《英语中的修辞手法》.doc

英语中的修辞手法_修辞(for_students)
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.

Figures of Resemblance and Relationship
Simile(明喻)
Metaphor(暗喻) (隐喻)
Metonymy(转喻) (借代)
Synecdoche（提喻）
Personification（拟人）
Antonomasia （换称）

一 Simile(明喻)
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 and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other.
Simile is a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. In formal prose the simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader.

For example,
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

1. Simile通常由三部分构成：本体（tenor or subject）,喻体（vehicle or reference）和比喻词（comparative word or indicator of resemblance）。
eg: My love is like a red red rose.
tenor comparative word vehicle
2.句型
（1）.like型
★A联系动词（以to be 居多）+like
Eg: Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass.
生活没有目标犹如航行没有指南针

★实意动词+like。
They will never be able to save money to buy a new house——they both spend money like water.
★ as 型
as在明喻句中用作介词，后跟名词。也可用作连词，后跟状语从句，表示动作或行为的方式。此外，还有两个常用句型，即as…as…和as…so…。
英语里有不少含有明喻的成语，其结构为as+形容词+as+名词（第一个as可省略）。例如：
(as) firm as a rock 坚如磐石
(as) light as a feather 轻如鸿毛
(as) close as an oyster 守口如瓶
(as) mute as a fish 噤若寒蝉
(as) strong as a horse 强壮如牛
(as) cool as a cucumber 泰然自若
(as) sober as a judge 十分清醒
(as) sure as a gun 千真万确
★虚拟句型
最常见的是as if/though，另外还有其他一些形式。
Eg: He was a beautiful horse that looked as though he had come out of a painting by Vealsquez.
这匹马真雄俊，看起来仿佛是从一副维拉斯奎兹的油画里跑出来的一样。
The dogs were in full cry, their noses down, their tails up, so close together that might have been one great yellow and white moving carpet.
那群狗吠叫着追猎，低着头，翘着尾巴，一条挨一条，看上去就像一块行进的黄白交织的大地毯。
He woke them both up getting to bed, but when they tried to wake him up afterwards they might as well have tried to wake the dead.
他去睡觉的时候把他们两个都弄醒了，但是后来他们想唤醒他时，简直就像唤死人一样。
★ what型
A. A is to B what X is to Y
Eg: Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
阅读之于思想，如同锻炼之于身体。
Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.
明智的表扬对于孩子的作用，就像阳光对于花朵的作用。
B What X is to Y, A is to B.
Eg: What salt is to food, that wit and humour are to conversation and literature.
妙语与幽默对于会话与文学，恰似盐对于食物一样。
What blood vessel is to a man’s body, that railway is to transportation.
铁路对于运输，好比血管对于人体一样。
★than型
A home without love is no more than a body without a soul.
没有爱的家无异于一具没有灵魂的躯体。
Man can not help craving for expression any more than birds can help singing.
人之不能舒其襟怀，亦犹鸟之不能啭其歌喉。
★and型
这是一种特殊的明喻句，常见于英语谚语。其中and的作用相当于like.
Eg: A word and a stone let go cannot be recalled.
说出的话犹如抛出的石，是收不回的。
Love and cough can not be hid.
恋爱如同咳嗽，难逃他人耳目。
Words and feathers are tossed by the wind.
言语如羽毛，风刮到处飘。
Truth and roses have thorns about them.
真理如玫瑰，全身都带刺。
King and bears often worry their keepers.
国王跟熊一样，总使照料者坐立不安。

二、Metaphor(隐喻)(暗喻)
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.
Metaphor compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. Very frequently a metaphor is invoked by the to be verb: Metaphor is compressed simile(简缩了的明喻)。
在实际运用中Metaphor有时仅出现喻体，本体需要从上下文中分析推敲出来。
英语Metaphor的运用格式灵活多样，它可以体现在任何句子成分上，如主语、谓语、表语、定语、宾语或状语。在表达上它可以是一个单词、一个词组或一个句子，甚至是一个段落。以下为英语Metaphor的常见运用格式：
★名词型
最常见的句式是“甲是乙”，喻体一般体现在句子的表语部分。
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
整个世界是座舞台，男男女女，演员而已。
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honour, conscience, and truth may be drowned.
金钱是无底的海洋，荣誉、良心和真理都可以淹没在其中。
★动词型
The boy wolfed down the food the moment he grabbed it.
那男孩儿一抓到食物便狼吞虎咽般地吃了下去。
Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested 。
书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。
★形容词型
She has a photographic memory for detail.
她对细节有照相机般的记忆力。
The mountainous waves swallowed up the ship.
山一般的巨浪吞没了那艘航船。
★-of短语型
-of-短语构成的英语隐语很普遍，根据其结构及用法特征又可细分为两类：
A. a/the+N1+of+N2
Eg: the bridge of friendship, the valley of despair.
B a+N1+of+a+N2 (N1和N2前除a外，还可用the或人称代词的所有格形式)
Eg: a flower of a girl, a fox of a man
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
自由之树需要爱国者和暴君的鲜血来浇灌。鲜血是养育自由之树的天然基肥。
A policeman waved me out of the snake of traffic and flagged me to stop.
一位警察招手要我从长蛇般的车流中出来，并招呼我停下。

