The Bilingual Chiasmus: A Unique Rhetorical Device for “Knotting” Words in Sumerian-Akkadian Literature

IF 0.6 1区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES Pub Date : 2022-10-01 DOI:10.1086/721351

Beatrice Baragli

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Abstract

The chiasmus is one of the most widespread rhetorical devices in world literature, and it appears in most languages. However, a completely different type of chiasmus is also possible: a chiasmus between different languages. Since multilingual compositions are less common, the bilingual chiasmus has not previously been researched in detail. The present paper analyzes this newly-discovered rhetorical device, exploring its applications in some Sumerian-Akkadian compositions and its relevance for the bilingual literature of the first millennium. Before we set out to analyze this further, I present a short overview of the unilingual chiasmus. The structure of the unilingual chiasmus is quite simple, consisting of the inversion of two pairs of words often arranged in two lines. Its etymology comes from the Ancient Greek χιάζω, “to shape like the letter χ”: in this way, two couples of words or word clusters are connected like a χ: AB // BA. The chiasmus applies to different grammatical entities: nouns and adjectives are the most common, but it also occurs with verbs and preposition.1 Some scholars, especially those outside of ancient Near Eastern studies, tend to distinguish between different types of chiasmi. The first, very simple type reverses two identical words pairs, as happens, for example, in Gilgameš, Enkidu and the Netherworld (lines 8–9) between an, “heaven,” and ki, “earth”:

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双语交错:苏美尔-阿卡德文学中“打结”词的独特修辞手段

交错是世界文学中使用最广泛的修辞手法之一，在大多数语言中都有出现。然而，一种完全不同类型的交错也是可能的:不同语言之间的交错。由于多语作文并不常见，因此对双语交叉现象的研究较少。本文分析了这种新发现的修辞手法，探讨了它在一些苏美尔-阿卡德语作品中的应用，以及它与第一个千年的双语文学的相关性。在我们开始进一步分析这个问题之前，我先简要介绍一下单语交叉。单语交叉的结构很简单，由两对词的倒装组成，通常排成两行。它的词源来自古希腊语χι ζω，“形状像字母χ”:这样，两对单词或词簇就像χ一样连接起来:AB // BA。交错法适用于不同的语法实体:名词和形容词是最常见的，但它也发生在动词和介词上一些学者，特别是那些不从事古代近东研究的学者，倾向于区分不同类型的交错。第一种，非常简单的类型颠倒了两个相同的单词对，例如，在吉尔加梅斯，恩基都和阴间(第8-9行)中，an，“天堂”和ki，“地球”之间发生的情况:

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来源期刊

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES Multiple-

CiteScore

1.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Devoted to an examination of the civilizations of the Near East, the Journal of Near Eastern Studies has for 125 years published contributions from scholars of international reputation on the archaeology, art, history, languages, literatures, and religions of the Near East. Founded in 1884 as Hebraica, the journal was renamed twice over the course of the following century, each name change reflecting the growth and expansion of the fields covered by the publication. In 1895 it became the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, and in 1942 it received its present designation, the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. From an original emphasis on Old Testament studies in the nineteenth century.