英语修辞精讲

Simile
A simile should meet the following four basic demands: It has the comparative words such as “like”, “as”, or “as if”, etc. There should be two things involved in comparison ------ the tenor and the vehicle; The two things must be substantially different; The two things should be similar in at least one quality.
Rhetorical Devices
There are quite a number of rhetorical devices. Each device has its own form and characteristics, and its own way of achieving effect. Sometimes two or more devices can be used together for greater impact. A list of common rhetorical devices: Simile; metaphor; metonymy; synecdoche; personification; parody; transferred epithet; hyperbole; allusion; chiasmus; oxymoron; paradox; irony; alliteration, antithesis, rhetorical question, periodic sentence, inversion, etc.
A Review of Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Device
What is rhetorical device? Rhetorical device is a technique that an author or a speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience (the readers or listeners). There are syntactic devices, lexical devices, phonetic devices, etc.
Antithesis
Speech is silver; silence is golden. Man proposes, God disposes.
谋事在人，成事在天
And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you ----- ask what you can do for your country. ------- John F. Kennedy (Inaugural Address)
Simile
A simile is different from an ordinary, literal comparison.
Jim looks like his brother Billy. × Jim and Billy are as like as two peas. √
In the first sentence, two like elements are compared: Jim and Billy are both human beings. In the second sentence, two unlike elements are compared: human beings and peas; the brothers have one thing in common with peas: great similarity in appearance.
Antithesis
A rhetoric device involves the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in balanced structural forms to achieve force and emphasis. Antithesis, favored by many speakers when persuading, places contrasting ideas side by side for emphasis and rhythm. Arranged this way, the contrasting ideas provide a sharp and forceful way of measuring difference. To make antithesis, the elements should be antonyms or direct opposites in meaning but similar in form.
覆水难收。
Fish and visitors stink in three days.
鱼肉易臭，访客难久。
Biblioteka Baiduetaphor
Like a simile, it also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. Metaphor requires greater ability on the part of the reader to perceive the hidden association, the insight into persons, things or ideas that is implied. For in a simile the particular aspect of the point of resemblance between two unlike elements is given, in a metaphor nothing is stated.
tiger: ferocity; ape: slyness
The sunshine of happiness is made up of very little beams.
Metaphor
The invisible metaphor refers to either of the following two types: The tenor is present, but the vehicle is not. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon----- Of Studies The vehicle “food” does not appear literally, but it is suggested by the verbs “tasted, swallowed, chewed and digested”
The baby daughter came waddling after her Mom.
Simile
According to the comparative words used, similes fall into the following forms: The world is like a stage. Jim was as cunning as a fox. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. The pen is to a writer what the gun is to a fighter. (A is to B what C is to D) A fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.
Simile
It is a rhetorical device which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic in common. It’s chief function is to draw sharp pictures in the mind through comparisons; to give deeper insight into things, persons and ideas through suggestive association; to explain abstract, complicated ideas in simple, concrete imagery.
waddle: walk with short steps, swinging from one side to another, like a duck.
Metaphor
The vehicle is present, but the tenor is not. And we can’t turn back clocks, and I don’t want to.
蠢人不能自知其蠢，就像不能自见其耳一样.
Simile
You might as well expect a river to flow backward as hope to move me.
你不能动摇我的心，正如不能使河水倒流一样。
A word and a stone let go cannot be called back.
Rhetorical Devices
What are the purposes of using rhetorical devices? To increase vividness of language; To lend force to an idea; To heighten effect; To create suggestive imagery; To provide freshness of expression; To provide clarity. To make communication more efficient and more effective;
Metaphor
According to the structure, metaphors can be divided into two categories: visible metaphors and invisible metaphors Visible metaphor: both the tenor and vehicle are present in the sentence. You are my sunshine. The world is a stage. There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of the imperialists.
the tenor is hinted: historical trend
But while we cannot close the gulf between us, we can try to bridge it so that we may be able to talk across it.
the hinted tenor: difference