Chiasmus in Context: A Cross-Linguistic Study of a Rhetorical Figure in Russian and French Literature

Abstract

This study explores the stylistic figure of chiasmus from a systemic perspective, viewing it as part of a microsystem of rhetorical figures based on syntactic parallelism and inversion. While traditional approaches have largely examined such figures in isolation and focused on their structural or grammatical features, this research emphasizes their stylistic and functional coherence within literary discourse. The study adopts a qualitative and comparative linguistic method, analyzing examples from Russian and French literary texts. These languages were chosen for their shared inflectional morphology but differing grammatical structures – Russian being primarily synthetic with flexible word order, and French analytical with fixed syntax. This contrast enables a typological comparison of chiasmatic constructions. The analysis involved three stages: structural classification of chiasms, examination of their rhetorical and pragmatic functions, and cross-linguistic comparison. Results reveal both universal tendencies and language-specific patterns in the structure and use of chiasmus. Russian chiasmi often appear more condensed and stylistically dense, frequently occurring at the phrase or word level. In contrast, French, with its fixed word order and more rigid syntactic rules, tends to favor chiasmus formations that are more regular, balanced, and extended across clause-level structures. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of chiasmus not only as a stylistic device but as a functional element within a broader rhetorical system, shaped by typological and cultural features of each language.