Figures_of_speech

Figures of speech (修辞格)are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively. Now we are going to talk about some common forms of figures of speech.
1) Simile：(明喻）
It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic in common. To make the comparison, words like as, as...as, as if and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other. For example, As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
2) Metaphor：(暗喻;隐喻）
It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. For example, the world is a stage.
3) Understatement: (低调陈述）
It is the opposite of overstatement. It achieves its effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately(故意地) understating it, impressing the listener or the reader more by what is merely implied or left unsaid than by bare statement. For instance, It is no laughing matter.
4) Metonymy (借代，转喻）
It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the mane of one thing for that of another. For instance, the pen (words) is mightier than the sword (forces).
* In the last six years we have won twenty-nine international awards. But no one could accuse us of resting on our laurels. 5) Irony: (反语）
It is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense. For instance, we are lucky, what you said makes me feel real good.
6) Climax: (递进法）
It is derived from the Greek word for "ladder" and implies the progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of significance or intensity, like the steps of a ladder ascending evenly. For example, I came, I saw, I conquered.
* Here. There. Everywhere. * One Ticket. One Airline. All of America. ( Delta Airline )
* Fly the world via KLM’s super home base. Via Schiphol, the Gateway to Europe. And pick up the bargains on the way. Test us. Try us. Fly us. ( Royal Dutch Airline )
7) Anti-climax or bathos: (突降）
It is the opposite of Climax. It involves stating one's thoughts in a descending order of significance or intensity, from strong to weak, from weighty to light or frivolous. For instance, But thousands die, without or this or that, die, and endow(赋予) a college, or a cat.
8) Alliteration: (头韵）
It has to do with the sound rather than the sense of words for effect. It is a device that repeats the same sound at frequent intervals and since the sound repeated is usually the initial consonant sound, it is also called "front rhyme". For instance, the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.
9) Onomatopoeia: (拟声）
It is a device that uses words which imitate the sounds made by an object (animate or inanimate), or which are associated with or suggestive of some action or movement.
10）Repetition （重复）
11）Parallelism （排比）Both parallelism and antithesis have parallel structure. But antithesis emphasize on contrasting words or ideas, while parallelism falls on word-to-word parallel structure. It usually extends the previous idea to reinforce its selling points. With its parallel, tidy and compact structure, parallelism reflects a clear image of the goods or company. Sentence of this structure are forceful and energetic, containing the power of confidence. * 20 Years Ago SEIKO started A Quartz Revolution Today We Start A New One. ( SETKO: watch ) * No need to down load. No need to fiddle with cables. * Buy Smart. Fly Free. * Twenty-one years in the cask. Twenty-six dollars the ounce. ( Glenlivet whisky ) * We provide the luxury. You enjoy the view. * What Makes US Better, Makes You Stronger. ( Nordic sports machine )
Figures of Speech (修辞格)
Review (本文中遇到并需要复习的修辞格）: metaphor, metonymy, alliteration, etc
New （本文出现的新修辞格）:
1. antithesis (对偶句）: the difference between what people claim to and what they really are.
a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.
2. euphemism （委婉）: ...who diligently avoided contact with the enemy.
he commented with a crushing sense of despair on man's final release from earthly struggles
3. personification (拟人): Bitterness fed on the man who had made the world laugh
4. transferred epithet (修饰语移位): Mark Twain hone and experimented with new writing muscles.
5. hyperbole (夸张): America laughed with him.
修辞格详解：
1. Antithesis （对偶修辞格）is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition. In setting the opposite, an individual brings out of a contrast in the meaning (e.g., the definition, interpretation, or semantics) by an obvious contrast in the expression.
1) Man proposes, God disposes. (谋事在人，成事在天)
2) Many are called, but few are chosen.
3) "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." (Goethe)
4) "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." (advertising slogan)
5) "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
6) "You're easy on the eyes, hard on the heart." (Terri Clark)
7) "The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression." (Harold Pinter)
8) "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"
9) "...although the surface appears to be...very, very fine-grained as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder...Okay, I'm going to step off the LEM now. That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind."
10) "We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change."
11) "We find ourselves rich in goods but ragged in spirit, reaching with magnificent precision for the moon but falling into raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war, wanting peace. We're torn by division, wanting unity."
