大学单词怎么背Week 13 Changing of English Vocabulary 1 (2).docx

TheChangingEnglishVocabulary2

Week14

SemanticChangesfromtheLiteralUseofWordstoTheirFigurativeUse

Wehavediscussedfourtendenciesinsemanticchange:generalizationandspecializationofdenotativemeaning,elevationanddegenerationofconnotativemeaning.Anothersemanticchangeischangesfromliteralmeaningtofigurativesense.Thatistosay,peoplealwaysusefiguresofspeechtoexpressthiskindofsemanticchanges.

Metaphor:

Weknowthatwordsareusedintwoways：literallyandfiguratively.Whenusedliterally,theyhavetheirnaturalandusualmeaning.Whenusefiguratively,

theyhaveanonliteral，suggestedmeaning.

Infiguresofspeechwordsnolongerretaintheirliteralmeaning,butareused

assymbolsandimages.

Takeasentenceforexample.

“Imperialismisapapertiger.”Herepapertigerisametaphor.Itisusedinafigurativesense，notinitsliteralmeaning.

Whatisametaphor?Howdoesitdifferfromasimile?

Asimileisafigureofspeechwhichmakesacomparisonbetweentwounlike

elements,havingatleastonepointofresemblanceinappearance,quality,actionoreffect.

Asimilemakesacomparison,butisdifferentfromanordinarycomparison.

Anordinarycomparisonisacomparisonbetweentwolikeelements.

“Helookslikehisbrother”isanordinary,literalcomparison,becauseheandhisbrotherarebothhumanbeings.

“HeandHisbrotherareaslikeastwobeans”isacomparisonbetweentwounlikeelements,thatis,humanbeingsandpeas.Soaslikeastwopeasisasimile.Thesimilemaybeexpressedbytheuseoftheconnectingwords:like,as,as…as,sometimesbytheuseofthan,asiforasthough.

Herewehaveafewexamples.

Recordsfelllikeripeapplesonawindyday.

(ERWhite)

Therubyshallberedderthanaredrose,andthesapphireshallbeblueas

thegreatsea.

(O.Wikfe)

TheLadyBlancheavoidedherasifshehadaninfectiousdisease.

(W.Thackeray)

Ametaphorisanimportantlanguagedevice.Itisc