一、明喻(simile)
明喻是一种最常见的修辞方法,就是将具有某种共同特征的两种
不同事物加以对比,用另一种事物比方所要说明的事物,使语言形象
生动。
(1)“Charles Lamb,as merry and enterprising a fellow as you will
meet in a month of Sundays…”
(2)“My brain was as powerful as a dynamo,as precise as a chemist’
s scales,as penetrating as a scalpel.
二、暗喻(metaphor)
隐喻要靠读者自己去意会的比喻。隐喻没有指明两个不同事物的
共同点,而是用一个具有形象意义的词来直接称谓(代替)某个事物。这
点需要读者或听众去意会。在某种意义上可以说隐喻比明喻更富有感
情,更具表现力,而且常常带有强调或夸张的语气。
(1)“Read,then,the following essay which undertakes to demonstrate
that logic,far from being a dry,pedantic discipline,is a living,breathing
thing,full of beauty,passion,and trauma”
(2)“Maybe somewhere in the extinct crater of her mind,a few
embers still smolded.Maybe somehow I could fan them into flame.”
三、借代(metonymy)
说话或写文章时不直接说出所要表达的人或事物,而是借用与它
有密切相关的人或事物来代替,这种修辞方法叫借代。恰当地运用借
代可以突出事物的本质特征,增强语言的形象性,而且可以使文笔简
洁精炼,语言富于变化和幽默感。
(1)“I was not one to let my heart rule my head”.“heart”指代
“feelings or emotions”,“head”指代“wisdom,intelligence,or reason.”
(2)“Otherwise you have committed a Dicto Simpliciter.”“Dicto
Simpliciter”指代“a dicto simpliciter addictum sedundum quid.
(3)“You are guilty of Post Hoe if you blame Eula Becker.”“Post
Hoc”替代“the logic fallacy called post hoe”.
四、移就(hypallage or transferred epithet)
移就,又称词语移用,就是有意识的把描写甲事物的词语移用来
描写乙事物,是在特殊语言环境中改变词语搭配关系的一种临时迁
就,是词语搭配的创造性运用。从语言逻辑上看,好像不合规范,也不
合情理,但在具体的语言环境中,它却能赋予一个词语以新的意义,增
强语言的表达效果。
(1)“I said with mysterious wink and closed my bag and left.”(para.
40)“A mysterious wink”就是一个典型的移就的例子。形式上看
“mysterious”修饰了“wink”,但是实际上从意义上讲,它应该修饰
“said”。这句话要表达的是I said mysteriously with a wink.
五、夸张(hyperbole)
(1)“It is not often that one so young has such a giant intellect.”
(2)“…He just stood and stared with mad lust at the coat.”
六、设问(rhetorical question)
(1)“Could Carlyle do more?Could Ruskin?”这两个设问句并不是
想得到回答,而是想暗Carlyle和Ruskin都不比叙述者强。
(2)“Who knew?”实际想表达,没有任何人知道情况将会怎样。讲
话人想表达他的怀疑和希望,他希望他能教会Polly一些逻辑学知识,
不过只有老天知道他能否真正成功。
七、对照(antithesis)
将强烈对立的想法并列于稳定、对等的短语或语法结构中,即两
个相同或相似的语言结构的对仗或对照,在修辞上称为对照。对照不
同于比喻,它把两个概念对比,不是给出相似点,而是指出差异点,能
够深刻揭示事物本质,发人深思,启人心智。
(1)“It is,after all,easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to
make an ugly smart girl beautiful.”
(2)“Look at me—a brilliant student,a tremendous intellectual,a
man with an assured future.Look at Petey—a knothead,a jitterbug,a guy
who’ll never know where his next meal is coming from.”
八、重复(repetition)和排比(parallelism)
重复和平行结构经常并行不悖,同时使用。文中,作者巧妙的结合
运用重复和排比句式,收到了理想的效果。
(1)First he looked at the coat…Then he turned away.Then he
looked backed at the coat…Then he turned away.
(2)Because when the premises of an argument contradict each
other,there can be no argument.If there is an irresistable force,there
can be no immovable object.If there is an immovable object,there can
be no irresistable force.
九、仿拟(parody)
仿拟是一种巧妙、机智、而有趣的修辞格。它有意仿照人们熟知的
现成的语言材料,根据表达的需要临时创造出新的语、句、篇来,以使
语言生动活泼,或讽刺嘲弄,或幽默诙谐,妙趣昂然。在运用时所仿拟
的一般是人们所熟知的语言材料,如成语、谚语、明言、警句。
“What’s Polly to me,or me to Polly?”该句是“What’s Hecuba to
him or he to Hercuba that he should weep for her?”(from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet,Act II,scene 2.)的模拟句。
十、典故(allusion)
(1)“Just as Pygmalion loved the perfect woman he had fashioned,so I
lovedmine.”
皮格马利翁是希腊神话中的塞浦路斯国王,他擅长雕刻。他憎恨
女性,决定永不结婚。他用神奇的技艺雕刻了一座美丽的象牙女像,并
爱上了她,向神乞求让她成为自己的妻子。爱神阿芙洛狄忒被他打动,
赐予雕像生命,并让他们结为夫妻。叙述者认为自己就像皮格马利翁
爱他的雕像那样爱着Polly。
(2)“I was not Pygmalion;I was Frankenstein.”