三、Metonymy(转喻) (借代)
Metonymy (转喻) It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the mane of one thing for that of another. For instance,. Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword.
该修辞故意不用需要说明的人或物的本称，而是借与该人或该物密切相关的事物名称来代替，即借乙名代甲称。Metonymy的运用基础是联想，两个相互借代的事物必然紧密相关，存在某种现实的联系。
如：What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave(幼小所学，终生不忘)，句中的the cradle与the grave是跟birth与death密切相关的事物，因此两者之间形成了借代关系。
：
★以事物的特征代替事物本身
A thousand mustaches can live together, but not four breast.
千条汉子能共处，两个婆娘难相容。
★以工具代替动作或行为者
A hundred bayonets were marching down the street.
100把刺刀正沿街前进。
★以容器代替其中内容。
Whenever my husband has a bad day at the office, he hits the bottle.
每当我丈夫在办公室不顺心，他就会喝得酩酊大醉。
★以人体器官代替其功能
The practiced ear can recognize a classic flavour.
有音乐修养的人能够听出古典音乐的韵味。
She has the eye for the fair and the beautiful.
她有审美眼光。
I have an opinion of you, sir, to which it is not easy to give the mouth.
我对你有一个意见，先生，不过很难用话语表达出来。
★以人或动物代替其特性
There is still much of the schoolboy in him.
他身上还有许多小学生的气质。
The wolf and the pig mingled together in his face.
凶残与贪婪交织在一起，浮现在他的脸上。
★以原材料代替制成品
The 25th Games in Barcelona saw 4golds and 5 silvers in swimming fall into China’s pockets.
在巴塞罗那举行的第25届奥运会上，游泳项目有4枚金牌、5枚银牌落入了中国队的囊中。
And as he pluck’d the cursed steel away, 当他拔出那可恶的凶器的时候
Mark how the blood of Caesar followed…瞧，恺撒的血是怎样跟着它流出来
★以作者或生产者代替作品或产品
The captain…had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare.
船长…得到了一整套的莎士比亚作品。
We drove a Ford to Hyde Park.
我们驾驶一辆福特到海得公园去。
★以具体事物代替抽象事物
Although his plan had not completely succeeded, she gave him a pat on the back for having tried so hard.
尽管他的计划未获完全成功，但她对他作出的努力表示赞许。
★以抽象事物代替具体事物
In the present instance, it was sickness and poverty together that she came to visit.
在目前这种情况下，她一并前来探望的是病人和穷人以事物活动的处所代替事物或活动者
She is an ageing opera singer who has retired from the stage to teach.
她是一位年迈的歌剧演员，现已退出舞台从事教学。

★地名或建筑物名可借以代称设于那里的机构。如：
Kremlin(克林姆林宫，俄罗斯政府) The Pentagon(五角大楼，美国国防部) Hollywood(好莱坞，美国电影业) Downing Street(唐宁街，英国政府) Foggy Bottom(雾谷，美国国务院) Buckingham Palace(白金汗宫，英国皇室) 等等。
四、Synecdoche
Note: Synecdoche can easily be mistaken for metonymy
█Synecdoche (提喻) It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. In another word , a part is made to represent the whole, or vise versa. For instance, they say there's bread and work for all. She was dressed in silks.

★3. Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa).
· A major lesson Americans need to learn is that life consists of more than cars and television sets. [Two specific items substituted for the concept of material wealth]
· Give us this day our daily bread. --Matt. 6:11
· If you still do not feel well, you'd better call up a sawbones and have him examine you.
This program is for the little old lady in Cleveland who cannot afford to pay her heating
There sits my animal [instead of "dog"] guarding the door to the henhouse.
He hurled the barbed weapon [instead of "harpoon"] at the whale
五、Personification（拟人）

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.

