A rhetorical question is one which is asked in order to make a statement rather than to get an answer.

Rhetorical question (修辞问句) 不同于语法中的问句： 语法问句是有疑而问，目的在于释疑或得到答复；而修辞问句则是无疑而问，即该问之答案对问话者来说已了然于胸，采用问句形式，其目的要么是引出给问话者答案的下文，要么是唤起读者的回响，传达问者寓于句中的强烈感情，目的是使文章生动有利。

修辞问句分为两类：

【1】反问：用疑问的形式表达确定的意思，不需要回答，其答案寓于问句的反面。其作用是加强语气，表达强烈的感情，以引起读者或听者的深思。

(1) When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?   (John Ball)

(2) O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?       (Shelley)

【2】设问: 为引出下文而先提问，目的在于引起读者或听众的注意。

Are we going to tolerate this intrusion upon our freedom? Are we going to accept these restrictions? Are we to be intimidated by time-serving bureaucrats?

反问和设问的共同点都是“明知故问”，即说话人或作者事先均有了答案而“故问”； 它们的不同点在于反问在问话中暗示了答案，勿需回答便表明了态度，而设问没有在问话中暗示答案，其答案在问话之后。

英语19种修辞手法用法讲解

英语中有19种修辞手法，它们分别是：Simile明喻、Metaphor 隐喻，暗喻、Metonymy 借喻，转喻、Synecdoche 提喻、Synaesthesia 通感，联觉，移觉、Personification 拟人、Hyperbole 夸张、Parallelism 排比， 平行、Euphemism 委婉，婉辞法、Allegory 讽喻，比方、Irony 反语、Pun 双关、Parody 仿拟、Rhetorical question 修辞疑问、Antithesis 对照，对比，对偶、Paradox 隽语、Oxymoron 反意法，逆喻、Climax 渐进法，层进法、Anticlimax 渐降法。19种修辞手法的全部解释和例句

【一】Simile 明喻

明喻是将具有共性的不同事物作对比。这种共性存在于人们的心里，而不是事物的自然属性。

标志词常用 like, as, seem, as if, as though, similar to, such as等。

例如：

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow。

I wandered lonely as a cloud。

Einstein only had a blanket on, as if he had just walked out of a fairy tale。

【二】Metaphor 隐喻，暗喻

隐喻是简缩了的明喻，是将某一事物的名称用于另一事物，通过比较形成。

例如：

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper。

Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested。

【三】Metonymy 借喻，转喻

借喻不直接说出所要说的事物，而使用另一个与之相关的事物名称。

(1)以容器代替内容，例如：

The kettle boils. 水开了。

The room sat silent. 全屋人安静地坐着。

(2)以资料。工具代替事物的名称，例如：

Lend me your ears, please. 请听我说。

(3)以作者代替作品，例如：

a complete Shakespeare 莎士比亚全集

(4)以具体事物代替抽象概念，例如：

I had the muscle, and they made money out of it. 

我有力气，他们就用我的力气赚钱。

【四】Synecdoche 提喻

提喻用部分代替全体，或用全体代替部分，或特殊代替一般。

There are about 100 hands working in his factory。(部分代整体)

他的厂里约有100名工人。

He is the Newton of this century。(特殊代一般)

他是本世纪的牛顿。

The fox goes very well with your cap。(整体代部分)

这狐皮围脖与你的帽子很相配。

【五】Synaesthesia 通感，联觉，移觉

这种修辞法是以视。听.触。嗅.味等感觉直接描写事物。通感就是把不同感官的感觉沟通起来，借联想引起感觉转移，“以感觉写感觉”。

通感技巧的运用，能突破语言的局限，丰富表情达意的审美情趣，起到增强文采的艺术效果。比如：欣赏建筑的重复与变化的样式会联想到音乐的重复与变化的节奏；闻到酸的东西会联想到尖锐的物体；听到飘渺轻柔的音乐会联想到薄薄的半透明的纱子；又比如朱自清《荷塘月色》里的“ 微风过处送来缕缕清香，仿佛远处高楼上渺茫的歌声似的”。

The birds sat upon a tree and poured forth their lily like voice。(用视觉形容听觉，鸟落在树上，由它发出的声音联想到百合花)

鸟儿落在树上，倾泻出百合花似的声音。

aste the music of Mozart。(用嗅觉形容听觉)

品尝Mozart的音乐。

【六】Personification 拟人

拟人是把生命赋予无生命的事物。

例如：

The night gently lays her hand at our fevered heads。(把夜拟人化)

I was very happy and could hear the birds singing in the woods。(把鸟拟人化)

【七】.Hyperbole 夸张

夸张是以言过其实的说法表达强调的目的。它可以加强语势，增加表达效果。.

.I beg a thousand pardons。

.Love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars。

When she heard the bad news, a river of tears poured out。

【八】Parallelism 排比， 平行

这种修辞法是把两个或两个以上的结构大体相同或相似，意思相关，语气一致的短语。句子排列成串，形成一个整体。

No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy。

In the days when all these things are to be answered for, I summon you and yours, to the last of your bad race, to answer for them. In the days when all these things are to be answered for, I summon your brother, the worst of your bad race, to answer for them separately。

【九】Euphemism 委婉，婉辞法

婉辞法指用委婉，文雅的方法表达粗恶，避讳的话。

He is out visiting the necessary.

他出去方便一下。

His relation with his wife has not been fortunate.

他与妻子关系不融洽。

Deng Xiaoping passed away in 1997. (去世)

【十】Allegory 讽喻，比方(原意“寓言”)

建立在假借过去或别处的事例与对象之上，传达暗示，影射或者讥讽现世各种现象的含义。

英文解释：an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor 摘自英语专业《大学英语教程》一书

这是一种源于希腊文的修辞法，意为"换个方式的说法"。它是一种形象的描述，具有双重性，表层含义与真正意味的是两回事。

Make the hay while the sun shines。

表层含义：趁着出太阳的时候晒草

真正意味：趁热打铁.It's time to turn plough into sword。

表层含义：是时候把犁变成剑

【十一】Irony 反语

反语指用相反意义的词来表达意思的作文方式。如在指责过失。错误时，用赞同过失的说法，而在表扬时，则近乎责难的说法。

It would be a fine thing indeed not knowing what time it was in the morning。

早上没有时间观念还真是一件好事啊(真实含义是应该明确早上的时间观念)

"Of course, you only carry large notes, no small change on you. "the waiter said to the beggar。

【十二】Pun 双关

双关就是用一个词在句子中的双重含义，借题发挥。作出多种解释，旁敲侧击，从而达到意想不到的幽默。滑稽效果。它主要以相似的词形。词意和谐音的方式出现。

She is too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little for a great praise。

An ambassador is an honest man who lies abroad for the good of his country。

.If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately。

【十三】Parody 仿拟

这是一种模仿名言。警句.谚语，改动其中部分词语，从而使其产生新意的修辞。

Rome was not built in a day, nor in a year。

A friend in need is a friend to be avoided。

If you give a girl an inch nowadays she will make address of it。

【十四】Rhetorical question 修辞疑问(反问)

它与疑问句的不同在于它并不以得到答复为目的，而是以疑问为手段，取得修辞上的效果，其特点是：肯定问句表示强烈否定，而否定问句表示强烈的肯定。它的答案往往是不言而喻的。

How was it possible to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worth of note?

Shall we allow those untruths to go unanswered?

【十五】Antithesis 对照，对比，对偶

这种修辞指将意义完全相反的语句排在一起对比的一种修辞方法。

Not that I loved Caeser less but that I loved Romemore。

You are staying; I am going。

Give me liberty, or give me death。

【十六】Paradox 隽语

这是一种貌似矛盾，但包含一定哲理的意味深长的说法，是一种矛盾修辞法。.

More haste, less speed。欲速则不达

The child is the father to the man。(童年时代可决定人之未来)三岁看大，四岁看老。

【十七】Oxymoron 反意法，逆喻

这也是一种矛盾修辞法，用两种不相调和的特征形容一个事物，以不协调的搭配使读者领悟句中微妙的含义。

No light, but rather darkness visible。

没有光亮，黑暗却清晰可见

The state of this house is cheerless welcome。

【十八】Climax 渐进法，层进法

这种修辞是将一系列词语按照意念的大小。轻重.深浅。高低等逐层渐进，最后达到顶点。可以增强语势，逐渐加深读者印象。

I am sorry, I am so sorry, I am so extremely sorry。

Eye had not seen nor ear heard, and nothing had touched his heart of stone。

【十九】Anticlimax 渐降法

与climax相反的一种修辞法，将一系列词语由大到小，由强到弱地排列。

On his breast he wears his decorations, at his side a sword, on his feet a pair of boots。

The duties of a soldier are to protect his country and peel potatoes。

Figures of speech

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. Now we are going to talk about some common forms of figures of speech.

Figures of Resemblance and Relationship

Simile(明喻)

Metaphor(暗喻) (隐喻)

Metonymy(转喻) (借代)

Synecdoche（提喻）

Personification（拟人）

Antonomasia （换称）

【一】Simile(明喻)

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.

Simile is a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. In formal prose the simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader.

For example,

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

【1】Simile通常由三部分构成：本体（tenor or subject）,喻体（vehicle or reference）和比喻词（comparative word  or  indicator of resemblance）。

eg:  My love    is like         a red red rose.

     tenor   comparative word      vehicle

【2】句型

(1).like型

①联系动词（以to be 居多）+like

Eg: Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass.

生活没有目标犹如航行没有指南针

②实意动词+like。

They will never be able to save money to buy a new house——they both spend money like water.

③as 型

as在明喻句中用作介词，后跟名词。也可用作连词，后跟状语从句，表示动作或行为的方式。此外，还有两个常用句型，即as…as…和as…so…。

英语里有不少含有明喻的成语，其结构为as+形容词+as+名词（第一个as可省略）。例如：

(as) firm as a rock                     坚如磐石

(as) light as a feather                   轻如鸿毛

(as) close as an oyster                  守口如瓶

(as) mute as a fish                     噤若寒蝉

(as) strong as a horse                   强壮如牛

(as) cool as a cucumber                 泰然自若

(as) sober as a judge                    十分清醒

(as) sure as a gun                      千真万确

④虚拟句型

最常见的是as if/though，另外还有其他一些形式。

Eg: He was a beautiful horse that looked as though he had come out of a painting by Vealsquez.

这匹马真雄俊，看起来仿佛是从一副维拉斯奎兹的油画里跑出来的一样。

The dogs were in full cry, their noses down, their tails up, so close together that might have been one great yellow and white moving carpet.

那群狗吠叫着追猎，低着头，翘着尾巴，一条挨一条，看上去就像一块行进的黄白交织的大地毯。

He woke them both up getting to bed, but when they tried to wake him up afterwards they might as well have tried to wake the dead.

他去睡觉的时候把他们两个都弄醒了，但是后来他们想唤醒他时，简直就像唤死人一样。

⑤what型

(1) A is to B what X is to Y

Eg: Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

阅读之于思想，如同锻炼之于身体。

Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

明智的表扬对于孩子的作用，就像阳光对于花朵的作用。

(2)What X is to Y, A is to B.

Eg: What salt is to food, that wit and humour are to conversation and literature.

妙语与幽默对于会话与文学，恰似盐对于食物一样。

What blood vessel is to a man’s body, that railway is to transportation.

铁路对于运输，好比血管对于人体一样。

(3)than型

A home without love is no more than a body without a soul.

没有爱的家无异于一具没有灵魂的躯体。

Man can not help craving for expression any more than birds can help singing.

人之不能舒其襟怀，亦犹鸟之不能啭其歌喉。

(4)and型

这是一种特殊的明喻句，常见于英语谚语。其中and的作用相当于like.

Eg: A word and a stone let go cannot be recalled.

说出的话犹如抛出的石，是收不回的。

 Love and cough can not be hid.

恋爱如同咳嗽，难逃他人耳目。

Words and feathers are tossed by the wind.

言语如羽毛，风刮到处飘。

 Truth and roses have thorns about them.

真理如玫瑰，全身都带刺。

King and bears often worry their keepers.

国王跟熊一样，总使照料者坐立不安。

【二】Metaphor(隐喻)(暗喻)

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, the world is a stage.

Metaphor compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing,  not just that one is like another. Very frequently a metaphor is invoked by the to be verb: Metaphor is compressed simile(简缩了的明喻)。

在实际运用中Metaphor有时仅出现喻体，本体需要从上下文中分析推敲出来。

英语Metaphor的运用格式灵活多样，它可以体现在任何句子成分上，如主语、谓语、表语、定语、宾语或状语。在表达上它可以是一个单词、一个词组或一个句子，甚至是一个段落。以下为英语Metaphor的常见运用格式：

(1)名词型

最常见的句式是“甲是乙”，喻体一般体现在句子的表语部分。

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

整个世界是座舞台，男男女女，演员而已。

Money is a bottomless sea, in which honour, conscience, and truth may be drowned.

金钱是无底的海洋，荣誉、良心和真理都可以淹没在其中。

(2)动词型

The boy wolfed down the food the moment he grabbed it.

