高级英语书中涉及的修辞手法

Lecture Preparation for Figures of Speech

I. Sound Effect

a. onomatopoeia

Def. the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. "Buzz," for example, when spoken is intended to resemble the sound of a flying insect. Other examples include these: slam, pow, screech, whirr, crush, sizzle, crunch, wring, wrench, gouge, grind, mangle, bang, blam, pow, zap, fizz, urp, roar, growl, blip, click, whimper, and, of course, snap, crackle, and pop. Note that the connection between sound and pronunciation is sometimes rather a product of imagination ("slam" and "wring" are not very good imitations). And note also that written language retains an aural quality, so that even unspoken your writing has a sound to it.

b. alliteration

Def. repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence

1. "Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be

our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future."

2. "And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had for

it and for us. All for which America stands is safe today because brave

men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front."

c. assonance

Def. repetition of the same sound in words close to each other

A bird is subject to decay and dereliction until all the energy is released.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered , weak and weary,…..

I could felt and smelt the river emptied itself into the gorge.

There is an element of word magic here: entomology and limnology sound more important than merely insect biology and fresh water biology.

A deep green stream

I arise from the dream of thee.

fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks.

'The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.'

'We love to spoon 'neath the moon in June.'

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye

d. consonance

Def.

John swelled and ruffled his plumage

II. Comparison

a. simile

Def. the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent

1. A is like B.

The check fluttered to the floor like a bird with a broken wing. Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit we cannot flower and grow without it.

2.As …. as,

as blind as a bat, as cool as a cucumber, as busy as bee, as firm as a rock,

3.as if

My handwriting looks as if a swarm of ants, escaping from an inkbottle, had walked over a sheet of paper without wiping their logs.

… and the fattest man I have ever seen i n my life dozing in a straight-backed chair. It was as if a sack of grain was supported by a matchbox.

4. A is to B is what X to Y

The pen is to a writer is what the gun to a fighter.

What salt is to food, that wit and humor are to conversation and literature?