英语中的修辞手法

Figures of speech Simile(明喻) 句型 （1）.like型

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

They will never be able to save money to buy a new house——they both spend money like water.

★as 型

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) strong as a horse 强壮如牛 (as) cool as a cucumber 泰然自若 ★虚拟句型

最常见的是as if/though，另外还有其他一些形式。

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。

Metaphor(隐喻)(暗喻)

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.

一位招手要我从长蛇般的车流中出来，并招呼我停下。

Metonymy(转喻) (借代)

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。 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。

★.Mosquitoes were using my ankles for filling stations.蚊子把我的脚脖子当作了加油站。

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）。 ★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（被剥夺视力的）visually retarded（视力上有障碍的）指“失明”。

★衰老

Advanced in age（年岁上先行的）past one’s prime（已过壮年）

feel one’ age（感觉上了年纪）golden age（金色岁月）sunset years（日落之年）

表示“老人”

senior citizen（资深的公民）， the longer living（生活经历较长者）。 ★.死亡

多达上百条。如，go west（西去），be at rest（安息），be asleep in the Arms of God（安睡在上帝的怀抱中），go the way of all flesh（走众生之路），join one’s ancestors（加入祖先的行列），return to dust（归之尘土），breathe one’s last （作最后一次呼吸），pass away（离去），run one’s race（跑完自己的赛程），be no longer with us（与我们永别了）。“大小便

wash one’s hands（洗洗手） relieve oneself（让自己轻松一下）， get some fresh air（去呼吸点新鲜空气）， answer the call of nature（应付自然本能之需）

★以下为一些实际用例，部分出自名家笔下，堪称巧用英语委婉

的典范。

▲And, it being low water, he went out with the side. 正是退潮的时候，他跟潮水一道去了。*作者用“驾潮而去”表示“溺水而死”，话说得哀婉动人。

▲If you will allow me , I will call your carriage for you . 如果你愿意的话，我去给你叫辆车。*以“去给你叫辆车”委婉地下达了逐客令，却礼貌、得体。

▲The boy used to take things without permission and has just been out of the rehabilitation home in the country. 那男孩以往常不经允许拿走东西，他刚从乡间的康复中心出来。*“不经允许拿走东西”实际指“偷窃”，“康复中心”实际是“所”的婉称。

▲He pardoned us off-hand, and allowed us something to live on till he went the way of all flesh.

他轻易地就原谅了我们，并且直到他逝世为止还一直供给我们生活费。

▲I’m afraid she can’t act that part ——she is a little on the plump side.

恐怕她扮演不了那个角色——她有些发福。

▲The reactor began to run out of control “above critical” in the parlance of the nuclear engineer.反应堆开始失控——或者用核工程师的话来说：处于临界点之上。

*above critical实际为“核反应堆泄露”。在处理核事故时用词尤慎，惟恐引起民众恐慌或愤怒。

▲He was both out of pocket and out of spirits by that catastrophe, failed in his health and prophesied the speedy ruin of the empire.

经过这次灾难，他手头拮据，总是无精打采，身体也不好，时常预言大英帝国不久便会垮台。

*作者用委婉语out of pocket 代替poor或bankrupt这类羞于启齿之词，而且与out of spirits 同一结构，相映成趣。

Hyperbole（夸张）

For instance, he almost died laughing.

★特点是对表达对象进行有违常识或不合逻辑的夸张性描写，以此来取得强烈的修辞效果。

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.一个父亲的作用大于100个教师。

Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）

Oxymoron: (矛盾修饰)It is a compressed paradox, formed by the conjoining(结合) of two contrasting,

contradictory or incongruous(不协调) terms as in bitter-sweet memories, orderly chaos(混乱) and proud humility(侮辱). 英语Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）是一种比较特殊的修辞格，其用法是将意义相反或看似矛盾的词语巧妙地搭配在一起，使之构成修饰关系，借以揭示和强调事物内部或之间的矛盾性和复杂性。Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）的运用往往产生一种乍看不合逻辑、令人惊讶，细想却自有道理、耐人寻味的效果。

从构成方式看，Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）可归纳为以下九类： （1）形容词+名词 proud humility 不亢不卑 painful pleasure 悲喜交加

a thunderous silence （此时）无声胜有声 a cheerful pessimist 纵情享乐的厌世者 （2）形容词+形容词

bitter-sweet memories 苦甜参半的回忆 poor rich guys 精神贫穷的富人 bad good news 既坏又好的消息

a miserable, merry Christmas 又悲又喜的圣诞节 Parody(仿拟)

Parody(仿拟); using the words thought, or atyle of an author, but by a slight change adapting them to a new purpose or

ridiculously inappropriate sublect; the imitation or exaggeration of traits of style so as to make them appear ludicrous(可笑的).

Parody在运用时所仿拟的，一般都是人们所熟知的语言材料，如成语、谚语、名言、警句等。Parody的运用可以体现在四个语言层次上，即单词、短语、句子和篇章。

Eg:Where there is a will, there is a lawsuit. 有遗嘱必有官司。 该句根据will一词多义的特点，巧仿谚语Where is a will, there is a way.（有志者，事竞成）而造

A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.处于危难之中的朋友是一个为众人所躲避的朋友。

*该句仿拟伊索寓言中的一条教训：A friend in need is a friend indeed（患难朋友才是真朋友），嘲讽了能同甘但不能共苦的假朋友和势利小人。

Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today. 今天可以享受的事情，不要拖到明天去。

*该句仿拟熟语Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today（今日事，今日毕）

To Lie Or Not To Lie-----The Doctor’s Dilemma 撒谎还是不撒谎——医生的难题

*这也是一篇文章的标题，仿拟的是莎士比亚剧作《哈姆雷特》中哈姆雷特王子著名独白To be, or not to be: that is the question的起头一句（生存，还是毁灭，这是一个问题）。

Paronomasia（双关）

Women have a wonderful sense of right and wrong, but little sense of right and left.

女性对善恶具有惊人的感觉，但对左右则感觉甚微。 transferred Epithet（转类形容词）

I spoke to them in hesitant French. 我结结巴巴地用法语对他们说。

People listened with open-mouthed astonishment while the

shocking new sank in.

当这个令人震惊的消息传来时，人们听了都惊得目瞪口呆。