英语修辞总结

Figures of speech in English

1．Simile is a figure of speech in which one thing is likened to(比作) another 明喻比喻词常见的有like, as, as…as…等。

…carrying a palm fan like a sword to repel his enemies.

…swept like a fresh wind through the schools…

…when Bryan swept t he political arena like a prairie fire.

as fast as a hare, as stupid as a goose

2．Metaphor is a an implied simile暗喻

Then the court broke into a storm of applause…

Now Darrow sprang his trump card by calling Bryan as a witness….

…main artery of transportation in the young nation’s heart.

The pupils took a leaf out of their teacher’s book.

3．Metonymy is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another借代/转喻

But for making money, his pen would prove mightier than his pickax.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

The spectacle is the very symbol of the incessant struggle between the kimono and the miniskirt.. He has an eye for beauty/an ear for music/a smooth tongue/a sharp tongue.

I’ve got five Shakespeares.

He is driving a Ford.

4．Rhetorical question反问句/修辞疑问句

But can you doubt what our policy will be?

Was I not at the scene of the crime?

Can the leopard change its spots?

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

5．Antithesis is the setting of contrasting phrases or statements opposite each other for emphasis 对照意义相反或相对的词、短语、句子出现在对称的位置上。

…a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.

The Christian believes that man came from above. The evolutionist believes that he must have come from below.

From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are.

United we stand; divided we fall.

A fall in the pit, a gain in the wit.

Give me liberty, or give me death.

6．Hyperbole is the deliberate use of exaggeration to achieve emphasis 夸张

The trial that rocked the world.

Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn’s idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood.

His reputation as an authority on Scripture is recognized throughout the world.

I haven’t seen you for ages.

The two views are miles apart.

I’m dying of thirst/ to know the truth.

7．Personification is a figure of speech that gives human form, character, or sensibility to animals, plants, or abstractions. 拟人

Bitterness fed on the man who had made the world laugh.

America laughed with Mark Twain.

Walls have ears.

The past year witnessed great progress in my oral English.

8．alliteration头韵重复出现开头音相同的单词。

Let us learn the lesson already taught by…

…for all the slow, sl eepy, sluggish-brained sloths stay at home.

“It was that population…and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences.”

fighting for his hearth and home…

9. Assonance consists of the repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together, to achieve

a particular effect of euphony谐音

a deep green stream

The rain fell again on the plain..

10．Synecdoche is a figure of speech which consists in taking a part for the whole or the whole forepart.提喻部分代整体或整体代部分

More hands are needed at present.

Great minds think alike.

The case had erupted round my head.

You are a noble heart.

Grey hair is taken good care of.

Moscow and Washington will hold talks on this issue.

11．Transferred epithet is a qualifying adjective transferred from a person to a thing. 移就本应该用来描写甲事物的修饰语移来描写乙事物。

Darrow had whispered throwing a reassuring arm round my shoulder as we were waiting for the court to open.

The enemy fled in a blind haste.

What a lame excuse you have made.

She tossed on her sleepless bed all last night.

The embarrassing five minutes were gone.