12) "It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." ( Abraham Lincoln)
13) "It can't be wrong if it feels so right" —Debbie Boone
14) ― Give me liberty or give me death.‖
15) ―The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.‖ (1863, Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address )
16) "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." Martin Luther King, Jr. , Letter from Birmingham Jail
17) "History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of the weak and helpless ones." Franklin D. Roosevelt
2. Euphemism （委婉）
A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver, or to make it less troublesome for the speaker. It may also substitute a description of something or someone to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse.
1) Dr. House: Who were you going to kill in Bolivia? My old housekeeper?
Dr. Terzi: We don't kill anyone.
Dr. House: I'm sorry--who were you going to marginalize?
("Whatever It Takes," House, M.D.)
2) Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're both being let go.
Lou: Let go? What does that mean?
Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired, Louie.
(In Good Company, 2004)
3) Paul Kersey: You've got a prime figure. You really have, you know.
Joanna Kersey: That's a euphemism for fat.
(Death Wish, 1974)
3. Personification (拟人) is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).
1) Wind yells while blowing
2) Necklace is a friend
3) SNOW
Snow speaks to the people its falling above in the glooming sunlight.
Its white sparkling voice echoes as it falls through the air.
By Jake
4) STARS
Stars, bring me up with you
Bring me to the place you sleep.
How do you do it?
Bring me to your home.
Bring your thoughts to me.
Share them with me.
By Alex
5) The wind stood up and gave a shout.
He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his hand
And said he'd kill and kill and kill,
And so he will and so he will.
(James Stephens, "The Wind")
6) "The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side, the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests." (Richard Selzer, "The Knife")
7) "Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there." (proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)
8) "The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!" (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)
4. Hyperbole (夸张), is a rhetorical device in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.
1) These books weigh a ton. (These books are heavy.)
2) The path went on forever. (The path was very long.)
3) I'm doing a million things right now. (I'm busy.)
4) She ran quicker than a bullet. (She ran fast.)
5) I could sleep for a year
6) I nearly died laughing.
7) My dog is so ugly we have to wait 'till midnight to take him on walks.
8) He is older than the hills.
9) I will die if she asks me to dance.
10) I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
11) I have told you a million times not to lie!
5. Transferred epithet (修饰语移位) An epithet is an adjective (or phrase containing an adjective) or adverb which modifies (describes) a noun. In a transferred epithet the adjective or adverb is transferred from the noun it logically belongs with, to another one which fits it grammatically but not logically.
1) a sleepless pillow
2) dreamless sleep
3) restless night
4) He drew his coward sword
5) He steers the fearless ship.
6) And the merry bells ring round.
Sarcasm (讽刺挖苦)
Sarcasm is the use of words to damage the reputation of, or hurt, another person. It is a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt. Some authorities sharply distinguish sarcasm from irony, as in: ―Irony must not be confused with sarcasm, which is direct: sarcasm means precisely what it says, but in a sharp, caustic, ... manner.‖. However, others would argue that sarcasm may involve, or often does involve, irony. Thus: ―sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony. But irony, or the use of expressions conveying different things according as they are interpreted, is so often made the vehicle of sarcasm…‖; and ―The essence of sarcasm is the intention of giving pain by (ironical or other) bitter words.‖
There is some doubt about that.
1. Well, this day was a total waste of makeup.
2. Well, ar en’t we just a ray of frigging sunshine?
3. Make yourself at home! Clean my kitchen.
4. Not the brightest crayon in the box now, are we?
5. A hard-on doesn’t count as personal growth.
6. Don’t bother me. I’m living happily ever after.
7. Do I look like a frigging people person?
8. This isn’t an office. It’s Hell with fluorescent lighting.
9. I started out with nothing & still have most of it left.
10. I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.
11. I’ve found Jesus. He was behind the sofa the whole time.
12. You! Off my planet !!
13. Therapy is expensive, popping bubble wrap is cheap! You choose.
14. Practice random acts of intelligence & senseless acts of self-control.
15. I like dogs too. Let’s exchange recipes.
16. If I want to hear the pitter-patter of li ttle feet, I’ll put shoes on my cat.
17. The Bible was written by the same people who said the Earth was flat.
18. Did the aliens forget to remove your anal probe?
19. I wish for a world of peace, harmony, & nakedness.
20. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.
21. Let me show you how the guards used to do it.
22. And your crybaby whiny-assed opinion would be…?
23. I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 30 years.
24. See no evil, hear no evil and date no evil.
25. Allow me to introduce my selves.
26. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.