那男孩儿一抓到食物便狼吞虎咽般地吃了下去。

Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested 。

书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。

(3)形容词型

She has a photographic memory for detail.

她对细节有照相机般的记忆力。

The mountainous waves swallowed up the ship.

山一般的巨浪吞没了那艘航船。

(4)-of短语型

-of-短语构成的英语隐语很普遍，根据其结构及用法特征又可细分为两类：

A. a/the+N1+of+N2

 Eg: the bridge of friendship, the valley of despair.

B a+N1+of+a+N2  (N1和N2前除a外，还可用the或人称代词的所有格形式)

Eg: a flower of a girl,  a fox of a man

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

自由之树需要爱国者和暴君的鲜血来浇灌。鲜血是养育自由之树的天然基肥。

A policeman waved me out of the snake of traffic and flagged me to stop.

一位警察招手要我从长蛇般的车流中出来，并招呼我停下。

【三】Metonymy(转喻) (借代)

Metonymy (转喻) 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,. Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword.

该修辞故意不用需要说明的人或物的本称，而是借与该人或该物密切相关的事物名称来代替，即借乙名代甲称。Metonymy的运用基础是联想，两个相互借代的事物必然紧密相关，存在某种现实的联系。

如：What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave(幼小所学，终生不忘)，句中的the cradle与the grave是跟birth与death密切相关的事物，因此两者之间形成了借代关系。

★以事物的特征代替事物本身

A thousand mustaches can live together, but not four breast.

千条汉子能共处，两个婆娘难相容。

★以工具代替动作或行为者

A hundred bayonets were marching down the street.

100把刺刀正沿街前进。

★以容器代替其中内容。

Whenever my husband has a bad day at the office, he hits the bottle.

每当我丈夫在办公室不顺心，他就会喝得酩酊大醉。

★以人体器官代替其功能

The practiced ear can recognize a classic flavour.

有音乐修养的人能够听出古典音乐的韵味。

She has the eye for the fair and the beautiful.

她有审美眼光。

I have an opinion of you, sir, to which it is not easy to give the mouth.

我对你有一个意见，先生，不过很难用话语表达出来。

★以人或动物代替其特性

There is still much of the schoolboy in him.

他身上还有许多小学生的气质。

The wolf and the pig mingled together in his face.

凶残与贪婪交织在一起，浮现在他的脸上。

★以原材料代替制成品

The 25^th Games in Barcelona saw 4golds and 5 silvers in swimming fall into China’s pockets.

在巴塞罗那举行的第25届奥运会上，游泳项目有4枚金牌、5枚银牌落入了中国队的囊中。

And as he pluck’d the  cursed steel away, 当他拔出那可恶的凶器的时候

Mark how the blood of Caesar followed…瞧，恺撒的血是怎样跟着它流出来

★以作者或生产者代替作品或产品

The captain…had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare.

船长…得到了一整套的莎士比亚作品。

We drove a Ford to Hyde Park.

我们驾驶一辆福特到海得公园去。

★以具体事物代替抽象事物

Although his plan had not completely succeeded, she gave him a pat on the back for having tried so hard.

尽管他的计划未获完全成功，但她对他作出的努力表示赞许。

★以抽象事物代替具体事物

In the present instance, it was sickness and poverty together that she came to visit.

在目前这种情况下，她一并前来探望的是病人和穷人以事物活动的处所代替事物或活动者

She is an ageing opera singer who has retired from the stage to teach.

她是一位年迈的歌剧演员，现已退出舞台从事教学。

★地名或建筑物名可借以代称设于那里的机构。如：

Kremlin(克林姆林宫，俄罗斯政府)  The Pentagon(五角大楼，美国国防部)  Hollywood(好莱坞，美国电影业)  Downing Street(唐宁街，英国政府)  Foggy Bottom(雾谷，美国国务院)  Buckingham Palace(白金汗宫，英国皇室) 等等。

【四】Synecdoche（提喻）

Note: Synecdoche can easily be mistaken for metonymy

Synecdoche (提喻) It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. In another word , a part is made to represent the whole, or vise versa.  For instance, they say there's bread and work for all. She was dressed in silks.

Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa).

A major lesson Americans need to learn is that life consists of more than cars and television sets. [Two specific items substituted for the concept of material wealth]

Give us this day our daily bread. --Matt. 6:11

If you still do not feel well, you'd better call up a sawbones and have him examine you.

This program is for the little old lady in Cleveland who cannot afford to pay her heating

There sits my animal [instead of "dog"] guarding the door to the henhouse.

He hurled the barbed weapon [instead of "harpoon"] at the whale

【五】Personification（拟人）

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.

★.Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.

懒惰缓慢而行，贫穷迎头赶上。。

★.Liquor talks mighty loud when it gets loose from the jug.

酒一从酒壶里溜出来就会大言不惭。

★.It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

当狼依然持有不同意见之时，群羊要通过赞成素食主义的决议案也是无济于事的。

★.Mosquitoes were using my ankles for filling stations.

蚊子把我的脚脖子当作了加油站。

★.Time is like a fashionable host, that slightly shakes his passing guest by th’ hand; and with his arms stretched, as he would fly, grasps in the comer. The welcomes ever smile, and farewell goes out sighing. （William Shakespeare）

时间正像一个趋炎附势的主人，对于一个临去的客人不过和他略微握一握手，对于一个新来的客人，却伸开了双臂，飞也似地过去抱住他。欢迎是永远含笑的，告别总是带着叹息。

★.A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

                                              ( Mark Twain)

当真理刚刚穿上鞋子，谎言就可能已经走了半个世界。

★.How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! 

(John Milton)

时间，这个盗窃青春的狡猾的小偷，盗窃了我二十又三年飞走了。

【六】Antonomasia(换称)

Antonomasia (换称) It has also to do with substitution. It is not often mentioned now, though it is still infrequent use.

1． The use of an epithet or title in place of a name

2．The use of a proper name instead of a common noun

Note: there is a certain degree of overlapping with synecdoche.

He is our Gorky. (famous Russian writer for a famous writer.)

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

七．Analogy (类比)

 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.
Analogy compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. --Samuel Johnson

He that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. --Samuel Johnson

.For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle

Notice in these examples that the analogy is used to establish the pattern of reasoning by using a familiar or less abstract argument which the reader can understand easily and probably agree with.

Some analogies simply offer an explanation for clarification rather than a substitute argument:

• Knowledge      always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by      some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel      Johnson

• The      beginning of all evil temptations is inconstancy of mind, and too little      trust in God. For as a ship without a guide is driven hither and thither      with every storm, so an unstable man, that anon leaveth his good purpose      in God, is diversely tempted. The fire proveth gold, and temptation proveth      the righteous man. --Thomas a Kempis

When the matter is complex and the analogy particularly useful for explaining it, the analogy can be extended into a rather long, multiple-point comparison:

• The body      is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts      are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (And so forth, to the      end of the chapter.] --l Cor. 12:12 (NIV)

The importance of simile and analogy for teaching and writing cannot be overemphasized. To impress this upon you better, I would like to step aside a moment and offer two persuasive quotations:

• The      country parson is full of all knowledge. They say, it is an ill mason that      refuseth any stone: and there is no knowledge, but, in a skilful hand,      serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other      knowledge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage, and pastorage,      and makes great use of them in teaching, because people by what they      understand are best led to what they understand not. --George Herbert

• To illustrate one thing by its resemblance to      another has been always the most popular and efficacious art of      instruction. There is indeed no other method of teaching that of which      anyone is ignorant but by means of something already known; and a mind so      enlarged by contemplation and enquiry that it has always many objects      within its view will seldom be long without some near and familiar image      through which an easy transition may be made to truths more distant and      obscure. --Samuel Johnson  

Figures of Emphasis and Understatement

Euphemism（委婉）

Hyperbole（夸张）

Understatement（低调陈述）

Contrast（对照）

Antithesis（平行对照）

Parallelism（平行）

Repetition（反复）

Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）

Parody(仿拟)

Zeugma(轭式搭配)

Allusion（引喻）

Irony（反语）

Climax（层递）

Anticlimax（突降）

【一】Euphemism（委婉）

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 "die" as " pass away".

★Euphemism（委婉）， 以文雅、悦耳或温婉来代替粗野、刺耳或直露。借助语音、语法、词汇，表达生活中使人尴尬、惹人不快、招人厌恶或令人恐惧的事物。

Euphemism又叫sweet talk（甜言蜜语），gilded  words（镀金的字眼）或cosmetic words（化装词）

有关疾病、残疾、衰老、死亡

★疾病

Look off colour（气色不好，指身体有病）

under the weather（在恶劣天气条件下，指健康欠佳）

not all there（神志不清，实指患精神病）

long illness（久病，实指癌症）

social disease（实指艾滋病）。

替代illness或disease婉称疾病的词有condition, disorder, problem, trouble等。

★残疾

Disabled（丧失能力的）

handicapped（受到障碍的），

,inconvenienced（行动不便的）,

hard of hearing（听觉困难的），

auditory-impaired（听觉损伤的）表示“耳聋的“；

sight-deprived（被剥夺视力的）

visually retarded（视力上有障碍的）指“失明”。

★衰老

“衰老”的委婉说法

Advanced in age（年岁上先行的）

past one’s prime（已过壮年）

feel one’ age（感觉上了年纪）

golden age（金色岁月）

sunset years（日落之年）

表示“老人”

senior citizen（资深的公民），

the longer living（生活经历较长者）。

★.死亡

多达上百条。如，go west（西去），be at rest（安息），be asleep in the Arms of God（安睡在上帝的怀抱中），go the way of all flesh（走众生之路），join one’s ancestors（加入祖先的行列），return to dust（归之尘土），breathe one’s last（作最后一次呼吸），pass away（离去），run one’s race（跑完自己的赛程），be no longer with us（与我们永别了）。

★有关人体、排泄、性爱、生育

A.人体

“赤身露体”

In the altogether（全体），

in a state of nature（处于天然状态），

in one’s birthday suit(身着生日服装)

“女性乳房”

globes（球体）

apples（苹果）

curves（曲线）

charms（迷人之处）

表示“阴部”、“生殖器”

private parts（私处）外，

affair（事情），

it（它），

thing（东西），

place（地方），

what-do-you-call-it（那玩意儿）.

B.排泄

Pass air（排气），

let a breezer（刮一阵微风），

make a noise“放屁”；

“大小便

wash one’s hands（洗洗手）

relieve oneself（让自己轻松一下），

get some fresh air（去呼吸点新鲜空气），

answer the call of nature（应付自然本能之需）

C.性爱

“性交

Go all the way（走完全程），

have relations with（与人有关系），

go to bed with（与之共寝），

make love（做爱），

do it（干那种事）等用于指”；

“同居”

live together（住在一起）

married but not churched（结婚了但未去教堂举行仪式），

“谈恋爱”

walk out（出去溜达）；

“乱搞男女关系”

sleep around（到处睡觉）

D．生育

“怀孕”

in the family way（家居打扮的），

eating for two（吃双份饭），

swallow a watermellon（吞了颗西瓜籽），

in trouble（惹上麻烦，指未婚先孕），

learn all about diaper folding（学叠尿布），

rehearsing lullabies（练唱催眠曲），

wear the apron high（围裙高系）。

“分娩”

be confined（行动受限制），

in travail（处于痛苦之中）。

★有关社会职业、社会问题的委婉语

A.职业

从事卑微职业者拨高、美化职业:

B.犯罪

偷窃：

to hook（钩、钓），

to palm（藏于掌中），

to work the hole （在洞里干，指“在地铁里行窃”），

to walk away with（带走某物，指“顺手牵羊”）。

★抢劫：

to clip（夹住），

to put the arm on（架臂于某人），

to break a jug（打破罐子，指“抢劫银行”）。

★吸毒：

to blow snow（吹雪，指“嗅闻可卡因”），

to lie down（躺下，指“抽大烟”）

to trip out（旅行，指“吸毒后产生迷幻”），

Lady snow（白雪夫人，即“可卡因”），

joy powder（快活粉，指“毒品”）。

★贿赂：

to fix（安排，即“买通”），

to oil（加油润滑，即“行贿”），

kickback（回扣），

protection money（保护费）。

★谋杀：

to X out（打叉划掉，即“谋杀”），

to disappear（消失，即“被利索地除掉”），

to die in a necktie（颈系领带而亡，指“被绞死”），

to go cool（变凉了，指“被同伙杀掉灭口”）。

★惩罚：

to throw the book at sb（将书向某人掷去，实指“对其判重刑”，the book表示“法律条文”等）

to drop into the bucket（扔进水桶，指“投入监狱”），

do time（度过时光，指“服刑”），

to walk the last mile（走最后的里程，即“上刑场”）。

★有关政治、经济、军事、外交的委婉语

A.政治

DP(=displaced person离乡者，指“难民”),

energy release（能量释放，指“核辐射泄露”），

eyes only（只准用眼，指“绝密文件”），

to misspeak（口误，表示：“出言不慎”或“撒谎”），

ongoing situation（持续态势，指“老大难问题），

to knock doors（到处敲门，指“游说议员”）。

B.经济

A revenue gap（岁入差，即“赤字”），

slowdown（减速，指“经济衰退”）,

cash flow problem（现金流动问题，即“可用现金不足”），

adjustment downward（下向调整，指“效益不佳”），

income maintenance（维持性收入，即“救济金”），

technical adjustment（技术性调整，指“股票市场价格的波动”）。

C.军事

Air support（空中支持，即“轰炸”），

all out strategic exchange（全面战略交火，实际指“世界核大战”），

to pacify（绥靖，指“毁掉敌方城市乡村”）

to escalate（升级，指“扩大战争范围及烈度”）

adjustment of the front（战线调整，即“撤退”）

Department of Defense（美国国防部，原名为即“作战部”，因有好战之嫌，1947年起换用现名）

D.外交

destabilization（动摇，指“推翻”或“颠覆”）

to share ideas（分享观点，指“具有一致看法”）

a serious and candid discussion（认真而坦率的讨论，实际指“双方观点严重对立的会谈”）

an underdeveloped nation（低度发达国家，实际指“贫穷落后之国”）

person non grata（不受欢迎之人，实际指“要驱逐的外国间谍”）

★以下为一些实际用例，部分出自名家笔下，堪称巧用英语委婉的典范。

▲And, it being low water, he went out with the side.

