Rhetoric–Introduction

By definition, rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

本系列講義為陳定安教授所著「英漢修辭與翻譯」一書整理而出，可用於進階單字教學、翻譯練習、文化比較等方面。陳教授系統性對比英語與漢語之間的異同，然此講義主訴英語教學，故割捨書中漢語修辭與翻譯處理的部分，也減少譯界專業術語，以求教學方便。陳教授此書深入淺出，阿賓強烈推薦！

修辭概說：

I. 修辭就是在運用語言的時候，根據特定的目的精心選擇語言的過程，力求把話說得更正確，更明白，更生動，更精彩。

II.語法管的是「通不通」，邏輯管的是「對不對」，修辭管的是「好不好」。

III. 正因為有了「同」，才可以互譯。正因為有了「異」，才產生了不同的方法與技巧。

IV. 修辭方法具有三方面特徵：生動的表意功能，一定的結構規律，特殊的語言方式。

V. 修辭是人的審美觀在語言裡的表現。民族的思想感情不同，對事物看法不同，可以反映在一些帶有比喻色彩的諺語，俗語和格言上。

1. as timid as a rabbit  膽小如鼠
2. to fish in the air  水中撈月
3. to kill two birds with one stone  一箭雙雕
4. black sheep  害群之馬
5. as stupid as a goose  蠢得像豬
6. as drunk as a lord  爛醉如泥
7. to spend money like water  揮金如土
8. as wet as a drowned rat  濕得像落湯雞
9. to spring up like mushrooms  雨後春筍
10. the apple of one’s eye  掌上明珠
11. as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof; like a hen on a hot griddle   急得像熱鍋上的螞蟻

講義編排：

Ａ：英漢意象修辭：

1. 明喻 (simile)
2. 隱喻 (metaphor)
3. 借喻 (metonymy)
4. 借代 (synecdoche)
5. 諷喻 (allegory)
6. 比擬 (personification)

Ｂ：英漢語義修辭：

1. 委婉 (euphemism)
2. 反語 (irony)
3. 誇張 (hyperbole)
4. 雙關 (pun)
5. 矛盾修飾 (oxymoron)
6. 描摹 (imitation)
7. 移就 (transferred epithet)

Ｃ：英漢句構修辭：

1. 排比 (parallelism)
2. 對照 (antithesis/contrast)
3. 反覆 (repetition/reiteration)
4. 設問 (rhetorical question)
5. 倒裝 (anastrophe/inversion)
6. 層遞 (gradation: climax & anticlimax)
7. 聯珠 (catchword repetition)
8. 拈連 (zeugma)
9. 跳脫 (aposiopesis)
10. 省略 (ellipsis)
11. 引用 (quotation)
12. 呼語 (apostrophe)

提醒：

1. 各種修辭方法僅提供例句，老師們可藉此引導學生分組觀察例句內容，讓學生主動歸納出該修辭方法。依阿賓經驗，讓學生自行歸納這種student-centered instruction + task-oriented learning + cooperative learning會比老師傳統講述的學習效果好很多。
2. 此系列修辭講義有一定難度，建議老師扎實備課。

Rhetoric–A1: Simile & Metaphor

I. Simile

1. My love is like a red, red rose.
2. My heart is like a singing bird.
3. talk like a book
4. drink like a fish
5. as fresh as a rose
6. smoke like a chimney
7. as proud as a peacock
8. as timid as a rabbit/mouse
9. as black as pitch
10. as brave as a lion
11. as straight as an arrow
12. as sly as a fox
13. as faithful as a dog
14. as slow as a tortoise
15. as high as a kite
16. as quiet as a lamb
17. as sharp as a knife
18. as light as a feather
19. as hungry as a wolf
20. as black as a crow
21. as motionless as a statue

II. Metaphor

1. The thought was fire in him.
2. Failure is the mother of success.
3. He still has a ray of hope.
4. His mind swept easily over the world.
5. This country has rosy prospects.
6. A heavy purse makes a light heart.
7. There was a stormy debate at the meeting.
8. He could not bridle his anger.
9. A bright idea suddenly struck him.
10. He needled his way through.
11. The train steamed into the station.
12. Waves thundered against the rocks.
13. The hill was veiled in mist.
14. She wormed the secret out of him.
15. I’ll chew over your suggestion.
16. Let’s dig deeper into the text.
17. We stopped to drink in the beautiful scenery.
18. She melted into tears.
19. The airplane was swallowed up in the clouds.
20. The wind was whispering in the pines.
21. The ugly scar runs right across his left cheek.
22. The trees stood greener after the rain.
23. Above us hung a sullen sky.
24. He was left outside in the pitiless cold.
25. What a lame excuse you have!
26. He ate with a wolfish appetite.
27. You have undertaken an uphill task.
28. All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.

