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Figures of SpeechFigures of Speech

1. Reference Books

2. Figures of Speech

3. Figures of resemblance

My favorite My favorite

Chinese, English and French are charming girls.

If you communicate with them frequently, you would understand how charming they are.

胡曙中 . 现代英语修辞学 . 上海 : 上海外语教育出版社， 2006.

黄任 . 英语修辞与写作［ M ］ . 上海 : 上海外语教育出版社， 2003.

李鑫华 . 英语修辞格详论［ M ］ . 上海 : 上海外语教育出版社， 2000.

StylisticsStylistics 英语文体学推荐书目英语文体学推荐书目 BibliographyBibliography

吕煦 . 实用英语修辞 . 北京 : 清华大学出版社， 2000.

梅仁毅，王立礼 . Advanced English （ Teachers’ Reference Book ） . 北京 : 外语教育与研究出版社， 1999.

秦秀白 . 文体学概论［ M ］ . 长沙 : 湖南教育出版社， 1988.

王守元 . 英语文体学要略［ M ］ . 济南 : 山东大学出版社， 2000.

StylisticsStylistics 英语文体学推荐书目英语文体学推荐书目 BibliographyBibliography

Figures of emphasis or

understatement

resemblance or relationship

sound

Figures of Speech

Figures of resemblance or Figures of resemblance or relationshiprelationship

It includes:1. simile2. metaphor3. personification4. metonymy5. synecdoche6. euphemism

similesimile

Simile: a figure that involves an expressed comparison, almost always introduced by the word “like” or “as”.

The two things compared must be dissimilar and the basis of resemblance is usually an abstract quality.

所谓明喻 ( 直喻）就是对两个不同种类对象之间的相似点所作的比喻，这两个不同种类的对象通常一个是抽象的，另一个是具体的。

明喻明喻

明喻包括本体（ subject 或 tenor ） 喻体（ reference 或 vehicl

e ） 比喻词（ indicator of

resemblance 或 simile marker ）本体指被比喻的对象喻体指用来做比喻的对象比喻词在本体和喻体之间起连接作用

明喻明喻

Simile 源于拉丁语 similis （ like ）比喻词 as, as if, as though, as…as, (just)

as …to, similar to, to bear a resemblance to, est.

Records fell like ripe apples on a windy day.

(E.B. White)

as …as as brave as a lion as busy as a bee as timid as a mouse as black as pitch/coal as white as snow/a sheet; as old as hills as cool as a cucumber

simile

As, like As cold waters to a thirsty soul,

so is good news from a far country.

The water lay gray and wrinkled like an elephant’s skin.

My very thoughts were like the ghostly rustle （轻轻的摩擦声） of dead leaves.

simile

similesimile

My love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June;My love is like a melodyThat’s sweetly played in tune (Robert Burns)

similesimile

I wondered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’ver vales and

hills… (William

Wordsworth)

compare … to Shall I compare thee to a summer’s

day? Thou are more lovely and more

temperate (William Shakespeare) Shakespeare compares the world to a

stage. Life is poetically compared to the

morning dew.

simile

similesimile

The process of gaining or losing weight can be explained by comparing your body to your car…And just as your car uses more energy when the engine is racing than when it is idling, so does your body use more energy when you are working hard than when you are resting.

Seem The memory that seem

phonographic 。 So as she shows she seems the

budding rose, yet sweeter far than is earthly flower….

她露出犹如含苞欲放的玫瑰，却远比真实的花儿芬芳。

simile

Seem It （ the gate of the building)…

seemed to be the entrance to a vast hive （蜂房，蜂箱） of six or seven floors.

这座楼房的大门看起来就像一个六七层的巨大蜂巢的入口。

simile

as if (as though) It rained as if the flood-gates were

opened, and it lighted awfully. 雨倾盆而下，犹如天上的水闸打开了， 而且

电光霍霍，极其可怕。 He was a beautiful horse that

looked as though he had come out of a painting by Velasquez.