正是退潮的时候，他跟潮水一道去了。*作者用“驾潮而去”表示“溺水而死”，话说得哀婉动人。

▲If you will allow me , I will call your carriage for you .

如果你愿意的话，我去给你叫辆车。*以“去给你叫辆车”委婉地下达了逐客令，却礼貌、得体。

▲The boy used to take things without permission and has just been out of the rehabilitation home in the country. 那男孩以往常不经允许拿走东西，他刚从乡间的康复中心出来。 *“不经允许拿走东西”实际指“偷窃”，“康复中心”实际是“劳教所”的婉称。

▲He pardoned us off-hand, and allowed us something to live on till he went the way of all flesh.

他轻易地就原谅了我们，并且直到他逝世为止还一直供给我们生活费。

▲I’m afraid she can’t act that part ——she is a little on the plump side.

恐怕她扮演不了那个角色——她有些发福。

▲The reactor began to run out of control “above critical” in the parlance of the nuclear engineer.反应堆开始失控——或者用核工程师的话来说：处于临界点之上。

*above critical实际为“核反应堆泄露”。政府在处理核事故时用词尤慎，惟恐引起民众恐慌或愤怒。

▲He was both out of pocket and out of spirits by that catastrophe, failed in his health and prophesied the speedy ruin of the empire.

经过这次灾难，他手头拮据，总是无精打采，身体也不好，时常预言大英帝国不久便会垮台。

*作者用委婉语out of pocket 代替poor或bankrupt这类羞于启齿之词，而且与out of spirits 同一结构，相映成趣。

【二】Hyperbole（夸张）

Hyperbole: (夸张) It is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis.

a conscious exaggeration fot the sake of emphasis. Not intended to be understood literally

For example:a) The wave ran mountain high.

 b)America laughed with Mark twain.

 c)His speech brought the house doen.

 d)All the perfunmes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.

 For instance, he almost died laughing.

★特点是对表达对象进行有违常识或不合逻辑的夸张性描写，以此来取得强烈的修辞效果。比较：

(1) He ran down the avenue, making a loud noise.

(2) He ran down the avenue, making a noise like ten horses at a gallop.

例句（1）为一般性描写，

而（2）则属夸张性描写，有如临其境、如闻其声

  Hyperbole多见于文学作品中，但日常口语里也常有运用。如：

  Haven’t seen you for ages.

  I could sleep for a year.

  We’re all tired to death.

★英语夸张可分为两类，即扩大夸张( Extended Hyperbole)和缩小夸张(Reduced Hyperbole)。前者将描写对象的形象、数量、作用、程度等特征的东西说得特别高、特别大；后者正相反，即把描写对象的形象、数量、作用、程度等特征性的东西说得特别低、特别小。比较下列例句可看出两者的特点：

▲His eloquence would split rocks!    (Extended Hyperbole)

他的雄辩之威之利，能劈磐石。

▲It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.  (Reduced Hyperbole)

骆驼能负载过重，加根草就能压死。

★Hyperbole按构成方式分为五类，举例如下：

★用数词表示

This made him roar like a thousand bulls.

这使他像千牛怒吼一般咆哮起来。

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

一个父亲的作用大于100个教师。

I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum.

我爱奥菲利娅：40000个兄弟的爱合起来，还抵不过我对她的爱。

★用其他词汇表示

除数词外，英语夸张也常借助其他各类词来表示，或用动词，或用名词，或用形容词，灵活多样，并无定式，但不少词汇都有极限意义。

A.动词

▲In its wake, budget cuts and food shortages have hit the new nation of Russia——and prices have shot out of this world.

随其（指前苏联）解体后，预算缩减和食品短缺已经沉重地打击了俄罗斯这个新生国家——而且物价高涨，直冲九霄。

▲We not only saw but heard it: the report positively reverberated down the Rhine.我们不仅看见了，而且听见了。这个报告简直响遍了整个莱茵河。

B.名词

▲It’s a crime to stay inside on such a beautiful day.

今天阳光明媚，躲在家中实在太遗憾了。

▲*a crime=a great pity，表示“遗憾之极”。

Falstaff: I asw beaten mysely into all the colours of rainbow…

福斯塔夫：我自己也给他打得五颜六色，浑身挂彩呢…

C.形容词

▲Everyone bowed, including the Westerners. After three days in Japan, the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.

 每个人都鞠躬，连在场的西方人也不例外。在日本只需要呆3天，脊椎就变得异常灵活。

★在英语里，用词汇手段夸张往往不限于一类词，而是数类并用进行渲染，造成极度夸张的意境。例如：

▲And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till’ a the seas gang dry,

O I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.                  (Rebert Burns)

亲爱的，我将永远爱你，

直到海水全枯竭，

太阳熔化了岩石；

亲爱的，我将永远把你爱，只要我还有一息。

▲She has that everlasting rotation of tongue, that an echo must wait till she dies before it can catch her last words.

由于她的话真是说个不停，连回声也得等到她死才可以抓到她的最后的话。

★用虚拟语气表示

虚拟句式可提出主观假想或非真实条件，所以常用于夸张。

▲A knife could have cut the tension during the seemingly endless trip back to the plantation.

在返回种植园的似乎无穷无尽的征途上，空气紧张得仿佛可以用刀子切割。

▲Some movie stars wear their sunglasses even in churches; they’re afraid God might recognize them and ask for autograph. 有些电影明星连在教堂里也戴上太阳镜，惟恐上帝可能认出来而请他们签名。

▲Noise proves nothing: often a hen who has merely laid an egg cracles as if she had laid an asteroid.

嗓子大证明不了什么事情：只生下一只蛋的母鸡也常会咯咯叫，像是生下了小行星似的。

*这句也可视为Simile(明喻).

▲He knew how to work and citadels would go down before him.

他懂得怎样干活，就是城堡也会在他面前倒塌下去。

★用形容词比较级和最高级表示

▲The most effective water power in the world——women’s tears.

世界上最有效的水力是——女人的眼泪。

▲My Faith is larger than the Hills——

So when the Hills decay——

My Faith must take the Purple wheel

To show the Sun the way——

我的信念大于山——

所以，山崩了——

定会接过紫红轮盘

为太阳，引道——

▲He is so mean, he won’t let his little baby have more than one measle at a time.

他吝啬极了，竟然不肯让他的小婴孩一次出一粒以上的麻疹。

*measle一般呈复数，此处为夸张故意用单数。

★用其他辞格表示

英语夸张还可以通过其他辞格来表示，在此类句子中，夸张与别的某些辞格交织运用，相辅相成，兼具两者的修辞效果（有时数格并用）。

★Miss Bolo went straight home in a flood of tears and sedan chair.  ( Charles Dickens )

波洛小姐泪如涌泉，坐了轿子径直回家去了。

▲*a flood of tears既是夸张，又是隐喻，还与其后的and sedan chair构成一笔双述，相映成趣。

▲and the wind from the east go tearing round the mountains like forty thousand devils.

*这是一个夸张与明喻两格兼用的句子。……从东西吹来的风如同40000个魔鬼在山周围狂奔猛闯。

▲“ Poly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars and the constellation of outer space.

“波莉，我爱你。对我来说，你就是整个世界，是月亮，是星星，是整个宇宙的星宿。”

*夸张与层递在句中融为一体，相辅相成，语意不断强化，直至达到高潮。

▲A drop of ink may make a million think.    ( George G Byron )

一滴墨水写成的文字可让千万人思索。

▲*该句含有缩小夸张，而且与借代和对照三格并用，妙不可言。

▲A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

当真理刚刚穿上鞋子，谎言就可能已经走了半个世界。

*该句为夸张与拟人两辞格并用。

【三】Understatement（低调陈述）

Understatement: (含蓄陈述) 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.
or litotes( 曲意:， 间接表达) a form of understatement which gains its particular effect by phrasing in the negative what it wishes to say positively

★Understatement(低调陈述)是恰与Hyperbole（夸张）相对的一种修辞格。其基本用法是，在陈述事物时有意采取低调，抑制措辞，轻描淡写，借含蓄与弱化的语言形式表示强调。试比较以下例句：

A. We can solve this problem.

我们能解决这个问题。

B. This problem is not above us.

这个问题难不住我们。

★从表面上看，B为否定形式，语气似乎弱于A的肯定形式，但实际上B的修辞效果更强，给人的印象更深。这便是低调陈述的特点：欲扬故抑，含蓄内敛。恰当运用低调陈述，能起到极佳的强调作用，取得戏剧性的或嘲讽幽默的修辞效果。

一般来说，英语Understatement并无固定格式，它可通过多种词汇或语法手段来体现。

★（1）词汇手段

A.动词

The palace has been here since 1915, and no hurricane has ever bothered it.

这幢房子是1915年造的，至今飓风还未找过它的麻烦。

B.名词

For large numbers of people the absence of work is harmful to their health.

对于许多人来说，没有工作就会损害他们的健康。

* the absence of work=unemployment.

C.形容词

This was the last straw. I was very young: the prospect of working under a woman constituted the ultimate indignity.

我再也无法忍受了。我当时很年轻：在一个女人手下工作的前景构成了最大的侮辱。

D.副词

He was, he said, rather a precocious little boy——that he was permitted an amount of initiative that most children scarcely attain by seven or eight.

他说，他是个相当早熟的男孩子——他富有首创精神，那是大多数七、八岁的孩子几乎不可能具有的。

E.数词

We do not tell each other what is disturbing us. The result is emotional difficulty of one kind or another.

我们相互之间并不将自己的烦恼告诉对方，结果便产生了这样或那样的感情障碍。

* one kind or another含蓄地表达了的涵义。

★（2）语法手段

A.比较结构

No one was more willing to do a favor for friend or neighbour than he.

他最愿意帮朋友或邻居的忙。

B.虚拟语气

Some of the items are good, others might be better.

有些节目好，有些不那么精彩。

C.双重否定

He is a man not without ambition.

他不是一个没有抱负的人。

★根据其运用方式及特点，英语Understatement可归为两大类：

<1>以反说代替正说

这类低调陈述在英语修辞学中称为（反叙），其特点是采用否定结构，以间接肯定法表示强调。常见的否定式有no small, no little, no lack of, no common, no joke, no laughing matter, not half bad, cannot…too等等。此外，还常用not without等双重否定结构，因为双重否定等于加强了语气的肯定。如：

The face wasn’t a bad one; it had what they called charm.

面孔不算难看；有一般人所谓的妩媚。

If this regime is out of power, no tear is to be shed.

如果这个政权垮台，不会有人为之掉泪。

It was no small feat to harness the energies of an entire nation for a united show of hospitality and goodwill for visitors from around the world.

把整个国家的能量调动起来，对来自世界各地的访问者表现出一致的好客和友善，这是了不起的事。

* no small=(a)great.

In India , not a year passes without a number of people falling victims to the ferocity of the tiger.

印度每年必有人死于虎患。

Bassanio, in his grief, replied that there was nothing he could not sacrifice.   (Charles Lamb)

巴萨尼奥非常悲伤地答应说，他没有什么不可以牺牲的。

★<2>以弱说代替强说

这是另一类型的低调陈述，在英语中称为Meiosis（弱陈）。其特点是常常使用rather, hardly, scarcely, kind of, something of等程度副词，有时也借助比较句式或虚拟句式来表达。此外，还可以通过增词手段，以含蓄、曲折的说法来传递弦外之音、言外之意。如：

There is also poverty, convincingly etched in the statistics, and etched too, in the lives of people like Hortensea Cabrera, mother of 14, widow.

“Money,” she says with quiet understatement, “is kind of tight. But I managee.”

