8.英语常见修辞.doc

英语常见修辞Figures of speech (修辞)are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively. Now we are going to talk about some common forms of figures of speech.1. Simile：(明喻）It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic (特性) in common. To make the comparison, words like as, as.as, as if/though, seem to be, resemble and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other. For example, As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.She spoke hurriedly, as if her heart had leaped into her throat at the boys words.Oh my only friend, my best beloved, the gates are open in my house-do not pass by like a dream. (Tagore)The policeman talks like a book/speaks as eloquently as Socrates. 2.Metaphor：(暗喻）It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. For example, the world is a stage.an iron curtain has descended across the continent. (Winston Churchill)The depressed young mans spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism.With this faith we will be able to hew our off the mountain of despair a stone of hope.(Martin Luther King)3. Analogy: (类比）figure of speech in which the common characteristics of two different things are compared.(It is also a form of comparison, but unlike simile or metaphor which usually uses comparison on one point of resemblance, analogy draws a parallel between two unlike things that have several common qualities or points of resemblance.)A skilful carpenter, on the other hand, will drive home the nail with a few firm, deft blows, hitting it each time squarely on the head.So with language; the good craftsman will choose words that drive home his point firmly and exactly.Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flower.Food is to our body what books are to our mind.Freedom is to slaves what air is to life. 4. Metonymy (转喻） It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. For instance, Washington stands for the United States government, the sword for military power. The pen (words) is mightier than the sword (forces).Substitution of cause for effect or vice versa or proper name for quality or vice versaSo Winston Churchill wrote to his wife during WWII, I cant tell you how we are coming but were coming by puff-puff. 喷气声 5. Synecdoche (提喻） It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or vice versa; the individual for a class or vice versa; a material for a thing or vice versa. For instance:They say theres bread and work for all. She was dressed in silks. The farmers needs more hands than usual when the harvest season is around the corner. Give us this day our daily breadHe has to struggle to earn his daily bread by doing odd jobs. Fate at long last favoured Jane Eyre, a poor creature. The U.S. won fie gold medals.Germany beat Argentina 2 to 1 in the final.The harbour is crowded with masts. The businessman is a mixture of the fox and the tiger.The president was cut-throated. Great minds think alike.The couple have lived under the same roof for 50 years.Hester Prynne is good at her needle. In the final match, England has won. 6. Antonomasia (换喻）It has also to do with substitution. It is not often mentioned now, though it is still in frequent use. For example, Solomon for a wise man. Daniel for a wise and fair judge. Judas for a traitor.7. Personification: (拟人）It gives human form of feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes(赋予) to inanimate(无生命的) objects, or to ideas and abstractions(抽象). For example, The wind whistled through the trees.Youth is wild and Age is tame. (W. Shakespeare)Ignominy, Want, Despair and Madness have, collectively or separately, been the attendants of my career. (Dickens)The dog sated carefully at me and wagged his tail. Wall has ears.8. Hyperbole: (夸张） It is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis. For instance:He almost died laughing.I will love you still till all seas have gone dry; I will love you still till rocks have melted with the sun. (Robert Burns)9. Understatement: (含蓄陈述） It is the opposite of hyperbole, or overstatement. It achieves its effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately(故意地) understating it, impressing the listener or the reader more by what is merely implied or left unsaid than by bare statement. For instance:It is no laughing matter.(Its very serious.)Antonym is not without ambition.If the regime is out of power, no tear is to be shed. The young man is no fool. 10. Euphemism: (委婉） It is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive(无冒犯) expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. For instance, we refer to die as pass away.11.Pun: (双关语） It is a play on words, or rather a play on the form and meaning of words. For instance:A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms. (Here arms has two meanings: a persons body; weapons carried by a soldier.)Seven days without water made one week(weak).12. Syllepsis: (一语双叙） It has two connotations. In the first case, it is a figure by which a word, or a particular form or inflection of a word, refers to two or more words in the same sentence, while properly applying to or agreeing with only on of them in grammar or syntax(句法). For example, He addressed you and me, and desired us to follow him. (Here us is used to refer to you and me.)In the second case, it a word may refer to two or more words in the same sentence. For example, while he was fighting , and losing limb and mind, and dying, others stayed behind to pursue education and career. (Here to losing ones limbs in literal; to lose ones mind is figurative, and means to go mad.)13. Zeugma: (轭式搭配） It is a single word which is made to modify or to govern two or more words in the same sentence, wither properly applying in sense to only one of them, or applying to them in different senses. For example, The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night. (Here noon is not strong enough to burn)A construction in which a single word, especially a verb or an adjective, is applied to two or more nouns when its sense is appropriate to only one of them or to both in different ways, as in He took my advice and my wallet. 轭式搭配法：用一个词，特别是动词或形容词，用来修饰两个或更多的名词的构成法。