常见英文修辞手法 （Figures of Speech）
英文的修辞手法种类繁多，功能多样，但总体说来，采用修辞手法，目的是为了使表达生动、形象，有感染力，给人以美感，即实现许渊冲先生所指的的语言的三美：“音美、形美和意美”。
1. figures of comparison: simile, metaphor. (resemblance of two identities)
Simile: a figure involves an expressed comparison, always introduced by “like”, “as” or “as if”. e.g.:
a. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail. (Alice Walker: Everyday Use for Your Grandmama)
b. Maggie?s hand is as limp as a fish. (Alice Walker: Everyday Use for Your Grandmama)
Metaphor: the substitution of one thing for another because of the resemblance between them. It is an implied comparison without “as” or “like”. Nouns, verbs and adjectives can be used metaphorically. e.g.:
a. Little donkeys with harmoniously tinkling bells thread their way among the throngs of people entering and leaving the bazaar. (The Middle Eastern Bazaar)
b. The dye-market, the pottery-market and the carpenters? market lie elsewhere in the maze of the vaulted streets which honeycomb this bazaar. (The Middle Eastern Bazaar)
c. Darrow walked slowly round the baking court. (The Trial that Rocked the World) d. H. L. Mencken wrote sulphurous dispatches sitting in his pants with a fan blowing on him…(The Trial that Rocked the World)
2. Personification: a figure that endows objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions with human form, character, or sensibility.
1） TO inanimate objects（把无生命的物体拟人化）e.g.: a. The thirsty soil drank in the rain.
b. The mist, like love, plays upon the heart of the hills and brings out surprises of beauty.
2) to inanimate living organisms (把有生物拟人化) e.g.
a. He (the Fox) muttered as he retreated: “Well! What does it matter! The Grapes are sour!”….
( Aesop’s Fables) b. Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.
(Tagore: Stray Birds) 3) To inanimate concepts or ideas (把抽象概念拟人化) e.g.:
a. Wrong cannot afford defeat but Right can. (谬误经不起失败，但真理却不怕失败) (Tagore: Stray Birds)
b. These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have their whisper of joy in my mind.
(这些微思，是绿叶的簌簌之声呀；他们在我的心里，愉快地微语着。)
(Tagore: Stray Birds) 郑振铎译
c. In November, a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side the ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores. (O. Henry: The Last Leaves )
3. Metonymy: the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated
1) To substitute sb./ sth. with instrument; e.g.: a. The pen is mightier than the sword.
b. He is too fond of the bottle. /The baby was brought up on the bottle. c. The pot has boiled over.
2) to substitute sb./ sth. with its own typical features; e.g.: a. The blue eyes walked into the office.
b. Led on the gray-hair’d wisdom of the east.
c. His aunt wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old hart so; and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any more. ( Tom Sawyer) 3) other forms
a. On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. b. Do you like Beethoven?
c. The captain had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare. d. Washington has reacted cautiously to the latest peace proposals.
4. Synecdoche (: the naming of a part to mean the whole, or the whole to the part, as in “hands” for “men who do manual labor. 1) Part for the whole
a. Many hands make light work. 人多好办事。 b. Two heads are better than one. 2)The whole for the part
a. The world knows his worth.
b. The football match was a close contest. In the end, England won. c. This fox goes very well with your cap. 3) Material for the product
a. The little girl’s piggy bank is full of nickels.
b. He is preparing a paper on World population for our next meeting.
5. Euphemism （委婉语）: the substitution of an offensive expression for one that may be disagreeable, a taboo, etc. e.g.:
a. And, it being low water, he went out with the tide. (Charles Dickens: David Copperfield) Other euphemistic expression for death: to pass away, to be no more, to be gone, to go west, to fall asleep, to breathe one?s last, to meet one?s Maker, to go to the way of all earth, to return to dust, to join the majority, etc.
b. He fed his family on bowls of sunshine. (He had nothing to feed his family on.) Other similar expressions: to live on air, to live on illusions c. 西方媒体常用委婉语来掩盖矛盾，粉饰太平： e.g.: “the culturally deprived, the underprivileged or disadvantaged” for “the poor”; “ethnic neighborhood” for “slums or ghettos”, “industrial action” for “strike”, “disturbance” for “riot”, “in difficulties” for “in debts”, “a man of doubtful taste” for “a man of bad taste”, “a lady of the town” for “a prostitute”, “queer” for “homosexual”.中文中也不乏类似的例子：“工读学校”--- “青少年罪犯劳教学校”；“待业青年”---“没有工作的或者失业的青年”
6. Allusion (引喻)：这一修辞手法与汉语引用中的“暗引”相近似，它包括引用典故、谚语、成语、格言和俗语等。E.g.:
a. Whatever economists tell them, they at any rate still believe in an England filled with good things--- an England flowing with milk and money. (An allusion to the Bible. The Old Testament: a land flowing with mild and honey)
b. “Maybe it won?t come off, there?s many a slip.” Pamela said. (English proverb: There?s many a slip between the cup and lip. 吃到嘴里才算吃成了；凡事难以十拿九稳。)
7. Hyperbole (exaggeration, overstatement)（夸张）: a conscious exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, not intended to be understood literally ; e.g.: a. He?s got acres and acres of garden. (a very big garden) b. His terrible stories made our blood freeze.
c. I was scared to death. He put a red-hot boiled potato down my back.
d. He was nearly killed-he would not have such another walk for the three kingdoms. (他快累坏了--- 就是给他英伦三岛，他再也不肯走一趟了。) e. There are yellows and oranges to throw back the light of the sun.