贫困，不容置疑地，深深印在统计数字之中，也印在像卡布雷拉那样的人们的生活之中。她是14个孩子的母亲，一个寡妇。

“钱，”她安详而含蓄地说，“有些紧，不过我能对付。”

★*一个拉扯14个孩子的寡妇，在谈到钱时只是轻描淡写地说了句“有些紧。”低调陈述反衬出她自尊、自立的骨气。

I know he is honest, and I wish I could add he were capable.

我知道他是诚实的，令人遗憾的是他不够能干。

Few pastimes bring a family closer together than gathering around and listening to mother or father read a good story.

围拢来听妈妈或爸爸读好故事是最能使孩子聚集在一起的娱乐。

【四】Contrast

英语Contrast（对照）是一种表现力颇强的常用修辞手法。它将两个相反的事物或同一事物的正反两面并列在一起，使之相互衬托，形成鲜明对照，更加突出地表现事物的本质。

Contrast与Antithesis有相似之处，即都把意义相反的语言单位并列在一起加以对照、比较；

但也有相异之处，主要在于Contrast不像Antithesis那样要求结构相同或相似。试比较以下例句：

(1) United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do…                 (John F. Kennedy)

若能团结，许多合作的冒险计划没有不能成功的。倘使分裂，则无所作为。

(2) Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of laboring those problems which divide us.

让双方一起探讨什么问题能使我们团结，而不要在使双方分裂的问题上耗费心力。

不难看出，（1）不仅语义相反而且结构相似，比较工整、对称，应算做Antithesis；而（2）尽管语义相反，但结构不同，并不对称，应视为Contrast。

运用Contrast可使对立事物的矛盾鲜明突出，揭示其本质，或使正反互衬，相映成趣，加深读者印象。

Caesar. Cowards die many times before their death; The valiant never taste of death but once…    (William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar)

凯撒 懦夫在未死之前，就已经死过好多次；勇士一生只死一次……

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. (John F. Kennedy)

让我们永不因畏惧而谈判，但让我们永不要畏惧谈判。

They are wonderful when they are good, he thought. There is no people like them when they are good and when they go bad there is no people that is worse.    

他想，他们好的时候真了不起。他们好的时候，谁也比不上他们；他们坏的时候，可谁都不如他们恶毒。 

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. 

(George Washington)

    准备战争是维护和平的一种最有效的方法。

  Men always want to be a woman’s first love; women have a more subtle instinct; what they like is to be a man’s last romance.

   男人老想当上女人的第一个情人；女人则具有更微妙的本能，她们喜欢的是成为男人追求的最后一个对象。

  To be , or not to be: that is the question: whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles by opposing end them…

                              (William Shakespeare: Hamlet)

  生存还是毁灭：这是一个值得考虑的问题：默然忍受命运的暴虐的毒箭，还是挺身反抗人世的无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们扫清，这两种行为，哪一种更高贵……

  Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

  科技上的进步，只不过为我们提供了向后倒退的更有效的手段而已。

  *作者在这里指的是科技用于战争，引起灾祸，导致文明倒退的情况。

  A mother takes 20 tears to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in 20 minutes.

做母亲的要费20年工夫把她的男孩子养大成为男子汉，到了别的女人手中，只要20分钟就会把他化为一条笨汉。

  Are not there little chapters in everybody’s life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history? (William M. Thackeray: Vanity Fair)

  人生一世，总有一些片段当时看着无关紧要，而事实上却牵动了全局。

  A man will joyfully pay a lawyer 500 dollars for untying the knot that he begrudged a clergyman 50dollars for tying.

  当牧师为他结合姻缘时舍不得付50块钱的人，却为了要律师解开这个而会高高兴兴地付上500元。

  A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.

  银行，是在天晴之时借伞给你，到了下雨之时就催你还回去的地方。

【五】Antithesis（对偶，对仗）

 Antithesis: (对偶) It is the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in balanced structural forms to achieve emphasis. For example, speech is silver; silence is golden.

The setting of contrasting phrases opposite each other for emphasis. In true antithesis the oppssitition between the elements is manifested through parallel grammatical strucrure

For example:

a)The quest for rightousness is oriental, the quest for knowledge, occidental.

b)Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves anf hoe little we think of the other person.

c)A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues, an enemy his crimes

d)Its failure became a part of historybut its successes held the clue to a better international order.

a figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure. Parallelism of expression serves to emphasize opposition of ideas. The familiar phrase r;Man proposes, God disposes&rdquor; is an example of antithesis, as is John Dryden's description ;Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell.

Antithesis指把意义相反或相对的语言单位组织排列在平行、对称的结构里，以求取一种匀称的形式美和强烈的对照感。

Antithesis有两个特点，一是语义上的对照性，一是结构上的对称性。

该辞格可看作是parallelism（平行）和 contrast（对照）的结合。

Antithesis的运用可增强语势，突出事物的矛盾对比及本质特征。

其结构匀称，排列整齐，对照鲜明，寓意深刻，具有很强的修辞效果。

体现Antithesis的语言单位可分为四个层次，即单词、短语、从句和句子。

  （1）单词

Knowledge make humble, ignorance make proud.

  （2）短语

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

  （3）从句

  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

  （4）句子

  A miser grows rich by seeming poor. An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

  由于Antithesis能揭示事物的矛盾性，这类语句往往说得巧妙、机智、隽永，蕴涵着某种人生的哲理或真谛，加之结构整齐、匀称、音韵铿锵，故运用频繁，常见于英语谚语、演说、报刊文章及文学作品中。

Money is a good servant but a bad master.

金钱是个好仆人，但却是个坏主人。

Work has a bitter root but sweet fruit.

工作之根苦，工作之果甜。

The life of the wolf is the death of the lamb

让狼活着，羊就得死。

Short accounts make long friends.

勤算帐才能交情长。

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

流泪撒种的，必欢呼收割。

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

只有向后看才能理解生活，但要生活好必须向前看。

The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20diseases.

年轻的医生开始行医时以20种药治一种病，年老的医生结束医业时以一种药治20种病。

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

悲观的人把机会变成困难；乐观的人将困难化为机会。

*这个例子体现了一种特殊的Antithesis，即在句中采用“交错配列法”(chiasmus)，倒装前一语言单位的某些词序，使句子前后对照，相映成屈，寓意深刻，发人深思。下面三例属于同样用法。

Ask not what your country can do for you —

 ask what you can do for your country.   (John F. Kennedy)

不要问国家能为你们做些什么，而要问你们能为国家做些什么。

Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage

哪里有无爱情的婚姻，哪里便有无婚姻的爱情。

What between the poor men I won’t have and the rich men who won’t have me, I stand as a pelican in the wilderness.  (Thomas Hardy)

一边是我不欲与之为伍的穷人，一边是不欲与我为伍的有钱人，我像一只伫立在荒野的塘鹅。

If the economy stays down, can conservatives stay up?

如果经济下降，保守党人还能呆在上面吗？

*此例摘自英国《泰晤士报》，stay down与stay up 巧妙并列一句，形成对照，说明执政的保守党人的地位取决于国家经济的兴衰，言语机智、犀利，一针见血。

It is customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and end as superstitions.

开始被视为异端，最后被一味迷信，这正是许多新真理的共同命运。

We find ourselves rich in goods , but ragged in spirit, reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling raucous discord on earth.

我们物质丰富，却精神贫乏；我们以卓越的准确登上了月球，但地球却陷入一片混乱。

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. (Francis Bacon)

治学之人，若一开始就确信既定的结论，他必将终止于怀疑；但如果他宁从怀疑开始，他终会止于确定的结论。

An estimated 500 million people around the world——watching a live television broadcast——saw Armstrong step onto the powdery lunar surface and say: “That’s one small step for man , one giant leap for mankind.”

据估计全世界有5亿人观看现场直播电视，他们目睹了阿姆斯特朗登上满是尘土的月球表面，并说道：“对于个人来说这是小小的一步，对于人类来说这是巨大的飞跃。”

*美国宇航员阿姆斯特朗是人类首位登上月球者。在那个激动人心的历史时刻，他说的一句话巧用了Antithesis，以个体与整体、微观与宏观的对比，反衬出人类登月的伟大意义。

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.

沉或浮，生或死，存或亡，我都诚心诚意地投上这一票。

*该句再现了亚当斯为支持北美独立而大声疾呼的情景。句子连用三个Antithesis，说明北美人民面临的是决定民族前途、命运的关键时刻，同时也表明亚当斯置个人荣辱、得失和安危于度外的爱国赤诚和坚强决心。

I take thee to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, till death do we part, according to God’s holy ordiance, and thereto I plight thee my troth.

我愿意遵照上帝圣仪，娶汝为妻。从今起，无论境遇顺遂或乖逆，富贵或贫困，身体康泰或身罹疾病，愿长相厮守，相爱相惜，至死不渝，谨誓。

*这段话是英美等国传统婚礼仪式上新郎对新娘的承诺，可谓信誓旦旦、情真意切。连续运用Antithesis增强了语势，表明了夫妻同甘共苦、白头偕老的决心。

【六】Parallelism（平行）

Parallelism（平行）广泛见于诗歌、散文、小说、戏剧、演讲中。其基本用法是将结构相同或类似、意义相关或并重、语气前后一致的语言成分平行并列在一起。Parallelism（平行）具有结构整齐、节奏鲜明、表达简练、语义突出的特点，能有效得增强语势，表达强烈的感情，说明深刻的道理。

英语Parallelism（平行）的构成可体现于各个语言层次，如单词、短语、从句、句子等，其中以三项式平行结构最为普遍。如：

（1）单词平行

Language occupies a central, pivotal, principal position among L.Bloomfield’s works.

在布龙菲尔德的著作里，语言占有一种中心的、关键的和主要的地位。

Civilized men arrived in the Pacific, armed with alcohol, syphilis, trousers and the Bible.

文明人来到了太平洋，带着酒、梅毒、裤子、圣经等一身武器。

Europe after millennia of war, rapine, slavery, famine, intolerance, had sunk to the level of a sewer.

欧洲经历了1000年的战乱、掠夺、奴役、饥饿、偏执后沉到了最底层。

An Englishman thinks seated; a Frenchman, standing; an American, pacing; an Irishman, afterward.

英国人坐着想，法国人站着想，美国人走着想，爱尔兰人事后想。

（2）短语平行

包括各种短语，如介词短语、分词短语、不定式短语等。

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.   (Francis Bacon: Of Studies)

读书足以怡情，足以博采，足以长才。

We can gain knowledge, by reading, by reflection, by observation or by practice.

求知门径很多，或阅读，或回忆，或观察，或实践。

And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.

他们所关心的，只是棉花要种得旺，骑马要骑得好，开枪要开得准，跳舞要跳得轻松，追女人要追得得体，喝酒要喝得不至于坍台。

A money lender serves you in the present tense, lends you money in the conditional mood, keeps you in the subjunctive and ruins you in the future.

放债人用现在时态为你服务，借钱给你时用的是条件语气，使你老是处于虚拟的状态，并且会在将来毁掉你。

（3）从句平行

They vanish from a world where they were of no consequences, where they achieved nothing; where they were a mistake and failure and a foolishness; where thery left no sing that they had existed.

他们在这样一个世界消失了：在那里他们微不足道，他们一无所就；他们在那里是个过错、失败、犯傻，在那里他们没有留下存在过的痕迹。

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, the from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

(Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address)

倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献给仍留在我们面前的伟大任务，以便使人们从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完成、彻底为之献身的事业；以便使我们下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；以便使国家在胜地福佑下得到自由的新生，并且使这个民有、民治、民享的国家永世长存。

*该例出自林肯在葛底斯堡烈士公墓落成典礼上的演讲。整篇演讲仅10句话，只延续了3分钟，但措辞简练、感情深沉、意义深刻，已成为演讲的经典名篇。在最后一句里，作者运用了一个含有四个目的状语从句的平行结构，深刻而有力地阐明了学习英烈应见于行动，努力完成他们未尽之伟业。为千古名言，本身也是一个三项式的平行结构。

（4）句子平行

We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity.

我们卷入战争，渴望着和平。我们被分隔搞得四分五裂，期望着统一。

*该句工整、对称，酷似汉语的对偶句。国内有些学者将译为排偶，因为他们认为该英语辞格相当于汉语的排比与对偶。

A woman’s whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world: it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures.

一个女性的全部生活便是一部感情的史话。方寸柔肠便是她们的天地：方寸之内她的志向乃是追求至尊；方寸之内她的贪婪乃是探寻隐藏的珍宝。

We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air.           (W. S. Chruchill)

我们要在陆地上打击他，我们要在海上抗击他，我们要在空中袭击他。

*parallelism常repetition与合二为一，交织运用，以增强修辞效果。以该句为例，We shall fight him属于反复，而by land, by sea和in the air.又互为平行结构。

The world listens. The world watches. The world waits to see what we will do.

世界在倾听。世界在注视。世界等待着我们做些什么。

【七】Repetition（反复）

Repetition(反复)是一种常用的修辞手法.其基本用法是连续或间隔地反复使用同一单词 短语或句子,以增强语气和语势,强调表述的观点,书法强烈的情感,阐明深刻的道理.该修辞运用广泛,常出现于诗歌、散文、小说、演讲及政论文中,在日常口语里也屡见不鲜.其运用格式可分两大类,即连续反复(immediate repetition)和间隔反复(intermittent repetition).