★.Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.
懒惰缓慢而行，贫穷迎头赶上。。
★.Liquor talks mighty loud when it gets loose from the jug.
酒一从酒壶里溜出来就会大言不惭。
★.It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
当狼依然持有不同意见之时，群羊要通过赞成素食主义的决议案也是无济于事的。
★.Mosquitoes were using my ankles for filling stations.
蚊子把我的脚脖子当作了加油站。
★.Time is like a fashionable host, that slightly shakes his passing guest by th’ hand; and with his arms stretched, as he would fly, grasps in the comer. The welcomes ever smile, and farewell goes out sighing. （William Shakespeare）
时间正像一个趋炎附势的主人，对于一个临去的客人不过和他略微握一握手，对于一个新来的客人，却伸开了双臂，飞也似地过去抱住他。欢迎是永远含笑的，告别总是带着叹息。
★.A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
( Mark Twain)
当真理刚刚穿上鞋子，谎言就可能已经走了半个世界。
★.How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
(John Milton)
时间，这个盗窃青春的狡猾的小偷，盗窃了我二十又三年飞走了。
六．Antonomasia(换称)

Antonomasia (换称) It has also to do with substitution. It is not often mentioned now, though it is still infrequent use.
1． The use of an epithet or title in place of a name
2．The use of a proper name instead of a common noun
Note: there is a certain degree of overlapping with synecdoche.
He is our Gorky. (famous Russian writer for a famous writer.)
For example, Solomon for a wise man. Daniel for a wise and fair judge. Judas for a traitor.

七．Analogy (类比)
Analogy: (类比)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.
Analogy compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.
· You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. --Samuel Johnson
· He that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. --Samuel Johnson
· .For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle
Notice in these examples that the analogy is used to establish the pattern of reasoning by using a familiar or less abstract argument which the reader can understand easily and probably agree with.
Some analogies simply offer an explanation for clarification rather than a substitute argument:
· Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson
· The beginning of all evil temptations is inconstancy of mind, and too little trust in God. For as a ship without a guide is driven hither and thither with every storm, so an unstable man, that anon leaveth his good purpose in God, is diversely tempted. The fire proveth gold, and temptation proveth the righteous man. --Thomas a Kempis
When the matter is complex and the analogy particularly useful for explaining it, the analogy can be extended into a rather long, multiple-point comparison:
· The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (And so forth, to the end of the chapter.] --l Cor. 12:12 (NIV)
The importance of simile and analogy for teaching and writing cannot be overemphasized. To impress this upon you better, I would like to step aside a moment and offer two persuasive quotations:
· The country parson is full of all knowledge. They say, it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone: and there is no knowledge, but, in a skilful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage, and pastorage, and makes great use of them in teaching, because people by what they understand are best led to what they understand not. --George Herbert
· To illustrate one thing by its resemblance to another has been always the most popular and efficacious art of instruction. There is indeed no other method of teaching that of which anyone is ignorant but by means of something already known; and a mind so enlarged by contemplation and enquiry that it has always many objects within its view will seldom be long without some near and familiar image through which an easy transition may be made to truths more distant and obscure. --Samuel Johnson

Figures of Emphasis and Understatement
Euphemism（委婉）
Hyperbole（夸张）
Understatement（低调陈述）
Contrast（对照）
Antithesis（平行对照）
Parallelism（平行）
Repetition（反复）
Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）
Parody(仿拟)
Zeugma(轭式搭配)
Allusion（引喻）
Irony（反语）
Climax（层递）
Anticlimax（突降）
一．Euphemism（委婉）
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".

★Euphemism（委婉）， 以文雅、悦耳或温婉来代替粗野、刺耳或直露。借助语音、语法、词汇，表达生活中使人尴尬、惹人不快、招人厌恶或令人恐惧的事物。
Euphemism又叫sweet talk（甜言蜜语），gilded words（镀金的字眼）或cosmetic words（化装词）
有关疾病、残疾、衰老、死亡
★疾病
Look off colour（气色不好，指身体有病）
under the weather（在恶劣天气条件下，指健康欠佳）
not all there（神志不清，实指患精神病）
long illness（久病，实指癌症）
social disease（实指艾滋病）。
替代illness或disease婉称疾病的词有condition, disorder, problem, trouble等。
★残疾
Disabled（丧失能力的）
handicapped（受到障碍的），
,inconvenienced（行动不便的）,
hard of hearing（听觉困难的），
auditory-impaired（听觉损伤的）表示“耳聋的“；
sight-deprived（被