kuw-昌德宫
Figures of Speech
By
figures
of
speech,
we
refer
here
to
those
rhetorical
devices
termed
“
tropes
”
in classical rhetoric. Tropes
have to do with the way words are made to
mean other than what they normally
imply, and therefore involve deviation from
the
ordinary
and
literal
meaning
of
words.
(Tropes
are
the
application
of
the
name of a thing to
something else.------ from
Aristotle
’
s
Poetics)
They are ways of
making our language figurative. We use
words in non-literal senses to lend force
to an idea, to heighten effect, or to
create atmosphere.
Each
figure
has
its
own
form
and
characteristics,
and
its
own
way
of
achieving effect.
Sometimes two or more figures can be used together
for greater
impact.
A knowledge of these figures, and how
they are best used will be of help to
us
not
only
in
deepening
our
understanding
of
what
we
read,
but
also
in
appreciating
more
fully
the
finer
points
of
a
writer
’
s
style.
In
the
process,
we
might
even learn to write better ourselves.
There
are
scores
of figures
of speech
in
rhetoric.
But
in
our
lectures,
only
those that are of
universal appeal, and of great practical value
have been chosen
for discussion.
1.
Simile
1)
Jim and Billy are as like as two peas.
2)
And the
whining school boy, with his satchel and shining
morning face, creeping
like snail
unwillingly to
school
……
(Shakespeare)
3)
Records fell
like ripe apples on a windy day.
4)
He is
something of a political chameleon.
Noteworthy
is
that
a
simile
must
possess
the
quality
of
freshness
and
originality.
It
would be better to avoid using similes
like:
as cold as ice, as good as gold,
as strong
as an ox, as cunning as a
fox, as fresh as a rose.
2.
Metaphor
Please compare:
1)
The news is as
a dagger to his heart. / The news is a dagger to
his heart.
2)
Joe
fought like a lion. / Joe was a lion in the
battle.
3)
Learning may be likened to climbing up
a mountain. / Learning is climbing up
a
mountain.
4)
The
gossip was like a net that strangled her. / She
was strangled in the net of
gossip.
5)
Dress is
language.
6)
Successful living is a journey toward
simplicity and triumph over confusion.
7)
Money is the
lens in a camera.
1
8)
A house
divided against itself can
?
t
stand.---- A. Lincoln
9)
I skim over the book to taste the tone
of it.
10)
At
last he felt a ray of hope.
11)
The parks are
the lungs of our city.
12)
In foreign policy, flying solo can be
risky business.
13)
The auto dealer hijacked buyers into
purchasing unwanted accessories.
14)
When a virus
enters a cell it hijacks it, and make it do what
it wants.
15)
Efficiency is undermined in a jungle of
red tape.
16)
Unchecked
violence
has
already
dulled
the
luster
of
the
Big
Apple.
The
daunting task before its leaders is to
prevent it from rotting to the core.
3.
Metonymy
1)
He must have
been spoilt from the cradle.
2)
What is
learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.
3)
The pen is
mightier than the sword.
4)
When the war was over, he laid down the
sword and took up the pen.
5)
His purse
would not allow him that luxury.
6)
He took to the
bottle.
7)
He has
been appointed to the bench.
8)
She took the
veil at 20.
Pay attention:
the press; the bench; the bar; the bottle;
cup=coffee; dish= food; table
=food,
dish; the stable = the horses.
9)
He reads
Shakespeare.
10)
The whole city went out to hail the
victorious troops.
11)
He has undoubtedly the best stable in
the country.
12)
Sheradon is a hotel noted for its good
table.
13)
Without military leverage, peaceful
mediation was not working.
14)
Some
countries use oil supply as political leverage.
15)
His heart
ruled his head.
4.
Synecdoche
1)
More hands are
needed at harvest time.
2)
We had dinner at ten dollars a head.
3)
He has many
mouths to feed in his family.
4)
They counted
50 sails in the harbour.
5)
He is a valiant heart.
6)
He earned his
bread by doing odd jobs.
7)
The poor man is now left without a
roof.
8)
All the
plants in the cold country are turning green in
this smiling year.
9)
All the wit and learning of the world
were assembled there.
10)
The legs could hardly keep up with the
tanks.
2
5.
Irony
1)
It must be
delightful to find oneself in a foreign country
without a penny in one
?
s
pocket.
2)
Clinker,
you
are
a
most
notorious
offender
---
you
stand
convicted
of
sickness,
hunger, and want.
3)
Blessed are
the young, for they shall inherit the national
debt.
4)
What is
originality? Undetected plagiarism.
6.
Paradox
1.
More haste, less speed.
2.
In
fact,
it
appears
that
the
teachers
of
English
teach
English
so
poorly
largely
because they teach
grammar so well.
3.
The child is father of the man.
4.
This suspense
is terrible. I hope it will last.
5.
All
generalizations are false, including this one.
6.
People have
one thing in common: they are all different.
7.
His main
feature is his featurelessness.
8.
I
?
d like to live
like a poor man with a lot of money.
9.
Without Jews,
there is no German identity, without the Germans,
no Jewish one.
7.
