英语修辞学Teaching material 3 for Ss

Chapter 3 The 4 Levels of Rhetorical Devices

Rhetoric involves choice of sounds and rhythm, words, sentence patterns, figures of speech, organization of paragraphs and composition, etc. This process can be broken down into four basic levels of options:

•Phonetic devices

•Lexical devices

•Syntactic devices

•Discoursal devices

3.1 Phonetic devices and prose rhythm

3.1.1 Introduction

All languages have sound. Orators in ancient times knew how to use the sounds of their language for maximum rhetorical effect, and classical rhetoric had a number of sound devices based on the "echoing" or the rhyming of sounds. Modern English has inherited some of these devices.

Speech has rhythm, and since prose is really speech in written form (with modifications), it has rhythm too.

Native speakers of the language inherit this awareness of rhythm from young, from hearing stories read to them or told to them, and from hearing the rhythm of English spoken in its natural setting, just as Chinese children learn from young the rhythm of Chinese speech.

A knowledge of some English phonetic devices, and of English prose rhythm is therefore helpful not only to students of EFL as writers, but also as readers of English prose, for only when they can read fluently with the proper rhythm prose of whatever kind can they write fluently and effectively, with an intuitive sense of rhythm of the written word.

3.1.2 Phonetic devices

1. General Remarks

A. Phonetic qualities

The phonetic qualities of vowels :

1. They are all voiced.

2. They may be long or short.

3. They may be spread or rounded.

4. They may be closed or open.

5. They may be lax or tense.

6. They (diphthongs, triphthongs) glide.

The phonetic qualities of consonants :

1. They may be voiced or voiceless.

2. They may be nasal or non-nasal.

3. Some are stopped sounds, e.g. all the

plosives.

4. Some are fricatives.

5. Some are affricates.

6. Some are liquids流音or glides, because

they are produced with little obstruction

of air. The liquids are [l], [r] and glides

are [j], [w].

B. sensory qualities of English sounds

Apart from the phonetic qualities, the vowels and the consonants have also some sensory

qualities, which suggest certain impressions. These sensory qualities are not the product of any systematic or scientific study or theory; rather, they are recognized as such through long association between the sounds of words and the meaning of words. As such they are subject to wide and varied individual interpretation.

For example, the short, lax, spread vowel [i] is supposed to convey bright, light, fleet轻快的, happy impressions, as in the following poem:

Spr i ng, the sweet Spr i ng, i s the year's pleasant k i ng;

Then blooms each th i ng, then maids dance i n a r i ng,

Cold doth not st i ng, the pretty birds do s i ng,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

(T. Nash: "Spring")

The rounded, long or short open or half-open vowels are supposed to convey solemn, dignified impressions, as in the following:

The curfew t o lls the knell of parting day,

The l o wing herd winds sl o wly o'er the lea ,

The pl ou ghman h o meward pl o ds his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

......

The b o ast of heraldry, the p o mp of p o wer ,

And a ll that beauty, a ll that wealth e'er gave

Awaits alike th' inevitable h ou r，

The paths of gl o ry lead but to the grave.

The sounds [o] and [a:] are considered more pleasant to the ear than [o :] or [^], as for example when cot, doll and holiday are compared with caw, war and raw ) and when lark , dance, hearty are compared with cut, dunce, rough. This, of course, is rather subjective and arbitrary. We can't say [^] is not pleasant in sun, love or fun, or that [a:] is pleasant in hard, last or aghast.

This arbitrariness applies to most interpretations of the sensory qualities of sounds, vowels or consonants. Most people feel that the consonants [k], [g] and their clusters [kl], [kr], [gl], [gr] are suggestive of unpleasantness or ugliness, as in kick, kill, clack, crack, glut, groan, haggle, anger, etc.

All this goes to show that, unlike phonetic qualities, sensory qualities of English sounds are neither fixed nor scientific. Their interpretation is subject to the intuitive and imaginative faculties of individual poets and writers, and to their rich knowledge of words and their meanings.

2. Some important devices

1) Alliteration

This device is extremely popular with both poets and writers for artistic purpose. In this device the same consonant sound is repeated at intervals in the initial position of words, as in "m ad-M arch days " or "a c argo of Tyne c oal." As a rhetorical device, however, alliteration has much more significant uses.

Example 1

The f air b reeze b lew, the white f oam f lew,

The f urrow f ollowed f ree;

We were the f irst that ever burst

Into that s ilent s ea.

(T. S. Coleridge: "Rime of the Ancient Mariner““古舟子咏”)