(1)连续反复

指同一语言成分紧紧相接,连续出现.

Would you please please please please please please please please stop talking.

务必请你,千万请你别说了吧!

*说话人为了阻止对方继续说下去,竟连续使用了7个,可见要求之迫切,呼吁之强烈.

There are three things which the public will always  clamour for sooner or later, namely, novelty, novelty, novelty.

有三种东西早晚会为一般大众始终抢着要的就是:新奇、新奇、新奇.

Happy, happy pair.

None but the brave,

None but the brave,

None but the brave deserves the fair.

幸福,幸福的一对.

惟有英雄,

惟有英雄,

惟有英雄堪与美人匹配.

Arise, arise, arise!

There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread;

Be ye wounds like eyes,

To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead.

                                 (Percy B. Shelley: An Ode)

起来,起来啊!起来!

不为那么生产粮食的土地出现了鲜血;

让你们的伤口都化为眼睛,

哭泣那些死去的,死去的,死去的.

*此诗作于1819年10月,西班牙人恢复自由的前夕.

O sweet content! O sweet, o sweet content!

Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face…

哦，知足常乐，知足常常乐！

加快工作呀，加快，加快，加快，加快，

认真干活，就面容可爱……

（2）间隔反复

指同一语言成分反复使用，但不连接，而是间隔出现。这类反复格式多样，主要有以下几种：

A.首语重复(Anaphora)

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.         (Francis Bacon)

旧柴最好烧，陈酒最好喝，老友最可靠，老作家的书最好读。

Revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way.

革命是要流血的，革命是敌对的，革命没有折中，革命要推翻和摧毁阻挡着它道路的一切。

Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow!

Farewell to the straths and green valleys below!

Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods!

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

                  (Robert Burns: My Heart’s in the Highlands)

再见了，积雪皑皑的高山！

再见了，脚下的西壑绿谷！

再见了，森林和原始垂悬的树木！

再见了，急流和奔腾轰鸣的洪水！

*首句反复的运用，充分抒发了诗人对故乡的眷恋之情，表达有力，不容质疑。

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hongkong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

                                    (F. D. Roosevelt)

昨天，日本政府还发动了对马来亚的进攻。

昨夜，日本军队进攻了香港。

昨夜，日本军队进攻了关岛。

昨夜，日本军队进攻了菲律宾群岛。

*罗斯福运用首句反复法，强调说明了敌情严重，形势危急，令人震惊，催人警醒。

B.尾语反复(Epistrophe)

And will you, will you, I will marry you.  (William Shakespeare)

不管你愿意不愿意，我是娶定了你。

O youth! The strength of it! The faith of it, the imagination of it!

啊，青春！青春的力量！青春的信仰，青春的想象！

B.        首尾反复+首尾反复

Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong.      (William Shakespeare)

违背了一个又一个誓言，犯下了一个又一个错误。

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confusion worse confounded.

毁灭接着毁灭，溃败接着溃败，混乱变得更混乱。

*以上两例都为短语的首尾重复。

Nothing can come of nothing.           (William Shakespeare)

没有只能换到没有。

Blood must atone for blood.

血债用血来还。

*以上两例为句子的首尾重复，该格式常见于英语谚语，如：Diamond cut Diamond（棋逢对手）等。

D.逆转反复(Antistrophe)

这种反复又叫“交叉”（Chiasmus），指的是两个语言单位通过互换位置构成反复，其中又可分为两种类型。

第一种只互换位置，不改变语义，强调的是同一概念。

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay a load on my weary eye.          (S. T. Coleridge)

因为那天和海，海和天像重担般压住我的倦眼。

It was the same everywhere, crime and betrayal, betrayal and crime.  (Jack London)

到处都一样，犯罪与背叛，背叛与犯罪。

第二种逆转反复不仅互换位置，而且语义也发生改变，相拌随的往往还有词类的转换。

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

情况吃紧时，硬汉就吃香。

The soldier faces the powder while the beauty powders the face.

战士阵前半死生，美人帐下犹歌舞。

*该句直译为“战士面临枪林弹雨，美人却在涂脂抹粉”

【八】Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）

Oxymoron: (矛盾修饰) It is a compressed paradox, formed by the conjoining(结合) of two contrasting, contradictory or incongruous(不协调) terms as in bitter-sweet memories, orderly chaos(混乱) and proud humility(侮辱).

A kind of a paradox or antithesis that links together two sharply contrasting terms, as “cheerful pessimist”, “ the wisest fool in Christendon””living deaths” “freezing fires”, “glorious defeat”

英语Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）是一种比较特殊的修辞格，其用法是将意义相反或看似矛盾的词语巧妙地搭配在一起，使之构成修饰关系，借以揭示和强调事物内部或之间的矛盾性和复杂性。Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）的运用往往产生一种乍看不合逻辑、令人惊讶，细想却自有道理、耐人寻味的效果。

从构成方式看，Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）可归纳为以下九类：

（1）形容词+名词

proud humility         不亢不卑

painful pleasure        悲喜交加

a thunderous silence    （此时）无声胜有声

a cheerful pessimist     纵情享乐的厌世者

（2）形容词+形容词

bitter-sweet memories   苦甜参半的回忆

poor rich guys         精神贫穷的富人

bad good news         既坏又好的消息

a miserable, merry Christmas     又悲又喜的圣诞节

（3）副词+形容词

falsely true            虚伪的诚实

conspicuously absent    引人注目的缺席

a wisely stupid idea     自作聪明的糊涂主意

a mercifully fatal blow   仁慈为怀的致命打击

（4）名词+名词

a love-hate relationship    既爱又恨的关系

a life-and-death struggle   生死攸关的搏斗

（5）副词+现在分词

changeless changing       既始终如一，又变化多端   

deliciously aching         既令人愉悦，又使人痛苦

（6）现在分词+名词

speaking silence           千言万语的静默        

loving hate              亲亲热热的怨恨

（7）动词+副词

shine darkly             暗淡地发光

die merrily              快乐地死去

hasten showly            慢慢地快起来

（8）过去分词+名词

a vanquished victor        被征服的胜利者   

long-lived death          永生的死亡

a disillusioned hopeful     仍抱希望的失望者

（9）of结构

the feather of lead         铅铸的羽毛

mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms    整齐的混乱

  Oxymoron（矛盾修饰）在英语诗歌里用得十分普遍（尤以16、17世纪为盛），其在散文及其他文体中的运用，虽不及Simile, Metaphor等辞格那样频繁，但亦不罕见。如：

The mother is undergoing the joyful pain, and the painful joy of childbirth.

这位母亲正经受着分娩时那种欢乐的痛苦和痛苦的欢乐。

*Oxymoron把母亲临产时那种苦中有乐、乐中有苦的复杂感受表达得淋漓尽致。

The Major again pressed to his blue eyes the tips of the fingers that were disposed on the edge of the wheeled chair with careful carelessness. (Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son)   

少校用一种精心做出的漫不经心的姿态，再次把原来放在轮椅边上的指尖按住自己的蓝眼睛。

* careful carelessness.描绘了一个假装斯文者的惺惺作态。

There was an audible stillness, in which the common voice sounded strange.

呈现出一片声犹在耳的寂静，而一般的声音倒显得有些异样了。

Love is cruel, love is sweet

Cruel sweet,

Lovers sigh till lovers meet,

Sigh and meet

Sigh and meet, sigh and again

Cruel sweet! O sweetest pain!

爱情残忍爱情甜——

残忍而又甜，

情人肠断到相见——

肠断到相见，相别肠又断——

残忍的甜呵！最甜的肠断！

* Oxymoron的运用巧妙地揭示了爱情的特点：又苦又甜。

Speaking silence, dumb confession,

Passion’s birth, and infant’s play.          (Robert Burns: To A Kiss)

千言万语的静默，默默无声的坦白，

激情的产儿，孩童的游戏。

* Speaking silence, dumb confession都指kiss，恋人间的一吻胜过万语千言，是默默无声的爱的袒露。

Dudley Field Malone called my conviction a “victorious defeat.”

杜德理*费尔德*马伦把审判的结果称为一场“胜利的败诉”。

*1925年，美国中学教师John Scopes因在课堂上讲授进化论而遭宗教界指控违法。开庭时虽有多位科学家和律师为他作证、辩护，但此案仍以John Scopes被判有罪而告终。尽管如此，民众却认为他虽败犹胜，虽败犹荣，故有a victorious defeat之说。

【九】Parody(仿拟)

Parody(仿拟); using the words thought, or atyle of an author, but by a slight change adapting them to a new purpose or ridiculously inappropriate sublect; the imitation or exaggeration of traits of style so as to make them appear ludicrous(可笑的).

Parody在运用时所仿拟的，一般都是人们所熟知的语言材料，如成语、谚语、名言、警句等。Parody的运用可以体现在四个语言层次上，即单词、短语、句子和篇章。

Eg:（1） I had no outlook, but an uplook rather. My place in society was at the bottom.

我没有人生观，倒可以说有一种“上爬观”。我在社会中的地位是最底层的。

*uplook是仿outlook而造，生动地表明了作者年轻时一心想出人头地的愿望。

（2）Modern journalism justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest.

现代的新闻工作，以“最庸俗者生存”的伟大的达尔文式的原则来为自己的存在辩护。

*短语the survival of the vulgarest是仿the survival of the fittest（适者生存）而造，辛辣地讽刺了西方新闻业中的庸俗性和铜臭味。

（3）Where there is a will, there is a lawsuit.

有遗嘱必有官司。

*活人争夺死人的财产，遗嘱引发官司在西方社会屡见不鲜。该句根据will一词多义的特点，巧仿谚语 Where is a will, there is a way.（有志者，事竞成）而造，幽默之中含有讽刺，妙不可言。

（4） Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!  /  How I wonder what you’re at!

      Up above the world you fly!  /  Like a teatray in the sky!

此处仿的是Jane Taylor所作、在英国家喻户晓的The star这首诗：

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,    /     How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,   /     Like a diamond in the sky!

英语Parody（仿拟）的主要修辞作用是使话语文字生动活泼，产生幽默风趣或讽刺揶揄的修辞效果。

（5）In marrying this girl he married a bit more than he could chew.

他娶那姑娘为妻，真是自讨苦吃。

*此处仿（贪多嚼不烂），话说得生动、俏皮，有“吃不了兜着走”的意思。

（6）A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.

处于危难之中的朋友是一个为众人所躲避的朋友。

*该句仿拟伊索寓言中的一条教训：A friend in need is a friend indeed（患难朋友才是真朋友），嘲讽了能同甘但不能共苦的假朋友和势利小人。

（7）Socialism places the human being at the center of things, not the machine, not the Almighty Dollars, not the maximum profits of billionaires.

社会主义认为事物的中心是人，而不是机器，不是万能的金元，不是亿万富翁的最大限度的利润。

* the Almighty Dollars是仿基督教用语 Almighty God（全能的上帝）而造。

（8）Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.

今天可以享受的事情，不要拖到明天去。

*该句仿拟熟语Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today（今日事，今日毕），幽默地说明了作者的及时行乐的观点。

（9）To eat is human; to digest, divine.

求食在人；消化在天。

*仿拟英语谚语（犯错人皆难免；宽恕则属超凡）。

（10）Let us have faith that right makes might and dare to do our duty as we understand it.

让我们相信公理即强权，明白职责就要敢于尽职。

*仿Might makes right（强权即公理）这一帝国主义强盗逻辑，但作者反其义而用之，强调为正义事业尽职尽则的重要性。

（11）Red Star Over Hong Kong

红星照耀下的香港。

*该句仿拟美国记者及作家Edgar Snow的名著Red Star over China（《红星照耀下的中国》，又名《西行漫记》）的巧妙仿拟。

（12）To Lie Or Not To Lie-----The Doctor’s Dilemma

撒谎还是不撒谎——医生的难题

*这也是一篇文章的标题，仿拟的是莎士比亚剧作《哈姆雷特》中哈姆雷特王子著名独白To be, or not to be: that is the question的起头一句（生存，还是毁灭，这是一个问题）。

【十】Zeugma(轭式搭配)

Zeugma: (轭式搭配) 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 noon is not strong enough to burn)

Zeugma（轭式搭配）是用一个动词、介词或形容词同时支配或修饰两个或两个以上的名词，使其同时产生不同语义的修辞手法。它采取顺势串用的独特搭配法，将逻辑上并无必然联系、甚至风马牛不相及的事物强扯在一起表达。这种搭配看似牵强附会，实则具有巧妙的修辞作用，可使表达言简意赅、生动形象、幽默风趣，因此往往意义深刻，耐人寻味。

英语Zeugma（轭式搭配）的运用形式主要有以下六种：

（1）一个动词同时支配两个或两个以上的名词

Postwar rich living and the automobile all but took away the country’s breath and legs.

