英语修辞集锦.doc

Antithesis
1. 单词平行对照
Knowledge make humble, ignorance makes proud.
2. 短语平行对照
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
3. 从句平行对照
The world will little note, not long remember what we say here but it can forget what we did here.
4. 句子平行对照
A miser grows rich by seeming poor.
An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

Money is a good servant but a bad master.
Work has a bitter foot but a sweet fruit.
The life of the wolf is the death of the lamb.
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
Where there is a marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. (Parody and Antithesis)
Contrast
语义上的相对或者相反就被称作对照。
1. Caesar: Cowards die many times before their death;
the valiant never taste of death but once.
2. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
3. Men always want to be a woman’s first love; women have a more subtle instinct, what they like is to be a man’s last romance.
4. A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman a fool of him in twenty minutes.
5. A bank is a place where they lean you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a way of describing something in order to make it sound bigger, smaller, better, worse, etc. than it really is.分为Extended Hyperbole和Reduced Hyperbole
e.g. 1.His eloquence could split rocks.
2. It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

1.数词夸张
e.g. 1.One father is more than a thousand teachers.
2. This makes him roar like a thousand bulls.

2.通过其他词汇夸张
a.通过动词夸张
e.g. In its wake, budget cuts and food shortages have hit the new nation of Russia and press have shot out of the world.
b.通过名词夸张
e.g. 1.It's a crime to stay inside on such a good day.
2. I was beaten myself into all the colors of rainbows.
c.通过形容词夸张
e.g. 1.Divorce has become a lucrative process, simple to arrange and easy to forget, and ambitious females can repeat it as often as they please and parlay their winnings to astronomical figures.
2. And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till the seas gang dry,
And the rocks melt wi'the sun,
O I will luve thee still, my dear,
while the sands o'life shall run.
3. She has that everlasting rotation of tongue that an echo must wait till she die before it can catch her last word.

3.用虚拟语气夸张
e.g. 1.Some movie stars wear their sunglasses, even in church, they are afraid God might recognize them and ask for autograph.
2....and the fattest women I have ever seen in my life dozing in a straight-back chair. It was as if a sack of grain were supported by a matchbox.

4.用形容词比较级和最高级夸张
e.g. The most effective water power—women's tears.

5.用其他辞格表示夸张
e.g. 1.A drop of ink may make a million think. (Metonymy, Contrast and Hyperbole)
2. A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on his shoes. (Personification, Comparison and Hyperbole)
Inversion
Inversion can be divided into two different types: grammatical inversion and rhetorical inversion respectively. But the functions vary due to different purposes:

⑴ To give emphasis to a part of the sentence.
⑵ To achieve sentence balance.
⑶ To achieve metrical pattern.
⑷ To achieve coherence.

Now let’s learn the following examples according to the four functions.

1. Most true is it that “beauty is in the eye of the gazer.”
2. Rising behind the city was the 4000-foot Mount Vesurius, a grass covered slope where the shepherds of Pompeii took their goats, to graze.
3. The Sun is not a bed when I
At night upon my pillow lie;
And round the earth his way he takes,
And morning after morning makes,
While here at home, in shining day,
We round the sunny garden play,
Each little Indian sleepy head,
Is being kissed and put to bed.
4. My opinion of the coal trade on that river is that it may require talent, but it certainly requires capital. Talent, Mr. Micauber has; capital Mr. Micauber has not.
Metaphor
Metaphor is an implied comparison or a condensed simile for it omits the word as or like.

1.of 短语型
a).a/the + n. + of + n.
e.g. the bridge of friendship
b).a + n. + of + a + n.
e.g. a fox of a man; a girl of a boy
A policeman waved me out of the snake of traffic and flagged me to stop.

2.名词型
e.g. 1.All the world is stage, and all men and women merely player.
2. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

3.动词型
e.g. 1.The boy wolfed down the food the moment he grabbed it.
2. The case snowballed into one of the most famous trials in US history.
3. He that cannot forgive others break the bridge over which he must pass himself for everyone has the need to be forgiven.

4.形容词型
e.g. 1.She has a photographic memory for details.
2. He has the microwave smile that warms others without heat.
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.故意不用需要说明的人或物的本称，而是借用与该人或该物密切相关的事物的名称来代替。
e.g. What is learned in the criddle is carried to the grave.

1.以事物特征来代替事物本身
e.g. 1.He wandered...slaying whatever of fur and feather came in his way.
2. A thousand mustaches can live together, but not two breasts.
3. Soapy stood still with his hands in his pockets and smiled at the sight of brass buttons.

2.以工具来代替动作或行为者
e.g. Beneath the rule of men entirely great
the pen is mightier than the sword.

