谈谈英语的修辞格
作为一种语言,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 but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
See,form his head, his hands,his side
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
(当我审视这奇妙的十字架
光荣的王子死在那上边,
我把最丰富的收获只当做损失
用轻蔑浇灭我全部的傲慢。
看吧,从他的头,他的手,他的两侧
混合流下的是哀愁和哀怜;
这种爱和哀愁从前可曾合流
或者荆棘曾编织过如此华美的皇冠?)
“sorrow”与“love”等用于“water”和“blood”, 他为爱而死,他的爱是因,流血是果。
转喻通常是借助于密切的关系与联想,而提喻则是借助于部分相似。提喻通常是局部来代替整体,间或也用整体来代替局部,局部与整体之间总有相似之处。词义的扩大也有通过提喻这一演变方式的,如有些词从特指扩大到一般:journal从“日报”到指一切“期刊”;有些词义从具体扩大到抽象,或从抽象扩大到具体:grasp从具体的“用手抓住”发展扩大为抽象的“用头脑去掌握、领会”;youth不只是抽象名词表示“年轻、青春(状态或阶段)”,在古英语中就已经可以作集合名词指“青年人”这一整体。有的词义从专有名词扩大到普通名词:用家的名字watt来命名物的单位;此外象paper 来自papyrus(纸草,做纸的原料)也是词义通过提喻方式演变的例子。
常见的提喻有如下几种:
1. 用局部代替整体:
Many hands make light work. (用hand表示干活的人)
The case was defended by eloquent lips.(用lips表示有辩才的人)
They came to live under the same roof.(用roof表示整个房子)
2. 用整体代替局部:
China won the volleyball match.(用China代表队)
3. 用个体代替整个一类:
She is another Madam Curie.
4. 用具体代替抽象:
The father yearns in the prince’s breast.(Dryden)
5. 用抽象代替具体:
The authorities(当局)
6. 用材料代替事物:
a piggy-bank full of coppers
矛盾修饰法(oxymoron)矛盾修饰法是把两个意思截然相反的词放在一起,如:
a victorious defeat
a living death
cruel kindness
Parting is such sweet sorrow.(Shakespeare,Romeo and Juliet)
Writing is busy idleness.(Goethe)
这种修饰法看起来很矛盾,很可笑,但却表现了一个事物的两个方面,正好像汉语中文盲自称“睁眼瞎”一样,是有深刻涵义的。
反语(irony)反语就是说反话,用与本意相反的话语来表达本意。反语常用于嘲弄、讽刺,在表扬或持中立态度的掩饰下提出批评或表示贬责,是反话正说。反语有表里两层意思。真正的意思不是来自字面,而是由特定的上下文赋予的。在口语中,真正的意思往往寄寓于语气、语调及说话人的表情之中。如:
His designs were strictly honourable,as the saying is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.(Henry Fielding, Tom Jones)
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.(Jerome K.Jerome)
作为一种表现风格,反语常用来进行尖刻的讽刺。英国十八世纪的著名作家Jonathan Swift所写的A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country 就是运用反语的典范。他说:
…a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, backed, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout. …Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.
读者根据斯威夫特对爱尔兰问题的态度,通读他的荒谬绝伦的建议,不难看出delicious, nourishing, wholesome food 以及admirable gloves summer boots 背后的涵义。Carcass 一词指动物的死尸,指人的尸体时带有贬义。作者用它来表明爱尔兰穷人犹如猪狗,可供ladies与fine gentlemen任意宰割。
双关语(pun)有意识地利用语言中的同音异义(homonymy)或一词多义(polysemy)现象使一句话产生两层不同的意思,导致“一语双关”。例如:
- Why is the Middle Ages also called the Dark Ages?
- Because there were many knights.(利用knight和night同音)
On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on you. (利用pray和prey同音)
一词多义:
We must all hang together, or we shall hang separately.(Benjamin Franklin)
Hang 既可作“紧紧团结在一起”解,又可当“被绞死”讲;一词两义,形成双关。
运用双关,不仅可以使语言俏皮、幽默,而且读起来和谐悦耳,所以常见于文学作品中。 莎士比亚是用双关语的能手。在《第十二夜》有这样的台词:“Give me now leave(允许) to leave(离开) thee”。《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中乐观、开朗的Mercutio受到致命剑伤,临死前还要说俏皮话:“Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man!” 这里grave有“坟墓”与“严肃”的双重意思。
双关语有的利用重复一个词的不同意义明确表示出来,有的则不重复,需要读者自己去分析决定词的意义。比较而言,利用一词多义的双关语比同形异义现象的双关语更有趣、更巧妙。
以上是英语中最基本的修辞手法,从英语文体来看,还有很多修辞上的手法,在此就不一一而论了。掌握好英语修辞手法,既可以提高我们的阅读欣赏能力,而且对我们的写作同样大有裨益。