27. Whisper my favorite words: ―I’ll buy it for you.‖
28. Better living through denial.
29. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
30. Suburbia: where they tear out the trees & then name streets after them.
31. Do they ever shut up on your planet?
32. I’m just working here till a good fast-food job opens up.
33. Are those your eyeballs? I found them in my cleavage.
34. I’m not your type. I’m not inflatable.
35. I’m trying to imagine yo u with a personality.
36. A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.
37. Stress is when you wake up screaming & you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.
38. Here I am! Now what are your other two wishes?
39. Back off! You’re standing in my aura.
40. I can’t remember if I’m the good twin or the evil one.
41. Don’t worry. I forgot your name, too!
42. One of us is thinking about sex… OK, it’s me.
43. How many times do I have to flush before you go away?
44. I have a computer, a vibrator, & pizza delivery. Why should I leave the house?
45. I just want revenge. Is that so wrong?
46. It’s sick the way you people keep having sex without me.
47. I work 40 hours a week to be this poor.
48. You say I’m a bitch like it’s a bad thing.
49. Can I trade this job for what’s behind door #2?
50. Okay, okay, I take it back! Un-Screw You!
51. Macho Law forbids me from admitting I’m wrong.
52. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?
53. Not all men are annoying. Some are dead.
54. Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
55. J ust smile and say ―Yes, Mistress.‖
56. Chaos, panic, & disorder – my work here is done.
57. Mommy, I wanna grow up to be a neurotic bitch just like you.
58. A woman’s favorite position is CEO.
59. Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.
60. You look like shit. Is that the style now?
61. This is a mean and damned cruel world & I want my nappy & medication right now!
62. Everyone thinks I’m psychotic, except for my friends deep inside the earth.
63. Earth is full. Go home.
64. Is it time for your medication or mine?
65. Aw, did I step on your poor little bitty ego?
66. Did I mention the kick in the groin you’ll be receiving if you touch me?
67. I plead contemporary insanity.
68. And which dwarf are you?
69. I refuse to star in your psychodrama.
70. I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.
71. How do I set a laser printer to stun?
72. It ain’t the size, it’s… no, I’m sorry, it really is the size.
73. I’m not tense, just terribly, terribly alert.
74. I majored in liberal arts. Will that be for here or to go?
75. Gene Police!!! Get out of the pool!!
窗体底端
Ridicule:
Mock the other person's claim and argument. Make fun of it. Get people to laugh at it.
Alternatively, mock the alternatives that they might choose, giving them only one option that you have not mocked. Ridicule, mock, taunt twit, deride These verbs refer to making another the butt of amusement or mirth. Ridicule implies purposeful disparagement: ―My father discouraged me by ridiculing my performances‖ (Benjamin Franklin) To mock i s to poke fun at someone, often by mimicking and caricaturing speech or actions: ―Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort/As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit‖ (Shakespeare) Taunt suggests mocking, insulting, or scornful reproach: ―taunting him with want of courage to leap into the great pit‖ (Daniel Defoe) To twit is to taunt by calling attention to something embarra ssing: ―The schoolmaster was twitted about the lady who threw him over‖ (J.M. Barrie) Deride implies scorn and contempt: ―Was a ll the world in a conspiracy to deride his failure?‖ (Edith Wharton)
Example
1) Supporting that cause would take several surgical trusses!
2) Those other cars look ridiculous. This is the only man's car here.
3) Those clothes would make you look like a overdressed donkey.
4) Well, Tony will tell you something else, but then he always lived on the other side of the tracks.
5) Mike doesn't have a degree, but he does speak nicely, doesn't he.
6) Only an idiot would consider Didactus to have any useful opinion.
7) Everybody knows that cold fusion is a proven impossibility. Jack: did you have something to say on this.
8) "Sure my worthy opponent claims that we should lower tuition, but that is just laughable."
9) "Equal rights for women? Yeah, I'll support that when they start paying for dinner and taking out the trash! Hah hah! Fetch me another brewski, Mildred."
Antithesis(对偶句)
Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.
1）"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot
2）Lloyd Braun: "Serenity now; insanity later." -- from Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now"
3）"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." —Abraham Lincoln
4）"It can't be wrong if it feels so right" —Debbie Boone
5）"One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."
6）"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." (Goethe)
7）"Hillary has soldiered on, damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, like most powerful women, expected to be tough as nails and warm as toast at the same time." (Anna Quindlen, "Say Goodbye to the Virago."
