Figures of speech

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. 修辞是提高语言表达效果的语言艺术。它能使语言生动形象、具体活泼，给人以美的享受。   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 and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other. Simile 与汉语的明喻基本相同，用某一事物或情境来比拟另一个事物或情境。其本体和喻体均同时出现在句中，在形式上是相对应的。英语  simile  的标志词常用 like, as, seem, as if, as though, similar to, such as等. 汉语明喻的比喻词通常是"好象"、"仿佛"等。例如：   As busy as a bee As happy as a clam (at hightide) Like a cat on hot bricks热锅上的蚂蚁 To spend money like water挥金如土    They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails.      这些人犹如街上的有轨电车，  满足于在自己的轨道上运行。     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. 隐喻是简缩了的明喻,是将某一事物的名称用于另一事物,通过比较形成.（no indicator of resemblance） For example, the world is a stage. Speech is silver, silence is gold. Union is strength.  Experience is the mother of wisdom.  经验为智慧之母。 3) Analogy: (类比,借喻）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. 根本不说出本体（tenor），或不在本句子中说出来，而把喻体(vehicle)直接用在本体应该出现的地方。 Make hay while the sun shines.趁热打铁 An empty sack cannot stand upright.空口袋立不直Prov. A poor or hungry person cannot function properly. Sit down and have something to eat before you go back to work. An empty sack can't stand upright.无钱寸步难行；肚子饿了会难受   4) 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). personification 与汉语拟人完全相同，就是赋予物以人的言语属性。这种拟人化的修辞手法读起来使人感到特别形象生动、富有情趣。例如：   Words pay no debts.  空话还不了债。  The wind whistled through the trees. Time and tide wait for no man.  Justice has a long arm. O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, /Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead, /Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.啊，狂野的西风，汝秋神之呼吸/ 无影踪就把落叶一扫而空/好似巫师驱散了群鬼。 5) Hyperbole: (夸张）： It is the deliberate use of overstatement or understatement to achieve emphasis. 夸张是以言过其实的说法表达强调的目的.它可以加强语势,增加表达效果.    例如:   I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars.  When she heard the bad news, a river of tears poured out. Every lover sees a thousand graces in the beloved object. 情人眼里出西施  She was really dressed to the teeth at the party.(她在舞会上穿得真是豪华。——夸张说她“连牙齿都盛装到了”。) She eats like a bird.(她食量很小——缩小为“吃得像小鸟一样少”。) His father hit the ceiling to know of her bad grades.(他父亲听说了她的差成绩，暴跳如雷。——生气得“跳起来撞到了天花板”。)   6) 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". 用 sanitation engineer 替代garbage man(清洁工)      用 the disadvantaged替代 the poor(穷人)      用 industrial action替代 strike(罢工)   7) Metonymy (借代)   It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. 又称为换喻或转喻。不相类似的两者之间存在不可分离的关系，故借用一种事物的名称来代替另一种相关的事物名称，或由一种概念来替代另一种相关的概念。    I.以容器代替内容,例如:    1>.The kettle is boiling. 水壶开了.    2>.The room sat silent. 全屋人安静地坐着.    II.以资料.工具代替事物的名称,例如:    Lend me your ears, please. 请听我说. The pen (words) is mightier than the sword (forces). 笔锋利于剑。 [出处]：B.Lytton 利顿(英国政治家)    III.以作者代替作品,例如:    a complete Shakespeare 莎士比亚全集 I’m reading Lu Xun.我正在阅读鲁迅的作品。    VI.以具体事物代替抽象概念,例如:   What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.幼小说学，终生不忘。 8) Sy’necdoche (提喻、举隅法）  It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. 是不直接说某一事物的名称，而是借事物的本身所呈现的各种对应的现象来表现该事物的这样一种修辞手段。提喻又称举隅法。是借代的有一种类型，用局部来代替整体，或者用整体代替局部。 局部代整体：For instance, they say there's bread and work for all. She was dressed in red. You people should have more respect for the grey hair.年轻人应更加尊重老年人。 Many hands provide great strength. Quick lunches at 2 yuan a head.每位客人2块钱的快餐。 整体代替局部： China won in the football match. 中国队在足球比赛中赢了。 He is a poor creature. 他是个可怜虫。  9) 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. 多义词双关(Here "arms" has two meanings: a person's body; weapons carried by a soldier.) What does that lawyer do after he dies?--Lie still. 多义词双关  那个律师死后干什么？──躺着仍说鬼话。(注：lie 躺，  撒谎；still 安静地，  仍然)   Seven days without water makes one weak. (week)谐音双关。“七天不进水，人会虚弱”。 