3.以容器代替其中内容
e.g. Whatever my husband has a bad day at the office, he hits the bottle.

4.以人体器官代替其功能
e.g. I have an opinion of you, sir, to which it is not easy to give the mouth.

5.用人或动物代替其特征
e.g. 1.There is still much of a schoolboy in him.
2. The wolf and the pig mingled in his face.

6.用原材料代替制成品

7.用作者或生产者代替作品或产品
e.g. I have a complete Shakespeare.

8.用具体事物代替抽象事物
e.g. 1.Although his plan hadn't succeeded, she gave him a pat on the back for having tried so hard.
2. Soap and education are not as sudden as massacre, but they are made deadly in the long run.

9.以抽象事物代替具体事物
e.g. See, from his hands, his head, his side, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

10.以事物活动的处所代替事物或活动者
Parallelism
1. 单词平行
Language requires a central, pivotal, principal position among Bloomfield’s works.
An Englishman thinks seated, a Frenchman standing, an American pacing and an Irishman, afterward.
2. 短语平行
We can gain knowledge by reading, by reflection, by observation or by practice.
3. 从句平行
The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it not been early, had been kind, but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it.
4. 句子平行
We are caught in war, wanting peace; we are torn by division, wanting unity.
The world listens. The world watches. The world waits to see what we will do.
Repetition
From different points of views, we can make repetition into two groups: lexical repetition and structural repetition or immediate repetition and intermittent repetition.
Let’s first look at an example of immediate repetition:
Break, break, break
At the foot of the crags, O sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
will never come back to me.

Then an example of intermittent repetition:
I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that; I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that; I can act with philosophy, in such a case as that.
Purpose 1. To produce an emphatic and emotional style:
Thou’ll come no more.
Never, never, never, never, never.
Purpose 2. To produce a dull gloomy atmosphere:
Work-work-work!
Till the brain begins to swim.
Work-work-work!
Till the eyes are heavy, and dim.
Seam, and gusset and seam,
Band, and gusset, and seam.
Till over the buttons I fall asleep
And sew them on in a dream!
Purpose 3. To produce a rhythmical beauty in language.
Simile
Simile is the comparison of two distinctively unlike things using such words as seems to be,resemble,as,like or as if.
本体和喻体属于不同类别，或属于同类别但有明显区别。
1. v. / be + like 型
e.g. 1.Living without an aim is like sailing without compass.
2. Marriage is like a belegured fortress: those who are without want to get in and those who within want to get out.
2.as 型
e.g. Love goes towards love, as schoolboys from their books; but love from love, towards school with heavy books.
3.as if/though 型(虚拟句型)
e.g. 1.The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me as if I had gained a new friend.
2. My handwriting looks as if a swarm of ants, escaping from an ink bottle, had walked over a sheet of paper without wiping their legs.
4.what 型
A is to B what X is to Y. / What A is to B, X is to Y.
e.g. 1.Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the mind.
2. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
5.than 型
e.g. 1.He had no more idea of money than a cow.
2. A home without love is no more than a body without soul.
3. A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
6.and 型
e.g. 1.Love and cough cannot be hidden.
2. Words and feathers are tossed by the wind.
Pun
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 person's body; weapons carried by a soldier.)
1. 同音异义
You can earn your living and urn your dead.
2. 多义词
To England will I steal, and there I will steal.
3. 同形同音异义
An ambassador is an honest man who lies abroad for the good of his country.

