英语教材 应用文体学-Chapter VII 文体学.pptVIP

Chapter 7 Common Figures of Speech (I) We have already learnt the basic principles of word choice and sentence constructionthe essential skills in the use of English. Let’s now look at the use of figures of speech, which are regarded as “decorative devices” in the use of English. However, we should not understand this to imply that their use is restricted to “fancy” styles of writing or speaking; some of these figures pervade virtually every style and register of the language. Figures of speech comprise various uses of language that depart from the customary (or “unmarked) construction or order so as to achieve special effects or meanings. How many figures of speech are there in English? Different authorities and different books will give different answers to this question. A commonly agreed average is 40, but some authorities go higher than 50. No matter how many there are, they are commonly divided into three categories: lexical figures of speech, syntactical figures of speech and phonetic figures of speech. In this chapter we shall talk about lexical figures of speech. I. Lexical Figures of Speech 1.Simile: an explicit comparison made between two or more things that are unlike in form but that have something in common; the similarity is explicitly expressed or normally introduced by like or as. My heart is like a singing bird. tenor indicator( linker) vehicle I wandered lonely as a cloud. (William Wordsworth) In the first example, the similarity between the heart and the singing bird is based on the fact that both seem happy. In the second example, probably one of the best-known similes in English, the comparison is less obvious until we notice that the simile is extended; the next line is “That floats on high o’er (over) vales and hills”. The comparison is then between the cloud and the poet, walking alone in the hills. Still we might feel that the comparison is n