战后的富裕生活和私家汽车几乎令国人惊讶得透不过气来，也使他们几乎丧失了步行的能力。

（2）一个动词加上与之搭配的介词支配两个或两个以上的名词

We’ll see to it that the blouses appeal to eye as well as to the purse.

我们一定要让这些罩衫诱人，价格也诱人。

To make flying more comfortable, we went to great lengths——and great widths.

为了使飞行更加舒适，我们不遗余力——而且业务广泛。

*该例为某航空公司的广告，其中go to great lengths为成语，意思是“竭尽全力”；而go to great widths则是牵强的搭配，但恰与前者相呼应、对照，使整个广告简洁、醒目、有趣。

（3）一个介词支配两个或两个以上的名词

She was dressed in a maid’s cap, a pinafore, and in a bright smile.

她戴女仆帽，系白围裙，容光焕发，面带欢笑。

（4）一个形容词或分词修饰两个或两个以上的名词

Yesterday he had a blue heart and coat.

昨天他心情忧郁，穿着一件蓝上衣。

They went to the funeral with weeping eyes and hearts.

他们去参加葬礼，心和眼都在流泪。

It is much better to have a patched jacket than to have a (patched) character.

衣裳打补丁强于品质打补丁。

* patched character属非自然搭配，指品质上的缺陷。

（5）两个主语共用一个谓语

Some pitying hand may find it there, when I and my sorrows are dust.

将来会有慈悲的手在那里找到它的吧，当我和我的忧愁都已化为烟尘的时候。

…but at length down went her head and out came the truth and tears.

…..但最后她还是低下了头，流着泪吐出了实情。

Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

岁月在人脸上刻下皱纹，缺少热情使一个人的灵魂苍老。

此外，英语Zeugma还有一些特殊的形式。如：

She’s too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little for a great praise.   （William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing）

她太矮，当不起高度的赞扬；皮肤太黝黑，当不起说她白皙的赞扬；个子太瘦小，当不起大的赞扬。

【十一】Allusion（引喻）

英语Allusion（引喻）指人们在口头或书面表达时引用出自神话、童话、传说、寓言、民俗、宗教、文学名著的带典故性的词语，并使之与叙述或论说融为一体。适当运用Allusion（引喻）可做到事出有典，言之有据，使表达简洁、凝练、精辟、生动，从而增强说服力与感染力。

  从史料来源看，Allusion（引喻）大致可分为以下四种：

1                     出自神话、童话、寓言、传说的典故

英语中的神话引用史料首推希腊与罗马神话，其次还有《天方夜潭》等。常供引用的寓言史料主要是《伊索寓言》，童话则有《安徒生童话》和《格林童话》。

（2）出自宗教文献与民间习俗的典故

  在这方面引用最多的当数《圣经》，它为英语语言贡献了大量成语、典故。

（3）出自小说、戏剧等文学作品的典故

（4）出自历史事件及历史人物的典故

【十二】Irony（反语）

 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.

The expression of actual intent in words that carry the opposite meaning. It is an effective literary device because it gives the impression of great restraint.

For example, …until we are marching backwords to the glorious age of the sixteenth centry (lesson 10).

 For instance, we are lucky, what you said makes me feel real good.
 Innuendo: (暗讽) It is a mild form of irony, hinting in a rather roundabout (曲折)way at something disparaging(不一致) or uncomplimentary(不赞美) to the person or subject mentioned.

Hinting or implying a thing without plainly saying it.

For example, the weatherman said it would be warm. He must take his readings in a bathroom.

During the last five years my cook has several times been sober. ( meaning that he is always drunk.)

  Irony(反语)即说反话，是一种通过正话反说或反话正说来取得讽刺、幽默等修辞效果的辞格。Irony(反语)不仅在文学作品中屡见不鲜，而且在日常口语里也时有运用。如：

我们很幸运。12月13日到彼岸。那使我们觉得真愉快。

We are lucky. It’s the other side on the thirteenth of December. That makes us feel real good.

*13对西方人来说是个不吉利的数字，但恰好是在这天，作者他们奉命在太平洋彼岸的越南登陆参战。本是倒霉，却说“幸运”；本是惶恐不安，却说“真愉快”，这表现了作者的自嘲。

He was such a marvelous teacher that whenever he recognized a spark of genius you could be sure he’d water it.

他是一个了不起的老师，如果他发现了一点天才的火花，你可以相信他一定会把它浇灭。

*将学生中冒出的天才火花加以浇灭者被称为“了不起的教师”，无疑是对他的莫大讽刺。

Chivalry: going about releasing beautiful maidens from other men’s castle, and taking them to your own castle.

骑士作风——到处在别人的城堡里把漂亮的姑娘们解救出来，然后把她们带回自己的城堡里来。

*通过Irony的运用，作者将所谓的“骑士作风”的虚伪性揭露无遗。

A bronco often becomes so attached to his master that he will lay down his life if necessary—— his master’s life, I mean.

美洲野马常常如此爱其主人，是以在必要时，还会牺牲他的性命——我的意思是牺牲它主人的性命。

*句首令读者深信不疑：野马深爱其主人；句末才让读者恍然大悟，如此爱法，原来是说反语。

His designs were strictly honourable; that is to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.

他的企图是完全高贵的；那就是，以结婚位手段来夺取贵妇人的财产。

The public is wonderfully tolerant——it forgives everything except genius.

世人是宽大得惊人的——除天才之外，他们宽恕一切。

What a noble illustration of the tender laws of his favoured country!——they let the paupers go to sleep!

他们竟允许穷人睡觉！——这是多么高尚的例证，说明他们那行善的国家的法律是多么仁慈！

*句中noble, tender和favoured均为反语，讽刺当时英国的法律，说明除失业和睡觉外，穷人别无任何权利。

He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.

他是当饥荒之际只回建议供应牙签的那一类聪明的慈善家之一。

It saves a lot of trouble if, instead of having to earn money and save it, you can just go and borrow it.

假如你可以干脆去借钱，以此代替赚钱与省钱，那会省掉许多麻烦了。

We send missionaries to China so the Chinese can get to heaven, but we don’t let them into our country.

我们派传教士到中国去，好让中国人能够上天堂，但我们却不让他们进入我国。

*当时美国政府禁止中国人移居彼国，作者借Irony讽刺此事：口口声声要让中国人“上天堂”，却又连位于人间的美国都不让进，“上天堂”岂会有真？

Her capacity for family affection is extraordinary; when her third husband died, her hair turned quite gold from grief.

她对家庭的情谊异常深厚——当她的第三任丈夫死去的时候，她的头发因悲伤而变成金色。

*暗示该女士或许发的是“丈夫”财，因此连头发都变成了金色。

The English are mentioned in the Bible: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

《圣经》中有提及英国人的话：“柔顺的人们是有福的，因为人民将会继承大地。”

*该句中的引语出自《马太福音》第五章，耶稣在山上垂训的一节，不过谈及的并非是有关英国的事情。马克*吐温作此言时，英国仍号称“日不落帝国”，在全世界占有大片土地。

【十三】、Climax（层递）

21) Climax: (渐进)

It is derived from the Greek word for "ladder" and implies the progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of significance or intensity, like the steps of a ladder ascending evenly.

Arrangement of phrases or sentences in ascending order of importance

For example,

a)I came, I saw, I conquered.

b)做人难，做女人更难， 做名女人难上加难。

c)Some books are to be tasted, others to swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

  climax 指的是平行并列一系列的词语或句子，其中表达的意义根据事物发展的逻辑关系，由轻及重，由浅入深，由弱及强，如此等等，依次阶升，层层递进，直至达到高潮。

  英语climax的运用，可使思想逐步深化，感情逐步强化，从而增强语言的说服力与感染力。从结构上看，英语climax所并列的语言单位为三项或三项以上，其中以三项式层递最为常见，最为典型。

  英语climax的排列格式大致可分为以下三种：

（1）按语意的轻重顺序排列

To acquire wealth is difficult, to preserve it more difficult, but to spend it wisely most difficult.

积财难，守财更难，而明智地花钱最难。

It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen; to scourage him is a crime; to put him to death is almost patricide.

捆绑罗马公民是暴行；鞭笞他是犯罪；处死他更是忤逆不赦的大罪。

And her face looking up, her lost face with beseeching eyes, and dark, wet hair ——possessed, haunted, tortured him.

她仰视着，她那失神的脸色带着央求的目光和温辘辘的头发——这又萦绕他、侵扰他、折磨他！

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses courage loses all.

失去财产的人损失很大，失去朋友的人损失更大，失去勇气的人损失一切。

Threaten him, imprison him, torture him, kill him: you will not induce him to betray his country.

威胁他，监禁他，拷打他，处死他：这些都不能使他背叛自己的国家。

I am sorry. I am so very sorry, I am so extremely, sorry.

我抱歉，我很抱歉，我非常抱歉。

（2）按时间的先后顺序排列

I came, I saw, I conquered.

我来了，我扫视一切，我征服一切。

The prisoner was first questioned, then tortured, and finally shot.

囚犯先受审讯，然后遭拷打，最后被枪杀。

You can fool all the people some of the time; and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

你可以一时欺骗所有的人，也可以永远欺骗一部分人，但决不可能永远欺骗所有的人。

I was born an American: I live an American; I shall die an American.

我生来是个美国人，我活着是个美国人，我死时也还是个美国人。

（3）按范围的大小顺序排列

he gazed upon the pretty houses, green hills and the broad Pacific; his heart was filled with awe.

他凝视着美丽的房子、绿色的山冈和辽阔的太平洋；敬畏之情油然而生。

It was the ruin of the family, the uprooting of moral, the destruction of Germany.

那出戏实在是家庭的毁灭，道德的沦丧，德意志的崩溃。

Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority.

有些人为思考而读书，罕见；有些人为写作而读书，常见；有些人为搜集谈资而读书，这些人占读书人的大多数。

He wanted to educate his children, serve his country, and satisfy his God.

他要教育子女，要服务于国家，还要敬奉上帝。

英语里还有一种特殊的层递结构，实则是climax与（首尾重复）的结合运用，其特点是递进明显，表达有力，饶有趣味。如：

for glances beget ogles, ogles sighs,

sighs wishes, wishes words, and words a letter…

因为注视会招来媚眼，而媚眼

惹出叹息，叹息则又引起渴望，

接着是言语搭讪，以后是书简…

…but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulations worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed…

……就是在患难中，也是欢欢喜喜的。因为知道患难生忍耐。忍耐生老练。老练生盼望。盼望不至于羞耻……

【十四】、Anticlimax（突降）

Anti-climax or bathos: (突降)

It is the opposite of Climax. It involves stating one's thoughts in a descending order of significance or intensity, from strong to weak, from weighty to light or frivolous.

The sudden appearance of an absurd or trivial idea following one or more significant or elevated ideas. Anticlimax is usually comic in effect

For instance,

1．But thousands die, without this or that, die, and endow(赋予) a college, or a cat.

2．秋波就是秋天的菠菜

3．Seldom has a city gained world renown, and I am proud and happy to welcome you to Hiroshima, a town known throught the world for its----oysters.

Anticlimax又称Bathos,其汉语译名除“突降”外，还有“渐降”、“倒层递”。这是正与climax相反的一种修辞手法，指在说话或写作时内容急转直下，突然从庄严崇高降至平庸可笑，籍以取得嘲弄讥讽或幽默滑稽的修辞效果。

从结构上看，Anticlimax与climax的不同之处在于：climax所排列的层递结构一般都在三项或三项以上，而Anticlimax所排列的突降结构两项即可成立，但也不乏三项或三项以上者。

Anticlimax在语义上的急转直下往往出人意料之外，令人猝不及防。这主要是由于其最后一项结构与前一项（或数项）结构在内容上形成鲜明对照，其次还在于Anticlimax常采用掉尾句（periodic sentence）或破折号等语法手段，从而在读者或听众一方造成一种悬念。

看下列英语突降修辞法的实际用例：

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife.                           (Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice)

凡是有钱的单身汉，总想娶位太太，这已经成了一条举世公认的真理。

*该句采用掉尾结构，语气极为正式，令人预感作者将要高谈阔论一番。岂知笔锋一转，所谓“举世公认的真理”不过是众所周知的平庸之见，滑稽可笑，让人捧腹。

We had plenty of company in the way of wagon-loads and muleloads of tourists ——and the dust.                                                   (Mark Twain: A Tramp Abroad)

我们的旅伴很多，有载客的马车，有当作坐骑的骡子——还有滚滚尘土。

*作者将旅途上扬起的尘埃视为旅伴之一，与乘马车或骑骡子的游客相提并论，表现了他的幽默感。

One describes the glory of the British Queen.

And one describes a charming Indian screen.

有人赞颂英国女王的光荣，

也有人描绘美丽的印度屏风。

A  woman who could face the very devil himself——or a mouse——loses her grip and goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning.            (Mark Twain)

一个碰到魔鬼——或是老鼠——都不害怕的女人，在闪电面前她就沉不住气，吓得魂不附体了。

For God, for America, and for Yale.

