Chiasmus

Abstract

Chiasmus is defined as a grammatical figure consisting of two parallel clauses, in which the order of elements in the second clause inverts the order of the first: when the going gets tough, the tough get going: ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Chiasmus is so-named from the Greek χιαζω, meaning to mark with a sign of the letter χ, chi. The optic chiasm, located at the bottom of the brain immediately below the hypothalamus, is the place where the nerves from the eyes partially cross over each other, sending images from the right eye to the left hand side of the brain and vice-versa. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, χ is the symbol for what is known as the voiceless uvular fricative. This sound is made by vibrating the uvula, the little pendulous flap that hangs down from the soft palate. The related sign X is marks the voiceless velar fricative, a slightly thinner sound, made by vibrating the soft palate just in front of the uvula. Phonology distinguishes a number of voiceless fricatives formed at the back of the mouth: the voiceless epiglottal fricative; the voiceless pharyngeal fricative (Hebrew chet); the voiceless uvular fricative (French roche); the voiceless velar fricative (Spanish agua) and the voiceless palatal fricative (English hue).