英语的两种修饰法：矛盾修饰法矛盾修饰法跟PUN(双关语)

矛盾修饰法矛盾修饰法(Oxymoron)

矛盾修饰法矛盾修饰法(Oxymoron)是将两个互相矛盾，互不调和，的词放在同一个短语中，产生特殊的深刻含义的一种修辞手段。用它来状物写景，能突出事物的实质；用它来描绘人物，能使其更加鲜明；用它来表达复杂的思想感情或意味深长的哲理，能使其更强烈，更深刻。它是一种紧缩隽语。矛盾修饰法是将两个意思截然不同的词放在一起，结合成一个词组，而对语是通过平行结构引起两个概念的对比。

矛盾修饰法：从哲学上讲，是对立的统一；从艺术上讲，更能体现出描写主体的个性化，更具渲染力。

例如：

1.a clever fool聪明的傻瓜

2.a victorious defeat胜利的失败

3.cruel kindness残酷的仁慈

4.expressionless expression毫无表情的表情

5.sick health憔悴的健康

6.a living death行尸走肉

7.with careful carelessness小心翼翼又漫不经心地

8.bright and dark既光彩夺目，又朦胧黑暗

9.dove-feather’d raven披着白鸽羽毛的乌鸦

10.with her disagreeably pleasant laugh（她）自鸣得意却令人讨厌地笑起来

11.an honorable villain体面的恶棍

12.There was an audible stillness, in which the common voice sounded strange.(from Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser)

这时是一片听得见的寂静，连人声听起来都是异样的。(选自美国作家西奥多•德莱塞的长篇小说《嘉莉妹妹》)(作者用audible来修饰stillness，匠心独具地从反面烘托环境，使人耳目一新，过目难忘。矛盾的对立面取得了高度的一致，形成了完美的统一。)

"How you shot the goat and frightened the tiger to death," said Miss Mebbin,with her disagreeably pleasant laugh.

──Saki: Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

该句中的disagreeably pleasant就是矛盾修饰法，把disagreeably和pleasant两个意义截然相反的词放在一起，揭示了Miss Mebbin企图抓住Mrs. Packletide的虚荣心进行敲诈时那种既讨厌又得意的神态。再如：

The Major again pressed to his blue lips the tips of the fingers that were disposed on the ledge of the wheeled chair with careful carelessness.

句中的careful carelessness这两个词似乎是矛盾的，既然是carelessness为什么又careful 呢？但若推敲一下，我们不难发现作者把careful和carelessness用在一起是有其用意的，他所要表达的正是少校那种既小心翼翼又漫不经心的矛盾心理。

矛盾修饰法的特点决定了它的构成，一般有以下几种：

形容词＋名词如：tearful joy, proud humility, beautiful tyrant, orderly chaos等等。

副词＋V-ing如：deliciously aching, changelessly changing等等。

副词＋形容词如：dully bright, mildly magnificent, conspicuously absent, mercifully fatal等等。

动词＋副词如：hasten slowly, groan loudly, shine darkly等等。

形容词＋形容词如：bitter sweet memories, bad good news, poor rich guys, cold pleasant manners等等。

动词分词＋名词如：a living death, wolfish-ravening lamb, loving hate, a dammed saint等等。

英语矛盾修饰法有以下几种修辞作用：

1.形成鲜明生动的对比，给人以深刻的印象。

Juliet: O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!

Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish ravening lamb!

Despised substance of divinest show!

Just opposite to what thou justly seem'ist.

A dammed saint, an honorable villain!

──Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

这是Juliet听到她的表哥Tybalt已被Romeo杀死后说的一段话，作者用了一系列的词意矛盾的词语：用beautiful(美丽的)修饰tyrant(暴君)，用angelical(天使般的)修饰fiend(魔鬼),用dove-feather'd(披着白鸽羽毛的)修饰raven(乌鸦)，用wolvish-ravening(豺狼一样残忍的)修饰lamb(羊羔)，用dammed(万恶的)修饰saint(圣人)，用honorable修饰villain(奸徒)，对比鲜明生动，充分表现了Juliet极其复杂的矛盾心情，给人留下深刻的印象。再如：

He sat in the square and watched them, so changelessly changing, so bright and dark, so grave and gay.