这匹马真雄峻，看起来仿佛是从一幅维拉斯奎茨的油画里跑出来的一样。

simile

the way (in which) I should smell it the way a cat

smells a mouse. 我可以像猫嗅老鼠一样闻出它的气味。

simile

might as well … as You might as well throw your

money into the ditch （沟，渠） as give it to him.

你把钱给他，就像把钱扔进沟里一样。

simile

A is to B what C is to D Wit and humor are to

conversation what salt is to food.

隽语与幽默对于会话，恰似盐对于食物一样。

What lungs are to the body, that parks are to the city.

公园对于都市正如肺对于人的身体一样。

simile

明喻明喻

有时比较级结构、介词短语及其他某些词语搭配也可以构成明喻。

No more … than He has no more idea of money

than a cow.

(Galsworthy)他对于金钱，就像牛对金钱一样一无所知。

A student can no more than obtain knowledge without studying than a farmer can get harvest without plowing.

学生不学习不能得到知识，犹如农民不耕作不能收获一样。

simile

With the quickness of a long cat, she

climbed up the tree. 他像猫一样敏捷地爬上树。

simile

A and B 结构 Love and cough cannot be hid. A word and a stone let go

cannot be recalled. 说出去的话像跑出去的石头一样无法收回。 ( 覆水难收 )

Fish and visitors stink （令人厌恶） in three days

鱼肉易臭，访客难久。

simile

Truth and roses have thorns about them.

玫瑰难摘，真理难得。 Old friends and old wine are

best. 陈酒味醇，情深意厚。

simile

汉语的明喻是用“像”、“似”、“如”、“好像……似的”等词来连接被比喻和用作比喻的事物

骄阳似火 江作青罗带，山如碧玉簪；春天像小姑娘，花枝招展的，笑着，走着。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　—朱自清

明喻

metaphormetaphor

Metaphor: the substitution of one thing for another, or the identification of two things from different ranges of thought. It is often loosely defined as “ an implied comparison” or “ a simile without ‘like’ or ‘as’” or “condensed simile” （压缩的明喻） .

metaphormetaphor

X is like Y in respect of Z.X is the tenor （本体） , Y is the

vehicle （喻体） , and Z is the ground (the likeness) .

Boys and girls, tumbling in the streets and playing, were moving jewels.

He swam bravely against the tide of popular applause.

Snow clothes the ground. The town was stormed after a

long siege.

metaphor

暗喻有许多是用 to be 来连接被比喻和用作比喻的两个不同事物的：

The society was his college.A book that is shut is but a

block.Money is the lens in a camera.

metaphor

当然也有不用 to be 的：The gas hissed out of the torn

balloon, Insull threw away his imperial （皇帝的） pride and went on his knees to the bankers.

metaphor

metaphormetaphor

1. One type of sensory perception is expressed in terms of another, e.g.

If the music be the food of love, play on.

(Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)

metaphormetaphor

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

(Bacon, Of Studies)

metaphormetaphor

2. A non-human referent （指称对象） is given human attributes（性质，属性） , e.g.

So I unto myself alone will singThe wood shall to me answer,

and my echo ring. (Spenser, Epithalamion)

metaphormetaphor

‘ Mistress, I dug upon your grave To bury a bone, in caseI should be hungry near this spotWhen passing on my daily trot （快步慢跑）

I am sorry, but I forgot It was your resting-place.’（ Hardy, ‘Ah, Are you Digging on

my Grave?’ ）

metaphormetaphor

3. A non-animate referent is given animate characteristics, e.g.

The sky rejoices in the morning’s birth.

(Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence)

metaphormetaphor

4. An abstraction is treated as if it were animate, e.g.

A terrible beauty is born.(W.B. Yeats, Easter 1916)

metaphormetaphor

5. A human referent is treated either as an inanimate being or an animal or a bird, e.g.

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

She is really a duck, she thought.