8. Litotes （rhetorical understatement）: a figure of speech which contains an understatement for emphasis, just the opposite of hyperbole. It is often used with a negative assertion, and usually with laconic or ironic intentions. (含蓄渲染：故意轻描淡写，缩小事态，从而收到加强印象的效果。)e.g.:
a. I shan’t be sorry when it?s over. (c.f.: I shall be very glad when it?s over.) b. It?s no laughing matter. (c.f.: It?s very serious.)
Litotes reserves two-layer significance: superficial indifference and underlying commitment. More examples:
c. We were not unprepared for the war.
d. It was not without reason that the Council decided to take such measures. e. The Security Council should lose no time in taking up the matter and bring the healing touch of diplomacy to bear on the situation.
9. Antithesis （对照）: a figure of speech to set contrasting phrases opposite each other for emphasis. In true antithesis, the opposition between the elements is manifested through parallel grammatical structure. E.g.:
a. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe. b. Man proposes, God disposes.
c. To err is human, to forgive, divine. d. Few words and many deeds.
e. Deeds show what we are; words, what we should.
f. We find ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.
R. M. Nixon: Inaugural Address.
10. Pun （双关）: a figure of speech which plays on words (用一个词，一句话，或一个语言片段同时关照两种事物，表达双重意思：一个是表面的，一个是隐含的，并以隐含意思为主。
1) Homophonic pun （谐音双关：利用词义根本不同的谐音词来构成）e.g.: a. -Why are parliamentary reports called “Blue Books”? -Because they are never red (read).
b. What is the most contradictory sign seen in a library? To speak aloud is not allowed (aloud).
c. What musical instrument should we never believe? A lyre. (liar)
2）Homographic pun （语义双关：利用一词多义的特点来构成）e.g.: a. Why is river the richest one in the world? Because it has two banks.
b. The diner was furious when his steak arrived too rare. “Waiter,” he barked, “Didn?t you hear me say ?Well done’?”
“I can?t thank you enough, sir,” replied the waiter. “I hardly ever get a compliment.”
11. Irony（反语）: a broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from the masking appearance. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning. Irony differs from sarcasm in that it is usually lighter, less harsh in its wording though in effect probably more cutting because of its indirectness. (所言与所欲完全相反) e.g.:
a. After a while, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until we are marching backwards to the glorious age of the sixteenth century…
b. They, were, in fact, very fine ladies; not deficient in good humor when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable when they chose it; but proud and conceited. (Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice)
12. Sarcasm （讽刺）: a cutting remark, a verbal sneer. Sarcasm pretends to disguise
its meaning, but does not intend to be misunderstood. It is very much like irony and the only difference is that it is more harsh and direct in its effect than irony. (在汉语修辞手法中, sarcasm也被处理为反语)
13. Ridicule （嘲讽）: a figure of speech in which an object or target is made fun of in order to make it fun or ridiculous.
a. Bryan, ageing and paunchy, was assisted in his prosecution by his son…. (The Trial that Rocked the World)
b. Bryan mopped his bald dome in silence. (The Trial that Rocked the World)
14. Paradox (似非而是的妙语): a figure of speech that appears to be logically contradictory and yet may be true, the purpose of which is to provoke fresh thought. E.g.:
a. One man?s terrorist is another man?s freedom fighter. b. A lover of peace emerged as a magnificent leader of war.
15. Oxymoron (矛盾修辞): a kind of paradox or antithesis that links together two sharply contrasting items. E.g.:
a. “That damned infidel,” a woman whispered loudly as he finished his address. b. Dudley Field Malone called my conviction a “victorious defeat.”
c. Sweet bitterness, cheerful pessimist, the wisest fool in Christendom, etc
16. Transferred epithet( 转移修饰语，即汉语修辞的“移就”): a transferred epithet is an adjective used to limit a noun which it cannot logically modify. a. He insisted that our assumptions were all wet. b. His dry humor doesn?t seem intentional.
c. Darrow had whispered throwing a reassuring arm round my shoulders as we were waiting for the court to open.
17. Synaesthesia (通感): a figure of speech in which a sensation produced in one modality is applied to another modality, e.g.: the liquid stillness of the night, noisy color, sweet voice, icy look, sharp cry, sour remark, oily-tongued
18. Climax (层递或渐进): a figure of speech in which words, phrases, and clauses are arranged to form a rising order of importance, and the item of greatest importance is called the climax. E.g.:
a. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
(Martin Luther King: I have a dream)
19. Anti-climax (突降法): a figure of speech which is just opposite to Climax in that
