| 作为一种语言艺术,修辞格的运用是必不可少的。修辞格多种多样,可借助语音、语法或词汇几种手段,这里仅介绍使用词汇手段的几种主要的修辞格。 先谈表示类似或关系的修辞格。这一类包括英语中一些最主要的修辞方式,如明喻、暗喻、转喻、提喻等。 明喻(simile)明喻是用来表达两种不同事物之间的相似关系,一般用like或as连接。 如: (1) O my luve is like a red,red rose That’s newly sprung in June, O my luve is like a melody That’s sweetly played in tune. (Robert Burns) (2) The young hunter was as strong as a lion and as keen-eycd as an eagle. 类似as…as的用法很普遍,有的成了习惯用语,如: as timid as a mouse as white as snow as black as pitch as busy as a bee 暗喻(metaphor)又称隐喻,暗喻的结构不同于明喻,没有as或like之类的比较关系词,它是隐含的比较。英语词义通过暗喻方式可以产生转义: When the curtain fell,there was a storm of applause. He was so angry that he stormed about the house. 暗喻多用to be结构来联系相比较的两个不同事物的: The society was his college. The guest is God of us. He is one of the dogs of the rich. Children are flowers of the motherland. 拟人(personification)比喻可以使无生命的事物具有生命,或者赋予动物以人性,从而造成某种意象或抒发某种情感。如:an angry sky;the grave yawned;killing half-an-hour;the shoulder of the hill;the foot of the mountain;the dancing daffodils; the thirsty crops. Money talked as sweetly in Athens as it had in Chicago in the old days.(John Dos Passos) 转喻(metonymy) 转喻反映两个密切相关的事物的现实关系,转喻与明喻、暗喻不同,不需要两个事物相比,而是借用一个相关的事物代表本体。因此,转喻是一种用另外一种事物的名称来代替某种事物名称的修辞手段。如:The village rejoiced, 这里的village实际上喻指the people in the village.“转喻”的表现形式是很多的,在英语中常见的转喻有以下几种: 用一个事物来象征人或另一事物: to defy the crown(反抗君王) to be promoted to the bench(升为法官) 用工具或器官来代替本体: The pen has more influence than the sword. He has an eye for beauty. Give every man thine ear,but few thy voice. 用容器的各称来代替所盛的东西: They serve Chinese dishes.(中餐) The baby was brought up on the bottle.(喝牛奶或羊奶长大的) They chatted over a bottle.(边喝酒边聊天) The whole village came out to welcome the singers.(全村的人) 用制造者的名字代表制成品: Do you like Schubert? I’ve never read Shakespeare. 用地方代替事物: Kremlin(苏联政府) White House(美国政府) 转喻可以收到言简意骇的修辞效果,给人以耳目一新的感觉,因而在诗歌中常常得以运用, 从如下的诗句中我们可以感受到转喻的魅力: Sceptre and crown must tumble down And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade. (J•Shirley) When from the cradle to the grave I look, Mine I conceive a melancholy book. (George Crabble,The Parish Register) Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword. (Edward George Bulwer-Lytton,Richelieu) The camp,the pulpt and the law For rich men’s sons are free. (Percy Bysshe Shelley) 在诗歌中,还有一种转喻式的“转换形容词”,这是维吉尔、斯宾塞、弥尔顿、格雷等古典派艺术诗人作品中一种文体上的特色:“Sansfoys dead dowry”(意为“死去的圣斯伏依的嫁妆”)中将形容词的dead从占有者(Sansfoys)转到被占有的东西上(dowry—嫁妆)。在格雷的“drowsy tinkling”(“昏昏欲睡的叮铃声”)和弥尔顿的“merry bells”(“欢乐的铃”)中,形容的实际上分别指佩铃的人和敲铃的人。在弥尔顿的牛绳在“吹着她闷热的号角”(“winding her sultry hern”)一句中,形容词形容的是闷热的夏季黄昏,这种情形乃是由牛绳发出的嗡嗡声联想而来的。所有这些从上下文中摘出的例子,似乎都可以从万物有灵论的角度去阅读,关键是联想的逻辑是否起作用。 虔诚的宗教诗多采用隐喻式的比喻。但新古典主义赞美诗的作者瓦茨(I.Watts)博士则采用转喻而获得了感人的、庄严的效果: When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count bu |