而这种修饰只适用于其中一个词或不同方式的两个词，例如他接受了我的建议和我的钱包共轭支配(指以一形容词或动词勉强修饰或支配两个名词的方法, 如 wage war and peace 一语中 wage war 是合逻辑的, 但 wage peace 则不合逻辑)14. Transferred Epithet: (转类形容词/移就格） It is a figure of speech where an epithet (an adjective or descriptive phrase) is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify(修饰) to another to which it does not really apply or belong. For instance, I spent sleepless nights on my project.15. Syllepsis.兼用法 One verb is made to govern several objects, each in a different way:Her thou, great Anna! Whom three realms obey.Dost sometimes counsel take - and sometimes Tea. 16. hyposeuxisEvery clause in a sentence has its own subject and verbMadame, the guests are come. Supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry. And everything in extremity. 17. Irony: (反语） It is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense. For instance, we are lucky, what you said makes me feel real good.18. Innuendo: (暗讽） It is a mild form of irony, hinting in a rather roundabout (曲折)way at something disparaging(不一致) or uncomplimentary(不赞美) to the person or subject mentioned. For example, the weatherman said it would be worm. He must take his readings in a bathroom.19. Sarcasm: (讽刺） It Sarcasm is a strong form of irony. It attacks in a taunting and bitter manner, and its aim is to disparage, ridicule and wound the feelings of the subject attacked. For example, laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps break through.20. Paradox: (自相矛盾的话） It is a figure of speech consisting of a statement or proposition which on the face of it seems self-contradictory, absurd or contrary to established fact or practice, but which on further thinking and study may prove to be true, well-founded, and even to contain a succinct point. For example more haste, less speed. 21.Oxymoron: (矛盾修饰） It is a compressed paradox, formed by the conjoining(结合) of two contrasting, contradictory or incongruous(不协调) terms as in bitter-sweet memories, orderly chaos(混乱) and proud humility(侮辱).icy hot, darkness visible, act naturally22. Epigram: (警句） It states a simple truth pithily(有利地) and pungently(强烈地). It is usually terse and arouses interest and surprise by its deep insight into certain aspects of human behavior or feeling. For instance, Few, save the poor, feel for the poor.23. Parody24. cliche25. parallelism26. Antithesis: (对照） It is the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in balanced structural forms to achieve emphasis. For example, speech is silver; silence is golden.27. Climax: (渐进） It is derived from the Greek word for ladder and implies the progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of significance or intensity, like the steps of a ladder ascending evenly. For example, I came, I saw, I conquered.mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel constructionSo a Victorian schoolmaster rebuked(criticize) a dilatory(拖拉的tending to postpone or delay:) student who wouldnt learn Latin vowel quantities: If you dont take more pains, how can you ever expect to write good longs and shorts? If you dont write good longs and shorts, how can you ever be a man of taste? If you are not a man of taste, how can you ever be of use in the world?28. Anti-climax or bathos: (突降）It is the opposite of Climax. It involves stating ones thoughts in a descending order of significance or intensity, from strong to weak, from weighty to light or frivolous. For instance, But thousands die, without or this or that, die, and endow(赋予) a college, or a cat.29. Apostrophe： (顿呼） In this figure of speech, a thing, place, idea or person (dead or absent) is addressed as if present, listening and understanding what is being said. For instance, England! awake! awake! awake!apostrophe: breaking off a speech or conversation to address a person or thing absent:Mother, dear, you should have lived to see this!The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition.呼语：直接称呼不在场或虚构的人物或称呼拟人的事物，尤指作为演讲或作文过程中的离题话30. Alliteration: (头韵） It has to do with the sound rather than the sense of words for effect. It is a device that repeats the same sound at frequent intervals(间隔) and since the sound repeated is usually the initial consonant sound, it is also called front rhyme. For instance, the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.31. Onomatopoeia: (拟声） It is a device that uses words which imitate the sounds made by an object (animate or inanimate), or which are associated with or suggestive(提示的) of some action or movement.32. binominal:成对搭配33. alloiosis: breaking down subject into alternativesYour tax accountant, on the pros and cons (赞成与反对的理)of taking a chancy deduction You can either eat well or sleep well.34. aporia： true of feigned doubt or deliberation about an issue A figure of speech in which the speaker expresses or purports to be in doubt about a question.窘迫，困惑：修辞方法，说话者表示或表明对问题存有疑问Dora is rather difficult to-I would not for the world, say, to rely upon, because she is the soul of purity and truth- but rather difficult to- I hardly know how to express it, really, Agnes. 35. anadiplosis: rhetorical repetition at the beginning of a phrase of the word or words with which the previous phrase ended; for example, He is a man of loyaltyloyalty always firm. Rely on his honour, honour such as his? 联珠法，前词递接法：一种修辞方法，连续两个短句中，后一句句首修饰性地重复前一句句尾某个词或词组；例如，他为人忠诚忠诚不移 36. Repetition、reduplication31. anaphora首语重复The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs; for example,首语重复：同一单词和短语重复出现在连续数句、数段或数行诗的开头；如：“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills”(Winston S. Churchill)“我们要在海滩上战斗，我们要在陆地上战斗，我们要在田野和街道上战斗，我们要在群山里战斗”(温斯顿S.丘吉尔)It is the most grievous consequence of what we have done and of what we have left undone in the last five years-five years of futile good intentions, five years of eager search for the line of least resistance , five years of uninterrupted retreat of British power, five years of neglect of our air defences. 37. epiphora: 尾语重复opposite of anaphora, repetition of a word of phrase at the end of several clauses or sentences:When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I though as a child.38. chiasmus: the order in the second half of an expression rev