8）"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." (Jack London)
9) "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." (advertising slogan)
10) "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
11) "You're easy on the eyes. Hard on the heart." (Terri Clark)
12) "The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression." (Harold Pinter)
A. Metaphor:
1) a new Clovis, loving what I have despised … （相当于I am a new Clovis, …）
2) an Endymion young and strong (相当于I am an Endymion young and strong: 一个Endymion般的年轻和壮健)
3) looking at the sea, rippled with little white ponies, or with no ripples at all but only the lazy satin of blue
4) Protests about … froze me with contempt.
5) We wait for it while the red ball, cut in half as though by a knife, sinks to its daily doom.
… .
隐喻的一个主要特征是：用于构建隐喻的词汇可以是名词，动词，形容词，副词，甚至介词等等，隐喻在句子中的位置可以是主语，谓语，宾语，甚至定语和状语。

隐喻几乎是无处不在。

Some more examples:
1) He kept chewing the inside of his lip a lot, frozen into complete silence. (状语)
2) He sat rooted in his seat （状语）
3) A faint smile lights up the woman’s face as she replies: ―Because it (cobra) was crawling across my foot.‖ (谓语动词)
4) Then, in early hours of May 27, a miracle began to unfold (展示，出现). (动词不定式)
5) Slowly, patiently, skillfully, James Van Metre’s wife fanned the spark of life that flickered in Henry Bedell. ( 谓语动词，定语从句)
6) The Duchess of Croydon kept firm, tight rein on her racing mind. (形容词词组)
7) The words spat forth with sudden savagery, all pretense of blandness gone. (介词词组)
8) After a hard day in the business jungle, you like to talk to our headhunter. (名词)
9) President Lyndon B. Johnson's inaugural address pictured America as "the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge...the star that is not reached and the harvest that's sleeping in the unplowed ground."
10) We are the eyelids of defeated caves
11) That throws some light on the question.
12) He was carried away by his passions
13) I'm burning. ( Here, burning passion is implied.)
B. Simile:
1) it is as in a moving picture that I can note the grace of her gestures
2) as dismissive as Pharisee
3) as sentimental and sensitive as any old maid doing water colors of sunsets
4) my imagination … so austere in the foreground but nurturing what treasures of tenderness, like delicate flowers, for the discovery of the venturesome
5) … gives a cry like a sea-bird
6) … we are as pleased a children wh en our game succeeds
7) I like the football of naked feet in the dust, silent as a cat passing.
8) the faint creaking, as of the saddle-leather to a horseman riding across turf
C. Alliteration:
1) on a less practical plane
2) And now see how I stand, as sentimental and sensitive as any old maid
3) clear of cloud
4) I would never have believed in the simple bliss of being
5) the hiss of sudden spray
D. Metonymy:
1) in the evening she wears soft rich colours.
2) he says he used to read me.
3) Laura is always in grey and white by day,
E. Euphemism:
I want my fill of beauty before I go.
F. Personification:
1) The young moon lies on her back tonight as is her habit in the tropics, and as, I think, is suitable if not seemly for a virgin
2) …with no ripples at all but only the lazy satin of blue
3) Or maybe Laura’s unwitting influence has called it out.
G. Transferred epithet:
1) And the cool support of water.
2) And the sky a tender palette of pink and blue
3) I had no temptation to take a flying holiday to the south
H. Hyperbole:
I wondered what mortal controlled it, in what must be one of the loneliest, most forbidding spots on Earth.
I. Onomatopoeia
And then I like all the small noises of a ship: the faint creaking, as of the saddle-leather to a horseman riding across turf , the slap of a rope, the hiss of sudden spray
Understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. This is not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression. Examples:
• "It's just a flesh wound."
(Black Knight, after having both arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
• "The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace."
(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
• "I am just going outside and may be some time."
(Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912)
• "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscie ntiously regarded as a thing of beauty." (Mark Twain) • "This [double helix] structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest." (J. Watson and F. Crick)• "I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny lit tle tumor on the brain."
(Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)
• "The new EU member states of Poland and Lithuania have been arguing this week for the summit to be called off, and criticizing the German preparations. For historical reasons, the east Europeans are highly sensitive to any sign of Germany cutting deals with Russia over their heads."
(The Guardian, May 17, 2007)
• "Well, that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?"
(Dinner guest, after a visit from the Grim Reaper, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life)
• "The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist bombings and threats to destroy nightclubs and airports, and therefore have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to 'Peeved.' Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to 'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross.' Brits have not been 'A Bit Cross' since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out." (anonymous post on the Internet, July 2007)
• I think there may be some additi onal factors that you may not have accounted for.
•Your analysis is far too simplistic.
• No one will take such an idiotic theory seriously.。