[Lexicog] Re: When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[bolstar1]

John: I'm still chuckling over your example with Popeye. It seems 
that word order here is the order of the day, rather than function 
per se. There's a whole book of Chiasmus's, and I forget the name of 
the author -- but I've been meaning to get ahold of it for screening. 
Perhaps the most noteworthy use of chiasmus is "Ask not..." (and you 
know the rest of the line). (NOTE: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was the 
first to use the rh. device with that issue: "It is now the 
moment...to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to 
ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return." then Warren 
Harding chimed in with: "We must have a citizenship less concerned 
about what the government can do for it and more anxious about what 
it can do for the nation."
 
Scott Nelson

--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, John Roberts 
<dr_john_roberts at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> bolstar1 wrote:
> > "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit." Is this the use of 
> > antistrophe or chiasmus? Well, here the use, or frequency of use, 
> > would take precedence over any particular dictionary, 
because "it's 
> > all one" according to the dictionaries. My gut tells 
me "chiasmus," 
> > but the OneLook Reverse Dictionary doesn't list it 
under "inverse," 
> > but it does list "antistrophe" (both alluding to the reverse 
order of 
> > parallel phrases.)
> I am not sure if this is antistrophe or chiasmus. Your expression 
has 
> ADJ + N and ADJ + N. So where is the reverse of grammatical 
categories? 
> It is like in the Popeye cartoon:
> 
> Olive Oil to Popeye "Your awful pretty."
> Popeye to Olive Oil "I think your pretty awful too."
> 
> John Roberts
> 
> 
> -- 
> ********************
> John R Roberts
> SIL International Linguistics Consultant
> dr_john_roberts at ...
> ********************
>




 
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