Oxymoron
1)
American civilization is characterized
by conservative liberalism of our political
life, the pragmatic idealism of our
cerebral life, the emotional rationalism of our
spiritual life and the godly
materialism of our acquisitive life.
2)
The parental
discipline can be described as cruel kindness.
3)
The coach had
to be cruel to be kind to his trainees.
4)
Bitter-sweet
memories,
living
death,
a
wise
fool,
tearful
joy,
idiotic
wisdom,
victorious
defeat,
crowded
solitude,
sour-sweet
days,
love-hate
relationship,
conspicuous
absence, etc.
8.
Hyperbole:
the
deliberate
use
of
overstatement
or
exaggeration
to
achieve
emphasis
1) For she was beautiful---her beauty
made
The bright world dim, and everything
beside
Seem
like the fleeting image of a shade.
(P. B. Shelley:
“
The Witch of
Atlas
”
)
2) His
friends praised his
daughter
?
s performances to
the skies.
3) She is dying to know what
job has been assigned her.
4) And I
will love thee still, my dear,
3
Till a
?
the seas
gang dry.
5)
After
a
decade
of
discredit,
the
theories
of
John
Maynard
Keynes
have
bounced
back---
and
an
articulate
group
of
apostles
is
spreading
his
economic
gospel
on
campus and campaign
trail.
9.
Alliteration
1) His writing
is clear and clean.
2) US trade policy
is often viewed as inconsistent, incoherent and
incomprehensible.
3) Life is the lust
of a lamp for the light that is dark till the dawn
of the day that we
die.
4)
Penny wise, pound foolish.
5) Peter
Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.
6) She sell seashells on the seashore.
7) Practice makes perfect.
8) Bye, Bye, Balanced Budget. (Time)
9) For comfort, convenience, superb
service and more flights to Japan---YOU CAN
DEPEND ON US--- Cathay Pacific (Time)
10) Pei
?
s
Pyramids Puzzle Paris (Time)
11) Fit or
Fat?
12) Super Savings in the Skies
13) Love it or loathe it?
10. Euphemism:
substitution
of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one
that
may offend or suggest something
unpleasant.
1)
be
put
in
prison---
be
sent
to
the
big
house;
be
sent
up
the
river;
living
at
the
government
?
s
expense; stay at the correctional centre
2) garbage collector, dustman---
sanitary engineer
3) out of job---
between jobs
4) be fired--- be selected
out; be terminated; laid-offs
5) vomit
bags---bags for motion discomfort
6) He
is a liar.--- He often tells untruths; or he has
credibility gap.
7) be pregnant ---be
expecting
8) fat --- stout;
plump
9) The student cheats.--- He
needs to learn how help in learning to adhere to
rules and
standards of fair play.
10)
The
student
must
mend
his
way.---
He
needs
to
be
brought
back
into
the
mainstream.
11) The student
is lazy.---
I
?
m afraid he has
to exert himself in his study.
Probably he has
to devote himself more diligently to his studies.
He
?
d better take
his lessons more seriously.
4
He is sure to go far if he can use his
resources fully.
11)
pornographic movies --- adult films---
X-rated films
12)
poor: needy; underprivileged; the
indigent
13)
slum: substandard housing
11. Parody
1)
Quality breeds success.---Familiarity breeds
contempt.
2) Necessity is the Mother of
invention.
3) Skill and patience will
succeed where force fails.
4) Lib and
let lib. --- Live and let live.
5) I
came, I saw, I conquered. (Veni, Vidi, Vici.)
(climax)
They
came, they saw, they bought out.
An
all
star
team
from
the
States
came,
saw
---
and
was
conquered.
(anti-climax;
parody;
asyndeton
‘连接词的省略’
)
6) If the 1980s were the worst of times
for critics of that debt-propelled decade, they
were the best of times for
Wall Street Journal
editor
Robert Bartley. (From: It was the
best
of times, it was the worst of
times
…
The opening lines of
A Tale of Two Cities
by
Charles Dickens)
7)
In
the
world
of
brand
names,
familiarity
breeds
content.
(From:
Proverb---
Familiarity
breeds contempt.)
8)
All
too
often
one
man
?
s
sexual
liberation
becomes
one
woman
?
s
responsibility.
(From:
Proverb--- One man
?
s meat is
another man
?
s poison.)
9) One man
?
s
disaster is another man
?
s
delight. The sale is now on. (an advertisement)
12. Transferred
epithet
1) His unfriendly
tongue surprised her.
2) She read the
long-awaited letter with a tearful smile.
3) The assistant kept a respectful
distance from his boss when they were walking in
the corridor.
4)
He had some cheerful wine at the party.
5)
“
Of a
lifetime,
”
repeated Mrs.
Rgmer, sweetly murmuring and casting towards her
friend an eloquent glance.
6) There was an amazed silence. Slowly
Alexander turned away.
7) After an
unthinking moment, she put her pen into her mouth.
8) Of the thousands of people who stand
under Michelangelo
?
s heroic
ceiling in the
Sistine
Chapel,
very
few
are
aware
that
they
are
looking
at
perhaps
the
greatest
watercolor painting
in the world.
13.
Antithesis
1) Everything
serious that he says is a joke and everything
humorous that he says is
5