英文常见的修辞格.doc

常见的修辞格Simile （明喻）Simile is a figure of speech involving a comparison between two or more things which are essentially different but have at least one property or characteristic in common.Words like as, as.as, as if, as though,( just) as. so, and like are the commonly used expressions to make the comparison.In writing the writer may compare something abstract to something concrete, something remote to something proximal, something unfamiliar to something familiar, and so forth.e.g. That man cant be trusted. Hes as slippery as an eel. The old mans hair is as white as snow.Metaphor（暗喻/隐喻）Metaphor involves a comparison between two or more unlike things which share at least one property or characteristic, but the comparison is not explicitly stated. Instead, it is implied or condensed.e.g. There were a few lordly poplars（白杨树）before the house. He often prefaced his remarks by “I cant help thinking” the leg of a tablePersonification (拟人)Personification is a figure of speech that gives human attribute or feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and abstractions. It can make the description more vivid and more impressive.e.g. This time fate is smiling to him. Dusk came stealthily.Metonymy (换喻)Metonymy involves the change of name. In other words, this figure of speech involves the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. The substituted name may be an attribute of the other thing or be closely related with it.e.g. When the war was over, he laid down the sword and took up the pen. His purse would not allow him that luxury.Synecdoche（提喻）Synecdoche, in contrast to metonymy, is a substitution of the part for the whole and the whole for the part.e.g. The farms were short of hands during the harvest season. Germany beat Argentina 2 to 1 in this exciting football match.Euphemism (婉言)Euphemism is a figure of speech which involves the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. The topics most likely to be substituted are illnesses, death, old age, toilet habits, poverty and unemployment, menial jobs or professions of low social standing, political and military activities, and so on.e.g. to dieto pass away; to leave us old peoplesenior citizens mademotionally disturbed dustmansanitation worker Lavatorybathroom; mens/womens room Invasionmilitary actionHyperbole (夸大、夸张)Hyperbole is a figure of speech which involves a deliberate use of exaggeration to achieve emphasis.e.g. She is dying to know what job has been assigned her. On hearing that he had been admitted to that famous university, he whisperedto himself, “Im the luckiest man in the world.”Understatement (缩小)Understatement is just the opposite of hyperbole. It achieves emphasis by deliberately understating a fact.e.g. It took a few dollars to build this indoor swimming pool. “He is really strange,” his friends said when they heard he had divorced his pretty and loving wife.Transferred epithet (移位修饰)Transferred epithet is a figure of speech where an adjective or descriptive phrase is transferred from the noun it should modify to another to which it does not really apply or belong.e.g. She was so worried about her son that she spent several sleepless nights. The assistant kept a respectful distance form his boss when they were walking in the corridor. He said “Yes” to the question in an unthinking moment. The old man put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.Oxymoron (矛盾修饰) Oxymoron is a compressed paradox, involving the co-occurrence of two contrasting, contradictory or incongruous terms.e.g. She read the long-awaited letter with a tearful smile. When the news of the failure came, all his friends said that it was a victorious defeat.Alliteration(头韵)A sequence of words beginning with the same sound, especially as used in poetry.e.g. I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding onlike a swarm of crawling locusts. The Russian danger is therefore our danger, just as the cause of any Russian fighting for his hearth and home is the cause of free men and free peoples in every quarter of the globe.Pun (双关)Pun is a figure of speech involving a play on the form and meaning of words. It is usually amusing and makes your writing more colorful.e.g. One swallow doesnt make a summer, but it sure warms you on a cold winter day. - What are the differences between men and women? - Can you conceive?Irony (反讽、反语)Irony is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis or amusing effect by saying the opposite of what is meant or intended.e.g. a very fat man - “skinny” a very thin man - “fat”. “Oh, how I enjoy the freezing weather!” （Actually they hate it. ）Paradox (似非而是)Paradox is a figure of speech where a seemingly self-contradictory and absurd statement or proposition is used to express something which is true, well-founded or succinct. This is a twisted expression, so the reader can only arrive at its real meaning upon further thinking.e.g. The Child is father of the Man. I can resist anything but temptation.Parallelism (平行)Parallelism is a rhetorical device which employs the deliberate arrangement of a succession of parallel construction to achieve emphasis.e.g. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with Gods help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its people from his yoke.Antithesis (对立)Antithesis is a figure of speech where contrasting words or ideas are deliberately ar