修辞手法-拟人

4. 拟人

PERSONIFICATION

1. 定义

拟人辞格顾名思义就是把物拟成人。Webster’s New World Dictionary定义personification为: “a figure of speech in which a thing, quality, or idea is represented as a person. 在修辞学上，拟人法是指把非人的东西(如动物、植物、物体、抽象概念等)当作人来描写，并赋予它们以人的特性、外表及活动方式等。在拟人法中，把那些只适用于描写人的动词、形容词、名词、人称代词等用来描写非人的东西，使之具有人的属性。在寓言、童话、谚语、诗歌等文体中，拟人法常用来抒发感情，增强文章的感染力。

2．表达方式

1）把自然现象或物拟人化

The current lingers along gently. It comes flowing softly through the midmost privacy and deepest heart of a wood which whispers it to be quiet; while the stream whispers back again from its sedgy borders, as if the river and wood were hushing one another to sleep. Yes, the river sleeps along its course and dreams of the sky and of the clustering foliage, amid which fall showers of broken sunlight, imparting specks of

vivid cheerfulness.

河水轻轻地游荡。它从密林最深处无人知晓的地方静悄悄流出，树木对它低声耳语，叫它静一点；溪流从芦苇边界也低声回话，好像小河溪和树木在彼此催促入睡。是啊，小河溪在它流过的地方睡着了，它梦见了瓦蓝的天空和一簇簇的树叶，透过树叶撒下了断裂的一

绺绺阳光，形成于生动快活的斑点。

*文中把河溪和树木等自然现象拟人化了，写得生动形象，富有情趣，似乎把人带进了仙境。

The rain to the wind said

“You push and I’ll pelt,” They so smote the garden bed That the flowers actually knelt

And lay lodged—though not dead

I know how the flowers felt.

( Robert Frost )

雨对风说：

“你来狂吹，我来猛落。”

他们俩就这样在花圃上施暴虐

于是花儿们便七歪八倒叶残瓣破

最后终于倒下了—尽管还奄奄一息活着

我知道花儿们此时心中感受如何。

*风和雨都变成了人，变成了冷酷、残暴、以施虐为乐的人，风和雨狂吹猛落直把花儿摧残得奄奄一息。

This was the sign meteorologists had been waiting for. Not only does the sharp fall in ocean temperatures signal the breakup of the giant pool of warm water in the tropical Pacific that triggered one of the century’s greatest EL Nino’s unruly twin sister, the climatological reversal that scientists call La Nina (“the girl” ).

这是气象学家们一直在等候的征兆。海洋温度的急剧下降不仅表明了触发本世纪最严重厄尔尼诺现象之一的热带太平洋大片暖水面的消散，而且也可能标志厄尔尼诺桀骜不驯的孪生妹—气候反常逆转—的生成，科学家们称之为拉尼娜 (女孩)。(徐苹译，见《大学英语》1998年第11期) *厄尔尼诺与拉尼娜本来都是气候现象，科学家为了让听话者(阅读者)能形象化地理解它们，便把它们拟人化，称它们为孪生兄妹。

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

( Joyce Kilmer )

树那饥渴的嘴唇紧紧贴住

大地乳汁甘美的胸脯；

它整天仰望着上帝，

举起枝叶繁茂的手臂祈祷；

Once we were settled in America, Siberia, Australia, where there is nothing but a steady pact between climate and the calendar, we should regret her very naughtiness, her willful pranks, her gusts of rage, and sudden tears. ( John B. Priestly: First Snow )

假如我们一旦定居于美洲、西伯利亚或澳大利亚—而那里气候与年历之间早已有约在先，我们即使仅仅因为失去她的调皮，她的胡闹，她的狂忿盛怒与涕泣涟涟也会深感遗

憾。

*作者在句中加以人格化的，是因变幻莫测而成为英国人常谈话题的英国气候。

Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees．．．

( Walter de la Mare: Silver ))

现在，月儿穿着一双银鞋

慢慢地、静静地走进了夜；

她向这儿看看，那里望望，

望见银果子悬挂在银树上。

But nature does not manage it so. She puts it (gold) in little fissures in the earth, nobody knows where…( John Ruskin )

然而大自然并没这样做，她把金子放在地球的小小裂缝里，谁也不知道在什么地方…

2）把机器与用具拟人化