英语作文修辞格

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Ⅴ. Figures of Speech (修辞格；修辞手段；比喻): a figure of speech is a word or

expression used with a figurative rather than a literal

meaning；a word or expression that gives variety or force,

using words out of their literal meaning; a word or expression

used in a different way from the normal one, to give you a

picture in your mind

1. Simile: a comparison between two things, using the words like or as (as...as, as

if/though included), as in He jumped as if he had been stung. (他像被蜇了似的跳了起来。) or Childhood is like a swiftly passing dream. (童年就像一场疾逝的梦。)

2. Metaphor: the use of words to indicate sth. different from the literal meaning, as

in ‘I’ll make him eat his words’ or ‘He has a heart of stone’ or The

world is a stage.

3. Personification: instance of regarding or representing sth. as a person, as in

referring to the sun and the moon by using ‘he’ and ‘she’, My

heart was singing我的心在歌唱。This time fate was smiling

to him这一次命运朝他微笑了。The flowers nodded to her

while she passed当她经过的时候花儿向她点头致意。The

wind whistled through the trees风穿过树丛，树叶哗哗作响。

4. Metonymy (转喻；换喻): (change of name) the substitution of the name of one

thing for that of another with which it is closely

associated, as in suit for business executive, the turf

for horse racing, the crown for the monarch, No. 10

Downing Street for the British government or the

Prime Minister, the bottle for alcohol, the bar for 2

the legal profession, “The kettle boils” for “The

water in the kettle boils,” His purse would not allow

him that luxury(他的经济条件不允许他享受那种奢华。) or The mother did her best to take care of

the cradle. (母亲尽最大努力照看孩子。)

5. Synecdoche (举隅法；提喻法) : a figure of speech in which a part is made to

represent the whole or vice versa, as in

Scotland lost by two to nothing (meaning the

Scottish team), bread for food or living, the

army for a soldier, He earns his bread by

writing.(他靠写作挣钱谋生。), The farms

were short of hands during the harvest season

(收获季节里农场缺乏劳动力。) Australia

beat Canada at cricket (澳大利亚队在板球比赛中击败了加拿大队。) or He is the Newton

of this century (他是这个世纪的牛顿。)

6. Euphemism: use of mild, vague and indirect words or phrases in place of what

is required by truth or accuracy, as in using to fall asleep/to cease

thinking/to pass away/to go to heaven/ to leave us in place of the

verb to die, senior citizens for old people, a slow learner or an

under achiever for a stupid pupil, weight watcher for fat people,

mental institution for madhouse or asylum, mentally or

emotionally disturbed for mad, washroom/men's / women's room

for lavatory, handicapped for crippled, low income

brackets/underprivileged/disadvantaged for the poor

7. Irony (反语): the expression of one’s meaning by saying sth. which is the direct

opposite of one’s thoughts, in order to make one’s remarks

forceful, as in … …(omitted) 3

8. Overstatement and Understatement (omitted)

9. Transferred Epithet (移位修饰)：A figure of speech in which an

epithet/adjective grammatically qualifies a “wrong” noun other than the person

or thing it is actually describing. Also known as hypallage (换置法).

A transferred epithet often involves shifting a modifier from the animate to the

inanimate, as in the phrases “cheerful money,” “sleepless night”, “suicidal sky”,

“angry wind”, “a careless match”, “weary road/way”, and “wide-eyed

amazement”

The word whose modifier is thus displaced can either be actually present in the

sentence, or it can be implied logically. The effect often stresses the emotions

or feelings of the individual by expanding them on to the environment.

For example:

• “On the idle hill of summer/Sleepy with the flow of streams/Far I hear...” (A.E.

Housman, A Shropshire Lad) — idle hill... sleepy is a hypallage: it is the

narrator, not the hill, who exhibits these features.

• “The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, / And leaves the world to

darkness and to me” (Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)

— weary way is a hypallage: it is the ploughman, not the way, that is weary.

• “restless night” — The night was not restless, but the person who was awake

through it was.

• “happy morning” — Mornings have no feelings, but the people who are awake

through them do.

• “female prison” — Prisons do not have genders, but the people who are inside

them do.

• “condemned cell” — It is not the cell that is condemned, but the person who is

inside it.

• “careless error” — The error is not careless, but the person who commits it is.

• “distracted driving” — The driving is not distracted, but the person doing it is.

There was a short, thoughtful silence. 出现了一阵短暂的、令人沉思的寂静。