双关赏析
On Sunday they pray for you, and on Monday they prey on you.
“We would like very much to have you for dinner.” The cannibal said to the captured missionary.
When a woman dresses to kill, the victim is apt to be time.
When a college announced that she weighed 140 pounds and stripped for gym, her anxious father wanted to know who “Jim” was.
“Tick, Tock, Tick…Talk”
The dishonest lawyer lies still.
Parody
It exists when one imitates a proverb, maxim or a famous saying.
1. Where there is a will, there is a lawsuit.
2. In marrying this girl, he married a bit more than he could chew.
3. A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.
4. Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.
5. Not all cars are created equal.
6. More money, less happiness.
7. Great minds think otherwise.
8. I drink, therefore I am.
Transferred Epithet
It is a figure of speech where an epithet (an adjective or descriptive phrase) is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify to another to which it does not really apply or belong. For instance, I spent sleepless nights on my project.
1. I spoke to them in hesitant French.
2. People listened with open-mouthed astonishment while the shocking news sank in.
3. They prolonged the clasp for the photographers, exchanging smiling words.
4. An awed hush fell upon the bystanders.
5. The sky turned to a tender palette of pink and blue.
6. There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said, “Dad, you have just worked a profound change in my personality.”
7. He closed his busy life at the age of seventy.
Understatement
It is the opposite of hyperbole, or overstatement. It achieves its effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately 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.
1. 词汇手段
a. 动词
They has been here since 1915, and no hurricane has ever bothered it.
b. 名词
For large numbers of people the absence of work is harmful to their health.
2. 语法手段
a. 比较结构
No one was more willing to do a favor for friend and neighbor than he.
b. 虚拟语气
Some of the items are good; others might be better.
c. 双重否定
He is a man not without ambition.
低调陈述赏析
The face wasn’t a bad one; it has what the called charm.
If this regime is out of power, no tear is to be shed.
A book may be compared to your neighbor. If it be good, it can not last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early.
I know he is honest, and I wish I could add he is capable.
He is no bad painter.
Campus love is not an uncommon phenomenon in today’s China.
Allusion
1. From legend, fables or fairy tales
a. Book is a vehicle of learning and enlightenment, an open sesame of countless joys and sorrows.
b. Research, from being the Cinderella of industry, would become its favored child.
2. From religion
a. Their new constitution was a figleaf to conceal their betrayal of the masses.
b. a/the Damocles sword
3. From literary creations
a. “You want your pound of flesh, don’t you?”
b. They don’t hire until I have had more experience, but now how can I get more experience until I am hired. It’s a Catch-22.
4. From historical events
Figures of speech
明喻（simile）['sɪməli:]
明喻（simile）是以两种具有相同特征的事物和现象进行对比，表明本体和喻体之间的相似关系，两者都在对比中出现。常用比喻词like, as, as if, as though等，例如：
1、This elephant is like a snake as anybody can see.
这头象和任何人见到的一样像一条蛇。
2、He looked as if he had just stepped out of my book of fairytales and had passed me like a spirit.
他看上去好像刚从我的童话故事书中走出来，像幽灵一样从我身旁走过去。
3、It has long leaves that sway in the wind like slim fingers reaching to touch something.
它那长长的叶子在风中摆动，好像伸出纤细的手指去触摸什么东西似的。
隐喻（metaphor）['metəfə]
这种比喻不通过比喻词进行，而是直接将用事物当作乙事物来描写，甲乙两事物之间的联系和相似之处是暗含的。
1、German guns and German planes rained down bombs, shells and bullets...
德国人的枪炮和飞机将炸弹、炮弹和子弹像暴雨一样倾泻下来。
2、The diamond department was the heart and center of the store.
钻石部是商店的心脏和核心。
提喻（synecdoche） [si'nekdəki]
又称举隅法，主要特点是局部代表全体，或以全体喻指部分，或以抽象代具体，或以具体代抽象。例如：
1、The Great Wall was made not only of stones and earth, but of the flesh and blood of millions of men.
长城不仅是用石头和土建造的，而且是用几百万人的血和肉建成的。
句中的“the flesh and blood”喻为“the great sacrifice”（巨大的牺牲）
2、“...saying that it was the most beautiful tongue in the world,...”
……他说这是世界上最美的语言。
这里用具体的“tongue”代替抽象的“language”。
3、Many eyes turned to a tall,20—year black girl on the U.S. team.
很多人将眼光投向美国队一个高高的20岁的黑姑娘。
这里的“many eyes”代替了“many persons”。
拟人（personification） [pə,sɔnəfɪ'keɪʃən]
这种修辞方法是把人类的特点、特性加于外界事物之上，使之人格化，以物拟人，以达到彼此交融，合二为一。
1、She may have tens of thousand of babies in one summer.(From“ Watching Ants”) 一个夏天她可能生育成千上万个孩子。
这里用“she”和“babies”把蜜蜂比作人类妇女的生育。
2、My only worry was that January would find me hunting for a job again.
我唯一担心的是，到了一月份我又得去找工作。
英语里常把“年”“月”“日”人格化，赋以生命，使人们读起来亲切生动。
夸张（hyperbole） [haɪ'pɜ:bəli:]
这是运用丰富的想象，过激的言词，渲染和装饰客观事物，以达到强调的效果。
1、My blood froze.
我的血液都凝固了。
2、When I told our father about this, his heart burst.
当我将这件事告诉我们的父亲时，他的心几乎要迸出来。
借代/转喻（metonymy） [mi'tɔnimi]
是指两种不同事物并不相似，但又密不可分，因而常用其中一种事物名称代替另一种。
1、Several years later, word came that Napoleon himself was coming to inspect them...
几年以后，他们听说拿破仑要亲自来视察他们。
“word”在这里代替了“news, information”（消息、信息）
2、Al spoke with his eyes,“yes”.
艾尔用眼睛说，“是的”。
“说”应