Which lager can claim to be truly German? This can(情态动词，也是名词“饮料罐”).语法双关.哪种鲜啤算是纯正德国货？这罐。 Which is the longest word in English? Smiles. 延伸双关。S—mile—S隔了一英里。 10）.Synaesthesia 通感,联觉,移觉  用形容一种感官的感觉词来形容另一种感官的感觉。 例如:sweet voice, delicious perfume; sharp pepper辛辣的辣椒，味觉, a sharp smell刺鼻的气味，嗅觉, sharp words，刺耳的话语，听觉, sharp eyes锐利的眼光，视觉, sharp wind刺骨的寒风，触觉。  The birds sat upon a tree and poured forth their lily-like voice. 鸟儿落在树上,倾泻出百合花似的声音. Taste the music of Mozart. 品尝 Mozart 的音乐. 11）Parallelism 排比, 平行    排比是由结构相同或相似、内容相关、证据一致的短语或句子排列在一起，用来加强语势强调内容，加重感情的修辞方式。    例如:    No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy. 在所有的人都获得自由之前，没有一个人能完全自由；在所有的人都有道德之前，没有一个人能被称为完全有道德；在所有的人都幸福之前，没有一个人能完全幸福。H.Spencer 斯宾塞    Early to sleep and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. 睡得早、起得早、聪明、富裕、身体好。    12) Irony 反语    反语指用相反意义的词来表达意思的作文方式.如在指责过失.错误时,用赞同过失的说法,而在表扬时,则近乎责难的说法.    例如:  It would be a fine thing indeed not knowing what time it was in the morning.  "Of course, you only carry large notes, no small change on you. "the waiter said to the beggar. The weatherman said it would be warm. He must take his readings (取读数据)in a bathroom.    13) Parody 仿拟    这是一种模仿名言.警句.谚语,改动其中部分词语,从而使其产生新意的修辞. 亦是文学创作手法又称谐仿，是在自己的作品对其他作品进行借用，以达到调侃、嘲讽、游戏甚至致敬的目的。属二次创作的一种。戏仿的对象通常都是大众耳熟能详的作品。    例如:    1>.Rome was not built in a day, nor in a year.    2>.A friend in need is a friend to be avoided. In need在危险中、穷困中    14) An’tithesis 对照,对比,对偶    这种修辞指将意义相对立的语句排在一起对比，以形成强烈对照的一种修辞方法.    例如:    Not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more. Julius Caesar    You are staying; I am going. Give me liberty, or give me death.    15) Paradox 隽语    这是一种貌似矛盾,但包含一定哲理的意味深长的说法,是一种矛盾修辞法.    例如:    More haste, less speed.    The child is the father to the man.    16) Oxymoron 矛盾修饰法   It is a compressed paradox, formed by the conjoining(结合) of two contrasting, contradictory or incongruous(不协调) terms. 这也是一种矛盾修辞法,用两种不相调和的特征形容一个事物,以不协调的搭配使读者领悟句中微妙的含义.    例如:    No light, but rather visible darkness.若明若暗 Living death活受罪, open secret, cruel kindness残忍的仁慈, a thunderous silence无声胜有声, a miserable, merry Christmas又悲又喜的圣诞节. Boiling cold, freezing hot 欧·亨利（O Henry）”I despise its very vastness and power. It has thr poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the haughtiest beggars, the plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw. ”最贫穷的百万富翁，最渺小的大人物、最高贵的乞丐。最丑陋的美人、最低矮的摩天大楼、最乏味的享乐。 17) 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". Alliteration就是在一个词组或一个诗行中，有两个以上彼此靠近的词，其开头的音节（或其他重读音节）具有同样的字母或声音For instance, Competence, concentration, comprehension, conscientiousness, clarity, and courtesy.   Franc's father is frying French fries for his five fire-fighter friends after they finished a fire-fighting in a factory. 在结束对一家工厂的灭火战斗以后，弗兰克的父亲在为他的五个消防队员朋友炸制法式土豆(炸薯条) Fifty-five flags freely flutter from the floating frigate. 五十五面旗子在轻轻漂浮的战舰上自由的飘扬。 The driver was drunk and drove the doctor's car directly into the deep ditch. 这个司机喝醉了，他把医生的车开进了一个大深沟里。 A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood. 一直大黑虫咬了一只大黑熊，使大黑熊流血了. 18) Allusion与汉语的暗引相近似。其特点是不注明来源和出处，一般多引用人们熟知的关键词或词组，将其融合编织在作者的话语中。引用的东西包括典故、谚语、成语、格言和俗语等。英语引用最多的是源出《圣经》故事以及希腊、罗马神话、《伊索寓言》和那些渊源流长的谚语、格言等。例如：      （1）Grammar may be his heel of Achilles.语法是他的大弱点。（Achilles 是希腊神话中的一位勇士。除了脚踵处，他身上其他地方刀枪不入。）      （2）The project is an economic albatross from the start.      这个项目从一开始就是一个摆脱不了的经济包袱。(Albatross 是英国诗人柯勒律治的《古舟子咏》The Rime of the Ancient Mariner中的信天翁，它被老水手随意射杀后，全船陷入灾难中，水手经历了无数的肉体和精神折磨。)   比如在英国著名媒体Guardian中曾经发表过一篇文章US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box' Turn the other cheek, Judas’s kiss, Sour grapes聊以自慰的话，狐狸吃不到葡萄就说葡萄是酸的；a wolf in sheep’s clothing披着羊皮的狼；cry wolf, 发假警报 (Aesop’s fables) 19) 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。   Presently there came the click of high-heeled shoes.      高跟皮鞋声阁阁地传了过来。