为了上帝，为了美国，也为了耶鲁。

*美国耶鲁大学的校训采用突降法修饰，说明了要成就大事业必须从小处做起的深刻道理。

How haughtily he cocks his nose,

To tell what every schoolboy knows.       (J. Swift)

他昂首挺胸，趾高气扬，傲慢无比，

讲起了每个小学生都知道的东西。

The explosion completely destroyed a church, two houses, and a flowerpot.

这起爆炸事故彻底毁坏了一个教堂、两所房屋和一个花盆。

*区区一只花盆竟与一个教堂和两所房屋相提并论，让人感到滑稽可笑。

In our country we have three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.          (Mark Twain)

在我国，我们拥有三种不可以言喻的宝物：言论的自由、信仰的自由以及使两者均不获履行的精明。

*话说得含蓄，幽默之中含讽刺。

He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients——no three, I think ——yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.

他行医迄今已有一年了，曾看过两个病人——不，三个，我想——对了，那是三个，我参加过他们的葬礼嘛。

The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is doubtless a separation.

夫妻之间唯一的巩固而又持久的和平，无疑是分手。

“Seldom has a city gained such world renown, and I am proud and happy to welcome you to Hiroshima, a town known throughout the world for its ——oysters.”

(J. Danvoir, Hiroshima——the “Liveliest” City in Japan)

“很少有哪一个城市在世界上享有这样的盛名。我非常自豪而且非常愉快地欢迎大家来到广岛。广岛之所以能如此出名，是由于它的——牡蛎。”

*该句本应一“原子弹灾难”而告终，结果出人意料之外，突然降到“牡蛎”一词，收到了一种幽默、嘲讽的效果。

Figures of sound

Onomatopoeia（拟声）

Alliteration（头韵）

Assonance（谐音）（押元音的韵）

Paronomasia（双关）

【1】Onomatopoeia（拟声）

Onomatopoeia: (拟声) It is a device that uses words which imitate the sounds made by an object (animate or inanimate), or which are associated with or suggestive(提示的) of some action or movement. 

Onomatopoeia（拟声）是通过模仿、描绘和渲染人类万物的声音来修辞的辞格，运用它能刺激人们的听觉，产生语音象征意义的联想，从而增强语言表达的直观性、生动性和形象性，给人一种耳闻其声、身临其境的感觉。

英语拟声词大体可分以下三类：

1                     模仿人类声音构成的拟声词

如：aha（啊哈，表示得意），sh（嘘，示意安静），boo（呸，表示轻蔑），wow（哇，表示惊奇、喜悦、羡慕），ow or ouch（啊呦或唉呦，表示疼痛的叫喊声），ahem（姆哼，清嗓子或引人注意之声），hurrah（乌拉，欢呼声），giggle（咯咯地笑），clap（啪啪地拍掌），patter（嗒嗒地急行）等等。

2                     模仿动物声音构成的拟声词

如：baa（咩，羊叫声），moo（哞，牛叫声），mew（喵，猫叫声），coo（咕，鸽叫声），heehaw（驴叫声），bow-wow（汪汪，狗叫声），doodle-doo（喔喔喔，公鸡叫声）等等。

以下为一些常见动物与拟声动词的搭配

Apes gibber                          猿吱吱叫

Asses bray(beehaw)                    驴叫

Bees hum(buzz, drone)                 蜜蜂翁翁叫

Bulls bellow                          公牛吼叫

Cows low(moo)                       母牛哞哞叫

Cocks crow(cock-a-doodle-doo)          雄鸡喔喔叫

Hens cackle(cluck)                    母鸡咯咯叫

Chicken cheep                        小鸡叽叽叫

Cats mew (purr)                       猫喵喵叫或发呼噜声

Dogs bow-wow                       狗汪汪叫

Doves coo                           鸽子咕咕叫

Ducks quack                         鸭子戛戛叫

Elephants trumpet                      象吼叫

Frogs croach                           蛙呱呱叫

Geese gaggle                           鹅嘎嘎叫

Horses neigh (snort)                     马嘶（喷鼻息）

Magpies chatter                         喜鹊喳喳叫

Mice squeak                           老鼠叽叽叫

Pigs squeal (grunt)                       猪尖叫（或发呼噜声）

Lions roar                              狮子吼叫

Tigers growl (roar)                       虎咆哮

Snakes hiss                             蛇作嘶嘶声

Wolves howl                            狼嗷叫

3                     模仿各种事物声音构成的拟声词

如：溪流淙淙（murmur）或潺潺（bable），波浪汩汩（swish），雨点啪嗒（patter），雷声隆隆（rumble,roll），风吹草木飒飒（rustle）等。再如：子弹嗖嗖（zip），喇叭嘟嘟（toot），钟表滴答（tick），铃声叮当（tinkle），汽车嘎然刹住（screech），照相机咔哒拍照（ka-dok）等等。

在英语里，用语拟声修辞的拟声词可呈多种次词类形式，其中最常见的是名词、动词、副词和感叹词。

如：The angry husband shut the door with a bang.    （用作名词）

生气的丈夫砰地一声把门关上了。 

My heart is banging in my ears.    （用作动词）

在我耳中响着砰砰的心跳声。

The drunken driver drove bang into the store window.   （用作副词）

醉醺醺的司机开车砰地撞进商店的橱窗。

“Bang! Bang!” shouted the boys in imitation of gunfire.  （用作感叹词）

男孩们高喊：“砰，砰！”模仿着枪声。

Onomatopoeia的主要修辞作用是创造声音形象，使表达生动、逼真、惟妙惟肖。

【2】Alliteration（头韵）

25) Alliteration: (头韵) It has to do with the sound rather than the sense of words for effect. It is a device that repeats the same sound at frequent intervals(间隔) and since the sound repeated is usually the initial consonant sound, it is also called "front rhyme". For instance, the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.

Alliteration: 一组词、一句话或一行诗里，有意反复使用起首字母或起首声韵相同的词。

头韵一般出现在两个或两个以上临近的词或音节中，通常为起首辅音的重复。

注意:

不发字母本音的字母不构成头韵。如：physical pain并不构成头韵，因为字母组合 ph发[f]音; an honest hostess也无头韵，因为honest中的h不发音。

Alliteration 主要修辞作用是增强语言的节奏感，此外还可用于模仿许多事物的声响，以使语言表达更为生动形象。

在现代英语里，Alliteration运用较广，除诗歌外，还常见于散文、谚语、广告、书名等。现分别举例说明如下：

（1）用于诗歌

★The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.  

         (S. T. Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

和风吹荡、水花飞溅，

船儿破浪前进，

闯入那沉寂的海洋领域，

我们是第一群人。

*头韵的运用使诗歌悦耳动听，[f]和[s]两个辅音巧妙地模仿了柔风轻涛的声响。

★When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summoned up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.

                         (William Shakespeare: Sonnet30)

当我传唤对以往事物的记忆

出庭于那馨香的默想的公堂，

我不禁为命中许多缺陷叹息，

带着旧恨，重新哭蹉跎的时光。

*此诗以清辅音[s]作头韵，增强了沉思默想的意境；第四行改押浊辅音[w]构成的头韵，结合词义表达了呜咽哀叹的情调，余音缭绕，生动形象。

（2）用于散文

在散文里偶尔运用头韵可起到醒目、突出的作用。

Nest to health, heart, home, happiness for mobile Americans depends upon the automobile.

对于好动的美国人来说，幸福不仅取决于健康、爱情、舒适和温暖的家庭，还取决于汽车。

The world believes in the wonder worker, not in the words of wisdom.  (Richard Jefferson)

世界信任的是创造奇迹的劳动者，而不是智慧的话

★The flakes were falling tick and hard now, pouring past the window, a waterfall of mystery.

现在雪下得又大又密，好似神秘的瀑布在外飘泼。

（3）用于谚语或习语   

Alliteration的运用不仅可增强谚语、习语的语义，还能加深读者的印象，使其过目不忘。例如：

★Money makes the mare go.             有钱能使鬼推磨。

A fair face may hide a foul heart.   笑里藏刀。

Dumb dogs are dangerous.             哑巴狗最危险。

Willful waste makes woeful want.     肆意挥霍，家徒四壁。

Tit for tat                          针锋相对

With might and main                  尽全力

Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl        不伦不类

Safe and sound                       安然无恙

（4）用于各类广告

  在广告中运用Alliteration，可使之悦目悦耳，增强宣传效果，吸引读者的注意力。

★Vitamins for vim and vigor                 摄取活力和精力的各种维生素

★Cut costs without cutting corners          减少花费而不必节省

*上例为汽车广告，cut corners一语双关：抄近路；以经济的方式做事，指汽车是不可省掉的消费，有了它就不必步行抄近路。

★Sea, sun, sand, seclusion——and Spain     海滨，阳光，沙滩，幽静——更有西班牙风情

*此例为一则旅馆广告。

★Sensotously smooth. Mysteriously mellow. Gloriously golden. Who can resist the magic of Camus XO Cognac?

诱发美感的柔和，神秘的芳醇，荣耀的金色，有谁能抗拒Camus XO康涅克白兰地的魔力？  

*此为推销Camus XO康涅克白兰地酒的广告。

（5）用于书名或报刊文章标题

★Pride and Prejudice     《傲慢与偏见》

★Sense and Sensibility   《理智与情感》

★The Winds of War        《战争风云》

★Pei’s Pyramids Puzzle Paris        贝氏的金字塔使巴黎困惑

*这是美国《时代》周刊上一篇报道文章的标题，“贝氏”指著名建筑师、美籍华人贝聿铭。文章说由他设计建于罗浮宫内的金字塔模型令巴黎公众感到困惑难解。

★Jazzy in Jeams, Sassy in Sweater

穿上牛仔裤，活泼利索；套上毛线衫，潇洒俊俏。

*这是《生活》杂志评述英国王妃戴安娜服饰风格的文章标题。

★Alliteration还常用于英语绕口令，在游戏和语音练习中具有一定的实用意义。

例如：A. big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big black bear bleed blood等。

    B Peter piper picked a pack of pickled pepper

【3】Assonance（谐音）（押元音的韵）

The use of the same,or related,vowel sounds in successive words

a) a deep green streem

b) The rain in Spain fall on the plain

c) I arise from dream of thee

  In the first sweet sleep of night

四．Paronomasia（双关）

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 "arms" has two meanings: a person's body; weapons carried by a soldier.)

♣A play on words based on similarity of sound and sharp difference in meaning

For example

Seven days without water make one weak=(week)

Paronomasia（双关）俗称 Pun。该辞格巧妙利用英语许多词谐音、多义的特点，在同一句话里同时表达两层不同意义，以造成语言活泼、幽默或嘲讽的修辞效果。

paronomasia（双关）在英语中出现很早，是一种有趣的文字游戏，广泛应用于各种文学作品，或插科打诨，或借题发挥，或旁敲侧击，使语言表达妙趣横生。

paronomasia（双关）的构成需要两个基本条件，即双重情境(double context)和多义词或同音异义词。其构成方式主要有三种：

（1）同音异义词构成的双关

You earn your living and you urn your dead.

人们谋求生计，火化死者。

*Earn与urn同音异义，用在一起显得俏皮，别有趣味。

（2）多义词构成的双关

To England will I steal, and there I’ll steal.  (William Shakespeare: Henry V)

我要偷偷溜回英格兰，上那儿偷去。

*动词steal 重复使用，前者为“潜行”之义，后者为“偷窃”之义，构成双关，表达幽默。

（3）同形同音异义词构成的双关

大使是为了本国利益而在国外撒谎（或居住）的诚实人。

*除说谎外，兼有“居住”、“驻扎”，之义，一语双关，十分风趣。

英语paronomasia（双关）运用颇广，除文学作品外，还常见于笑话、谜语等，另在商品广告里也时有运用。如：

We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.

如果我们不团结在一起，我们将一个个被绞死。

*本句运用双关语，深刻而又幽默地说明了不团结便要灭亡的道理。

On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on you.

星期日他们为你祈祷，星期一他们则对你掠夺。

*该句巧借与谐音构成双关，辛辣地嘲讽了西方一些人貌似虔诚教徒，实则敲诈他人，灵魂丑恶。

Women have a wonderful sense of right and wrong, but little sense of right and left.

女性对善恶具有惊人的感觉，但对左右则感觉甚微。

*该句借双关语讽刺女性方向感差，开车不分左右。

A policeman said to a criminal, “You reckon your Dodge would help you up to all these dodges again” .

警察质问罪犯：“你以为你的‘道奇’车又能帮你逃之夭夭吗？”

*Dodge为‘道奇’牌汽车，恰与动词 dodge（躲避）构成双关。这是英语专有名词构成双关的用例。

Bridge is a game of cards which a good deal depends a good deal.

桥牌，是大部分要看发牌（的好坏）而定的纸牌游戏。

*句中重复使用a good deal，前者意为“大部分”，后者意为“好牌”，构成双关，相映成趣。

“We would like very much to have you for dinner,” as the cannibal said to the captured missionary.

