英语修辞手法必备手册

外国语学院

《英语修辞手法必备手册》

班 级：英语二班 姓 名：李远天

日 期：2014年11月6日

Figures of speech (修辞)are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively.

1) Simile：(明喻）

It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic (特性)in common. To make the comparison, words like as, as...as, as if and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other.

For example: As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

The water lay grey and wrinkled like an elephant's skin.

Her eyes were jet black, and her hair was like a waterfall.

2) Metaphor：(暗喻）

It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. For example: Snow clothes the ground.

The ship ploughed the sea. They will be rounded up in hordes.

He swam bravely against the tide of popular applause.

3) Analogy: (类比）

It is also a form of comparison, but unlike simile or metaphor which usually uses comparison on one point of resemblance, analogy draws a parallel between two unlike things that have several common qualities or points of resemblance. 4) Personification: (拟人）

It gives human form of feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes(赋予) to inanimate(无生命的) objects, or to ideas and

abstractions(抽象).

For example： The wind whistled through the trees. 5) Hyperbole: (夸张）

It is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis.

For instance： He almost died laughing. 6) Understatement: (含蓄陈述） 保留陈述

It is the opposite of hyperbole, or overstatement. It achieves its effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately(故意地) understating it, impressing the listener or the reader more by what is merely implied or left unsaid than by bare statement.

For instance： It is no laughing matter. 7) Euphemism: (委婉）

It is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive(无冒犯) expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. For instance: We refer to \ 8) Metonymy (转喻）[mi't?nimi, m?-]

It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the mane of one thing for that of another.

For instance: The pen (words) is mightier than the sword (forces). 9) Synecdoche (提喻）/si'nekd?ki/

It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part.

For instance： They say there's bread and work for all. She was dressed in silks.

10) Antonomasia (换喻）[,?nt?n?u'meizi?]

It has also to do with substitution. It is not often mentioned now, though it is still in frequent use.

For example： Solomon for a wise man，Daniel for a wise and fair judge.，Judas for a traitor.

11) Pun: (双关语）

It is a play on words, or rather a play on the form and meaning of words. For instance：A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms. (Here \soldier.

12) Syllepsis: (一语双叙）/si'lepsis / It has two connotations.

In the first case, it is a figure by which a word, or a particular form or inflection of a word, refers to two or more words in the same sentence, while properly applying to or agreeing with only one of them in grammar or syntax(句法).

For example：He addressed you and me, and desired us to follow him. (Here us is used to refer to you and me.)

In the second case, it a word may refer to two or more words in the same sentence.

For example： While he was fighting, and losing limb and mind, and dying, others stayed behind to pursue education and career. (Here to losing one's limbs in literal; to lose one's mind is figurative, and means to go mad.)

13) Zeugma: (轭式搭配）['zju:gm?]

It is a single word which is made to modify or to govern two or more words in the same sentence, wither properly applying in sense to only one of them, or applying to them in different senses.

For example： The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night. (Here moon is not strong enough to burn) 14) Irony: (反语）

It is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense.

For instance： We are lucky, what you said makes me feel real good.