Find out the figures of speech Find out the figures of speech usedused

All the world’s stage, And all men and women merely

players;They have their exists and

entrances,And one man in his time plays

many parts,His acts being seven ages…(Shakespeare, As you Like it )

metaphor

metaphor

Comparison Comparison

The news is as a dagger （匕首） to his heart.

Joe fought like a lion.

Learning may be likened to climbing up a mountain.

The gossip was like a net that strangled （）勒死） her.

The news is a dagger to his heart.

Joe was a lion in the battle.

Learning is climbing up a mountain.

She was strangled in the net of gossip.

Personification

Personification ： a figure that endows objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions with human form, character, or sensibility.

There are three chief kinds of personification:

That produced by the use of adjectives. The blushing rose; the thirsty ground That produced by the use of nouns The smiles of spring; the whisper of

leaves That produced by the use of verbs The kettle sings; the waves danced

Personification

拟人是把物（包括物体、动物、思想或抽象概念）拟作人，使其具有人的外表、个性或情感。拟人可通过形容词、动词或名词表现出来：

Personification

The dancing daffodils; the thirsty crops

Time will tell.Money talked as sweetly in Athens as

it had in Chicago in the old days. —John Dos Passos

Personification

比较汉语的拟人：清高的水仙　　　一只斜盖着的茶碗盖子也噫的一声翻了身。― 鲁迅

盼望着，盼望着。春风来了，春天的脚步近了。　　― 朱自清

Personification 拟人法

He slept like a log.He was like a cock who thought the

sun had risen to hear him crow.Like a lion, he rushed to meet his

foe.汉语还有拟物，即把人当物写：这孩子如今翅膀硬了，要远走高飞了。　　　　　　　　　　　　

帝国主义夹着尾巴逃跑了。

Zoosemy 拟物法

Zoosemy Zoosemy

“ A lucky dog you are!” exclaimed Jim.

Terribly hungry, the man wolfed down all the cakes.

Children are flowers of our country.

Metonymy: the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated.

换喻或借代The pen is mightier than the

sword.

Metonymy

Gray hairs should be respected. He is too fond of the bottles. I have never read James Joyce. She is far from the cradle.

Metonymy

What is learned in the cradle is carried into the grave.

His purse would not allow him that luxury.

Metonymy

Synecdoche: the naming of a part to mean the whole or the naming of a whole to mean the part.

用种代表类：用 vessel 代表 ship, 用weapon 代表 sword, 用 creature代表man, 用 arms 代表 rifles, 用vehicle 代表 bicycle .

用类代表种 : 用 bread 代表 food, 用cutthroat 代表 assassin.

Synecdoche

用局部代表全部 : 用 sail 代表 ship, 用 hands 代表 helpers, 用 roofs 代表 house.

用构成某东西的材料代表那样东西 : 用silver 代表money, 用 canvas 代表sail, 用 steel 代表 sword.

Synecdoche

Metonymy: the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated.换喻或借代

Synecdoche: When a part is substituted for the whole or the whole is substituted for a part.提喻

TransferenceTransference

The farms were short of hands during the harvest season.

He had to earn his daily bread by doing odd jobs.

The poor creature could no longer endure her sufferings.

the naming of a part to mean the whole.

synecdoche

TransferenceTransference

The pen is mightier than the pickax.

the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated

metonymy

Gray hairs should be respected. He is too fond of the bottles. I have never read Li Ba She is far from the cradle.

TransferenceTransference

metonymy

Euphemism: the substitution of an inoffensive expression for one that may be disagreeable

as in the use of “pass away or pass on” for “die”,

Euphemism

“ misinform”for “lie”“the gentleman is misinformed” “remains”for a “corpse”“visiting the necessary” for

“going to the toilet”, etc.

Euphemism

Find out the figures of speech Find out the figures of speech usedused

The glories of our blood and state,Are shadows, not substantial things;There is no armour against fate;Death lays his icy hand on kings;Sceptre and CrownMust tumble downAnd in the dust be equal madeWith the poor crooked Scythe and

Spade.

metaphor

personification

transferred epithet metonymy

metonymy

synecdoche