嗜食人肉的生番对俘虏的传教士说：“我们想设宴招待你（吃掉你）。”

* to have you for dinner是个有歧义的结构，也构成双关，既可理解为to invite you to dinner，又可理解为to eat you for dinner。

Some persons can be everywhere at home; others can sit musingly at home and can be everywhere.

有些人可以四海为家而无拘无束，也有些人可以静坐家中而神游四海。

When a woman dresses to kill, the victim’s apt to be time.

当女人着装打扮自己去迷人时，被牺牲的往往是时间。

*该句双关别致、有趣。从句中的kill作不及物动词是理解为“使着迷”（相当于 charm），而作及物动词则理解为“消磨（时光）”，恰与主句中的time相呼应。

Try our sweet corn, and you’ll smile from ear to ear.

尝尝我们的甜玉米，包你乐得合不拢嘴。

*此为商品广告，from ear to ear一语双关，即表示因满意而乐得合不拢嘴，又表示因喜欢而吃了一穗一穗。

Tick, Tock, Tick…Talk

滴答，滴答，滴答……说吧。

*该文章标题见于美国《时代》周刊。美国总统克林顿曾因Lesinsky绯闻案而声名狼藉，险些失去总统宝座。该标题模仿时钟响声，给人一种紧迫感和期待感。最后一词由 tock改为 talk，妙不可言，表明美国人期待总统快说实话。

【4】、Hypallage（移位修饰）

ransferred Epithet（转类形容词）

 Transferred epithet is an adjective modifying a noun which it does not normally modify, but which makes figurative sense:

Transferred Epithet: (转类形容词) It is a figure of speech where an epithet (an adjective or descriptive phrase) is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify(修饰) to another to which it does not really apply or belong.

 For instance, I spent sleepless nights on my project

At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth of thieves and murderers . --George Herbert

• Blind      mouths! that scarce themselves know how to      hold / A sheep hook . . . . --John Milton

• In an age      of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle      joys.

The striking and unusual quality of the transferred epithet calls attention to it, and it can therefore be used to introduce emphatically an idea you plan to develop. The phrase will stay with the reader, so there is no need to repeat it, for that would make it too obviously rhetorical and even a little annoying. Thus, if you introduce the phrase, "diluted electricity," your subsequent development ought to return to more mundane synonyms, such as "low voltage," "brownouts," and so forth. It may be best to save your transferred epithet for a space near the conclusion of the discussion where it will be not only clearer (as a synonym for previously stated and clearly understandable terms) but more effective, as a kind of final, quintessential, and yet novel conceptualization of the issue. The reader will love it.

When you compare a noun to a noun, the simile is usually introduced by like:

• I see      men, but they look like trees, walking. --Mark 8:24

• After      such long exposure to the direct sun, the leaves of the houseplant looked      like pieces of overcooked bacon.

• The soul      in the body is like a bird in a cage.

When a verb or phrase is compared to a verb or phrase, as is used:

• They      remained constantly attentive to their goal, as a sunflower always turns      and stays focused on the sun.

• Here is      your pencil and paper. I want you to compete as the greatest hero would in      the race of his life.

Often the simile--the object or circumstances of imaginative identity (called the vehicle, since it carries or conveys a meaning about the word or thing which is likened to it)-precedes the thing likened to it (the tenor). In such cases, so usually shows the comparison:

• The grass      bends with every wind; so does Harvey.

• The seas      are quiet when the winds give o're; / So calm are we when passions are no      more. --Edmund Waller

But sometimes the so is understood rather than expressed:

• As wax      melts before the fire,/ may the wicked perish before God. --Psalm 68:2b

Whenever it is not immediately clear to the reader, the point of similarity between the unlike objects must be specified to avoid confusion and vagueness. Rather than say, then, that "Money is like muck," and "Fortune is like glass," a writer will show clearly how these very different things are like each other:

• And money      is like muck, not good except it be spread. --Francis Bacon

• Fortune      is like glass--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.      --Publilius Syrus

• Like a      skunk, he suffered from bad publicity for one noticeable flaw, but bore no      one any ill will.

Hypallage（移位修饰）又称作Transferred Epithet（转类形容词）。其修辞方式是将本该用来修饰某类名词的修饰语移用于修饰按常规不能修饰的另一类名词。英语Hypallage的用法看似有违常理，不合逻辑，实则语言凝练、形式新颖、生动形象、新鲜活泼。

从结构上看，可用于移位修饰的词语或结构主要有以下六种：

（1）描绘性形容词移位修饰名词

I spoke to them in hesitant French.

我结结巴巴地用法语对他们说。

（2）复合形容词移位修饰名词

People listened with open-moused astonishment while the shocking new sank in.

当这个令人震惊的消息传来时，人们听了都惊得目瞪口呆。

（3）形容词性名词移位修饰名词

The United States has now set up a loneliness industry.

美国现在已创建了一种为孤独的老年人服务的社会服务项目。

（4）现在分词移位修饰名词

They prolonged the clasp for the photographers, exchanging smiling words.

他们握手时边笑边谈，以此延长握手时间，好让摄影师拍照。

（5）过去分词移位修饰名词

An awed hush fell upon the bystanders.

在场的人都惊奇得目瞪口呆。

（6）of结构用于移位修饰

The Grapes of Wrath

《愤怒的葡萄》

*此系美国作家斯坦贝克（J. Steinbeck）所著小说名，wrath本该用于形容那些历尽艰辛、受骗上当去西部当采摘工的移民，作者却移用来修饰他们所采摘的葡萄。移民们的命运何等悲惨，连葡萄都愤怒了！

 就修饰语同被修饰语的关系看，Hypallage的运用大致可归纳为以下几种：

（1）说明人的修饰语移用于说明具体事物或抽象概念

He crashed down on a protesting chair.

他一屁股坐了下来，椅子吱呀作响，好象是在抗议似的。

*说明人的行为的Protesting移用于修饰具体事物chair。

He behaved with guilty caution and rather enjoyed stealing a march on Doctor Ed.

他的一举一动小心谨慎，心中虽然有些内疚，但为能偷偷地抢在埃德大夫之前颇为得意。

* 形容人的心态的Guilty移用于抽象概念caution。

（2）说明动物的修饰语移用于说明事物

The American society saw a gnawing poverty during the tears of the Great Depression.

在大萧条年代，美国社会充斥了令人心酸的贫困。

*To gnaw通常指动物、昆虫的“咬”，在本句中移用于修饰 poverty，意为“令人心酸的贫困”。

（3）说明抽象事物的修饰语移用于说明具体事物

The sky turned to a tender pallet of pink and blue.

天空成了一块柔和的粉红色和蓝色的调色板。

*Tender常用于说明抽象事物，此处转饰具体事物“调色板”。

（4）说明具体事物的修饰语移用于说明抽象事物

All the time the creeping fear that he would never come back to her grew strong within her.

她的心一直被那越来越强烈的恐惧感揪着，她感到他是永远不能回到她身边来了。

*表示具体动作的Creeping转移修饰抽象事物 fear。

（5）说明具体事物的修饰语移用于说明另一通常不能修饰的具体事物

Mark Twain had to leave the city because of the scathing columns he wrote.

由于马克*吐温写了一些尖锐而辛辣的专栏文章，所以他不得不离开那个城市。

*恰当运用Hypallage可增加词趣，使描写对象生动、突出，寓意深刻，耐人寻味

【5】Syllepsis: (一语双叙）

It has two connotations. 
1.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 on 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.)

 2. 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.)

Sarcasm: (讽刺）

Sarcasm is a strong form of irony. It attacks in a taunting and bitter manner, and its aim is to disparage, ridicule and wound the feelings of the subject attacked.

For example, laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps break through.

Paradox: (似非而是的隽语)

It is a figure of speech consisting of a statement or proposition which on the face of it seems self-contradictory, absurd or contrary to established fact or practice, but which on further thinking and study may prove to be true, well-founded, and even to contain a succinct point.

For example: more haste, less speed.

Epigram: (警句)

It states a simple truth pithily(有利地) and pungently(强烈地). It is usually terse and arouses interest and surprise by its deep insight into certain aspects of human behavior or feeling.

For instance, Few, save the poor, feel for the poor.

Apostrophe：

 (顿呼) In this figure of speech, a thing, place, idea or person (dead or absent) is addressed as if present, listening and understanding what is being said.

For instance, England! awake! awake! awake!

对夸克“修辞性问句”的评论

语言的三个基本要素，是“语法”、“逻辑”和“修辞”。研究语言，离不开这三个要素。

修辞，本义就是修饰文句，也就是在使用语言的过程中，可以利用多种语言手段，收到尽可能好的表达效果的一种语言活动。修辞，狭义上就指文字修辞；广义上包括文章的谋篇布局，遣词造句的全过程，同时也包含语言文字修辞。

“修辞”从概念讲，有三重含义：

一、指运用语言的方式、方法或技巧规律（即“修辞手段”）；

二、指说话写作中积极调整语言的行为活动（即“修辞活动”）；

三、指修辞学或修辞著作（即“学科或作品”）

修辞手法，可以分为若干类别。常见的修辞格如下：

比喻(分为：明喻、暗喻、借喻、博喻（复喻）、倒喻（逆喻）、反喻、互喻（回喻）、较喻（强喻）、譬喻、饰喻、引喻)； 白描，比拟（比体），避复，变用，层递，衬垫（衬跌） ，衬托（反衬、陪衬），倒文，倒装，迭音，叠字复叠，顶真（顶针、联珠），对比，对仗（对偶、队仗、排偶），翻新，反复，复沓，反问，反语，仿词，仿化，飞白，分承（并提、合叙、合说）；复迭错综，复合偏义，共用，合说，呼告，互体，互文，换算，回环，回文，降用，借代，设问，歧谬，排比，拈连，摹绘(分为：摹形，摹声，摹色)，列锦，连及，夸张，警策，示现，双关，重言，重叠，指代，用典，引用，移用，须真（联珠），谐音，歇后，象征，镶嵌，析字，委婉(分为：迂回语、谦敬语、避讳语)，婉曲，通感（移觉、移就），跳脱，转文。

关于“语法”、“逻辑”和“修辞”的区别，简单说就是：

1. “语法”是研究句子对不对的。

2. “逻辑”是研究句子通不通的。

3. “修辞”是研究句子好不好的。

下面，我对夸克《英语语法大全》中有关修辞性的问句，作一个客观评价：

英语中有一种问句叫修辞性问句（Rhetorical questions），传统语法书很少介绍，非英语专业的英语教材也很少涉及，以致英语学习者在阅读理解中遇到此类问句时常会感到疑惑，甚至误解原文的意思。为了方便网友学习英语，我将夸克《英语语法大全》中有关修辞性问句部分整理如下，供网友参考。

     修辞性问句在结构上是问句的形式，但实为一种强烈的陈述。这种问句通常并不期待回答。修辞性问句可以是一般疑问句的形式，也可以是特殊疑问句的形式。可以是肯定的问句形式，也可以是否定的问句形式。

     肯定形式的修辞性一般疑问句表示一种强烈的否定意义；而否定形式的问句表示强烈的肯定意义。例如：

1   肯定形式的修辞性一般问句：

Is that a reason for despair? ['Surely that is not a reason. . .']

难道那就是绝望的理由吗？（那肯定不是绝望的理由。）

Can anyone doubt the wisdom of this action? ['Surely no one can doubt. . .']

任何人能怀疑这个行动的明智之处吗？（肯定没有人能够怀疑这个行动的明智之处。）

【评论】

2   否定形式的修辞性一般问句：

Isn't the answer obvious? ['Surely the answer is obvious.']

答案难道不是显而易见的吗？（答案当然是显而易见的。）

Haven't you got anything better to do? ['Surely you have something better to do.']

难道你没有其它更好的事情可做吗？（你肯定有更好的事情可做。）

【评论】

3   肯定形式的修辞性特殊问句等于用否定词项替换疑问词后的陈述句。例如：

Who knows/cares? ['Nobody knows/cares' or 'I don't know/care.']

谁知道/在乎呢？（没人知道/在乎。我不知道/我才不在乎呢。）

What difference does it make? ['It makes no difference.']

这能有什么差别呢？（这根本没有任何差别。）

How should I know? ['There is no reason why I should know.']

我怎么能知道？（我不可能知道。）

What should I say? ['There is nothing that I should say.']

我能说什么呢？（我无话可说。）

What makes you think you can do better? ['Nothing should make

you think you can do better.']

你凭什么认为你能做得更好？（你根本没有理由认为你能做得更好。）

How can I help it? ['There is no reason why I can help it.']

我能有什么办法？（我没有任何办法。）

非肯定词可用于这种问句：

What has he ever done for you? 他什么都没为你做过。

Who has any money to spare these days?这些日子谁还会有闲钱？（没人有）

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4   否定形式的修辞性特殊疑问句相对少见一些。这时等于用肯定词项替换疑问词后的陈述句。

Who doesn’t know? ['Everybody knows.']

谁会不知道呢？（人人都知道。）

How couldn’t you remember? ['You certainly should have remembered.']

你怎么能不记得呢？（你肯定应该还记得。）

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