses. A simple example of chiasmus is the following:

He led bravely, and we bravely followed.

In the above case, the simple construction varies in the two clauses. In the first clause, the verb is followed by the adverb. In the second, the verb follows the adverb. This is AB, BA structure. A equals the verb, and B the adverb. The verbs in this case are led and followed and the adverb in both clauses is the word bravely.

Poetry and work from the Bible contains a number of chiasmus examples. The AB, BA structure can be complicated into an ABC,CBA structure as it is in the following quotation from Genesis 9:6. “He who sheds the blood of man, by man, shall his blood be shed.” In the first clause A= He who sheds, B =the blood, C = of man. In the second clause, C= by man, B = his blood, A = be shed.

Chiasmus can also reverse the order of letters for literary effect. For example, one could say: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but a waist is a terrible thing to mind.” In this case, homophones waste and waist sound the same, but have different meanings.

Chiasmus can also be implied only. For example the Kermit the Frog quote “Time’s fun when you’re having flies,” implies the parallel phrase, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It isn’t necessary to quote the parallel phrase in order to use chiasmus in this sense.

Phonetic chiasmus changes sounds in order to achieve the criss-cross structure of parallel clauses. One of the most famous of these is: “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.” Many jokes are built around phonetic chiasmus. For example, the joke: What’s the difference between a boxer and someone who has a cold? is answered with this chiasmus:

"The first one knows his blows And the second blows his nose."

One very specific form of chiasmus is called antimetabole. This is when the same words are used but in reverse order. The most recognizable antimetabole example in modern times is the famous John F. Kennedy quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” What your country can do for you, is mixed up but contains all the same words that are in what you can do for your country.

Antimetabole is a type of chiasmus, but not all chiasmus is a type of antimetabole. Hopefully you caught that sentence as a chiasmus and an antimetabole. Since repetition can form such an interesting part of speeches and writing, chiasmus definitely can be found in numerous places, and you can practice using it in your own work for emphasis, humor, or greater effectiveness

Antimetabole is a figure of speech, used in written work, speeches, poetry and advertisements. It is a form of chiasmus, and the word comes from the Latin anti, which means "against" or "opposite," and metabole, which translates to "turn around" or "about." In antimetabole, a person uses the same words in two independent clauses but in reverse or changed order. The second clause shifts emphasis or the meaning of the first clause, by reversing the words.

Often in antimetabole, the direct object of the subject is reversed. It becomes the subject of the subsequent clause. The most famous antimetabole in modern speech is John F. Kennedy’s: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." From a grammatical sense, the direct object “for you” in the first clause, becomes the subject “you” in the second. The subject “your country,” in the first clause, becomes the direct object “for your country" in the second clause. As you can also see from this example, emphasis in the second clause results in a person not wondering what they will get but wondering what they can give. Stress is placed on the second clause, and you can even hear it in the delivered speech, which was recorded. Its effect was to place focus on the contribution Americans might make to their world.

Sometimes an antimetabole doesn’t necessarily change meaning. From Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who the quote, “I meant what I said and I said what I meant,” is antimetabole that really doesn’t alter meaning. Emphasis placed on both clauses as Horton assures his listener that he is “faithful 100 percent.”

Political speeches remain one of the most frequent sources from which we glean antimetabole examples. Winston Churchill used them frequently. The next two antimetabolic quotes are his: ”Let us preach what we practice—Let us practice what we preach.” “It is not even the beginning of the end but is perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

President Ronald Reagan, the great communicator, used antimetabole often, as in this example: “East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed; we’re armed because we mistrust each other.”

In Jesse Jackson’s address to the Democratic Convention in 1984, he offers this antimetabole: “But just because you're born in the slum doesn’t mean the slum is born in you” .

An antimetabole can also imply humor as it does in the quote attributed to Samuel Johnson in Boswell’s Life of Johnson: “This man I thought had been a Lord among wits, but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords.”

You can also find antimetabole in advertisements, as with this next advertisement for Starkist Tuna: “Starkist doesn’t want tuna with good taste. It wants tuna that tastes good.” .

In literature, antimetabole can become high-toned and steeped with meaning. Shakespeare’s lines from Twelfth Night are an excellent example: ”Virtue that transgressed is but patch’d with sin, And sin that amends is but patch’d with virtue.”

Being aware of the many examples of antimetabole around you can heighten your enjoyment of the different rhetorical vices that we commonly employ. It’s also an impressive word to know, merely because so many people are not aware that this reverse repetition is actually a defined form of speech.

What else do you notice about the structural changes between antimetabole and chiasmus?

What are some key differences between chiasmus and antimetabole?