文体与修辞考试复习5.ppt

* * * * * * * * * * * * Discussion Please point out the meanings of the underlined words in the following phrases. 1. two grey eyes --- the eye of the needle 2. his left hand --- the long hand of the clock 3. a cut in the foot --- the foot of the mountain 4. the mouth of the pig --- the mouth of the river * Session 5 Figures of Speech (I) As lexical stylistic devices, figures of speech refer to the figurative uses of language and can produce rhetorical effect that common language use cannot. I. Simile A simile is an expression making a comparison between two things that are essentially unlike, yet are alike in a certain respect. * 1. Formation of the simile It is made up of the tenor (the thing described)(本 体), the vehicle (the thing compared to)(喻体) and words to show the relationships of comparison. E.g. (1) He is as stubborn as a mule. (2) He speaks as if there were a frog in the throat. (3) The past rises before me like a dream. (4) He had no more idea of art than a cow. (5) Love and cough cannot be hit. (6) Who is to blame but her tyrant of a father? (7) A doctor must have the heart of a lion and the hand of a lady, * 2. Types of simile In accordance with their major purposes, similes can be classified into the following three types. 2.1 Descriptive similes Their major purposes are to make a pure description of persons, things, places, natural scenery and action, and, with much more brevity, draw sharper pictures in the mind than could possibly be done by any other means. E.g. * (11) Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold. Her skin was white as leprosy, The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she Who thicks man’s blood with cold. (12) Everything that he was and did bore out this rigid face and played laughs against it. When he moved his eyes, it was li