浅析英语中常见的修辞格
2012-08-15武汉商贸职业学院外国语学院石守梅
武汉商贸职业学院外国语学院 石守梅
浅析英语中常见的修辞格
武汉商贸职业学院外国语学院 石守梅
本文从明喻、拟人、拟声、平行结构、换喻等方面列举了高中英语课本上出现的修辞格,并对这些修辞格的概念作了简单的介绍,对例句作了分析,以便让读者对常见的修辞格有个大致的了解。
高中英语 修辞格
引 言:汉语中有修辞,英语中也有修辞。目前英语中修辞的运用已渗透到各种文体中。在我们的高中英语教材中(人民教育出版社出版)也应用了多种多样的修辞手法,这些修辞不仅增加了文章的生动性和美感,也增强了文章的吸引力。现通过教材中的句子介绍几种常见的修辞手法,以助于理解课文内容,激发学生的学习兴趣。
一、明喻 Simile
Simile(明喻)是把二种不同事物的相同特征进行对比,表明本体和喻体间的相似关系、本体和喻体都在对比中出现,二者常用比喻词like,as,as if等连接。
(1)Looking at the architecture by Gaudi is like a dream,full of fantastic colors and shape.
(2)Seen from the top,it looks as if the stadium is covered by a grey net of steel,and it looks just like a bird’s net made of tree branches.
(3)My money and goods are as dear to me as life itself.
(4)Mercy falls like the gentle rain from the sky upon the earth.
例(1)~(4)都有本体、喻体和喻词,是典型的明喻。例 (1)中本体是 Gaudi’s architecture,喻体是dream,喻词为 like。 例(2)中本体为 the stadium,喻体为 bird’s net,喻词为 like。 例(3)中本体为 money and goods,喻体为life,喻词为as。句中把钱财比作生命,形象地展示了夏洛克爱财如命的性格。例(4)中本体为mercy,喻体为 gentle rain,喻词为 like。例(1)~(4)中用生动的喻体形象地描述本体,让读者产生生动的联想,从而深入地了解本体。
另外,还有另一种比喻结构:A is to B what C is to D.
(5)A nest is to a bird what a house is to a man.
(6)A net is to a fisherman what a gun is to a hunter
(5)(6)中喻词均为 what.(5)中本体为 a nest is to a bird.喻体为 a house is to a man。(6)中本体为 a net is to a fisherman.喻体为 a gun is to a hunter. (5)(6)用喻体形象地描述了本体、生动地说明了鸟巢与鸟、鱼网与渔民的关系。
二、拟人Personification
Personification(拟人)是把无生命的东西当作有生命的东西来写,从而增加文章的生动性和形象感。
(1)A smile can open doors and tear down walls.It can be used to express almost any emotion.
(2) “She is done for”,he said to himself.
(3) Will she live through this?
(4) The city saw a series of fierce fights between blacks and whites in the 1960s and Drking was shot and killed in 1968.
(5) Copacabana,also known as the “princess of the sea”,has just celebrated its one hundredth birthday and is more beautiful than ever.
(1)~(5)均把人的品格赋予给了物。 (1)中 open,tear down和(4)中see都是人的动作,这里分别赋予给了 smile and city。(2)、(3)中把船称为女性 she。(5)中把科帕卡巴纳称为公主,并说它庆祝了百岁生日等,这些都是把这个海滩当作人来写。
三、拟声Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia拟声是以词拟人或其他有无生命的事物的声音。以使语言更加生动形象。拟声词在句中可作各种成分。
(1) Boom!Another wave struck the house and a strange cracking noise began.
(2) As they got to the steps,they heard another great roar,and the wall of the house shook.
(3) The roar of the winds drew near fast.
(1)中Boom模拟巨浪猛冲房子的声音,使人身临其境,Crack让人仿佛听到房子被撞击后倒塌的噼啪声,Boom在句中作独立成分。(2)中roar模拟了巨浪的咆哮声,roar在句中作宾语。(3)roar中模拟了飓风的呼啸声,给人狂风怒吼的听觉表象,roar在句中作主语。
四、平行结构Parallelism
Parallelism平行结构是用结构相同或相似、语气一致的词语或句段表达相关的内容,以加强语势,提高表达效果,使层次清楚、节奏和谐。词语的平行可作句子中的各种成分。
(1)The African first-fruit festivals had many things in common:People would get together to celebrate their harvest;People used to give thanks for their harvests and for life;People used to honour their ancestors,celebrate their past,and the group or society they lived in.
(2) The history of the South is one of suffering:the suffering of the Native Americans who were killed or driven off their land by European settlers;the pains of slaves brought from Africa by greedy slave traders;the death and poverty of the Civil War;the hardships of unemployment and civil unrest in the post-war years and the Great Depression;the many sacrifices of the Civil Rights Movement.
(1)中用了三个平行分句,简明地概括了非洲人最初果实节的共同点,言简意赅。(2)接连用了5个平行的短语结构,按时间顺序在读者面前呈现了南方有史以来的苦难,生动鲜明。
总之,从上面的例句中我们可以看到:无论是丰富多彩的比喻、寓意深刻的拟人、生动形象的拟声、还是气势连贯的排比,无不体现出了英语语言的美。适当使用修辞格,可使文章更生动形象,有趣感人。如果高中教师在课堂上适当给学生讲讲课文中的修辞格,不仅可以提高高中生学习英语的兴趣,同时也可以培养高中生对英语语言美的鉴赏能力,陶冶他们的情操,从而达到英语素质教育的目的。
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