Rhetoric–A2: Metonymy & Synecdoche

III. Metonymy

1. The hall applauded.
2. The kettle boils.
3. The lamp is burning.
4. He tasted this dish.
5. The chairman called the house to order.
6. He drank the cup off at a draught.
7. Grey hair should be respected.
8. The caravans trundled across miles of empty sands.
9. It’s nice here in the shade!
10. The skinheads have constituted a social problem in the West.
11. He succeeded to the crown/throne.
12. He rose and addressed the chair.
13. The bench gave a hearing to the bar.
14. He deserves the palm.
15. What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.
16. His pen sways over half of the civilized world.
17. The pen is mightier than the sword.
18. He prefers a hoe to a golf club.
19. Every school needs a head.
20. The press is becoming more and more the vehicle of opinion.
21. Give every man thine ears, bid few thy voice.
22. They decided to apply the axe to non-productive expenditures.
23. He has a ready tongue.
24. White House/ Kremlin/ Solomon/ John Bull/ Uncle Sam/ Hitler/ Romeo/ Judas/ Wall Street/ Waterloo/ Eden/ big chick/ old lady/ the bird on the dollar
25. We drove a Ford to Hyde Park.
26. He had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare.
27. He has read Byron.

IV. Synecdoche

1. I heard this from the lips of my friends.
2. On the stage, we can see a sea of faces.
3. There are about one hundred hands in his factory.
4. Great minds think alike.
5. He stayed under the roof for ten days.
6. The school is not empowered to administer corporal punishment to students.
7. In the match England has won.
8. They have gained a footing in the cultural world.
9. He sets a good table.
10. She is a good girl at her needle.
11. He began to do sums when he was five years old.
12. Did you see the cutthroat?
13. It is a pity that there is more ignorance than knowledge in our country.
14. Daniel Jones was an authority on English phonetics.
15. His father was buried under this stone.
16. He was bound in irons for three months.
17. The marble speaks before the silent looker-on.
18. Shanghai is the Paris of the East.
19. She is the Venus of Suzhou.

 

Rhetoric–A3: Allegory & Personification

V. Allegory

1. All that glitters is not gold.
2. There is no rose without a thorn.
3. Make hay while the sun shines.
4. Every cloud has a silver lining.
5. A Bundle of Sticks: A husbandman who had a quarrelsome family, after having tried in vain to reconcile them by words, thought he might more readily prevail by an example. So he called his sons and bid them lay a bundle of sticks before him. Then, having tied them into a fagot, he told the lads, one after the other, to take it up and break it. They all tried, but tried in vain. Then untying the fagot, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father: “Thus you, my sons, as long as you remain united, are a match for all your enemies; but differ and separate, and you are undone.” (Aesop’s Fables)

VI. Personification

1. The thirsty soil drank in the rain.
2. The waves were dimpling in the sunshine.
3. The green mountains were dancing, and the rivers and lakes smiling.
4. The rose blushes in the morning breeze.
5. Time will tell.
6. Walls have ears.
7. The wind sighed in the treetops.
8. On the table lay some dog-eared books.
9. Everything smiled on him.
10. The moon is riding in the sky.
11. The lamb nodded as I came home.
12. A hare laughed at a tortoise because he moved very slowly.
13. The frowning cat is biding its time.
14. Pride goes before a fall.
15. Can’t you just see Success, Health, and Happiness beckoning to you?
16. Truth never grows old.
17. Poetry is the queen of the Arts.
18. He is a bookworm.
19. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
20. We have been dogged for two days by an agent.
21. Children are always eager to ape others.
22. She is shedding crocodile tears.

 

Rhetoric–B1: Euphemism & Irony

I. Euphemism

1. Your grammar is not particularly good. (= poor)
2. Schools nowadays have to handle more and more maladjusted children. (= problem children)
3. She lay in bed with T.B. (= tuberculosis)
4. They parted after two years of marriage. (= divorced)
5. I’m afraid he has misrepresented the facts. (= lied)
6. The girl is hard of hearing. (= deaf)
7. Sometimes I think she sticks too much to her principles. (= stubborn)
8. Henry is always misinformed. (given false information)
9. He used poor judgement wherever he went. (= showed himself a fool)
10. In private, I should merely call him a liar. In the press, you should use the words: “reckless disregard for truth,” and in Parliament– you regret he “should have been so misinformed.”
11. He worked and worked until he breathed his last. (pass away, lay down one’s life, go to sleep, go out with the tide, go off, go to his long rest, go the way of all flesh, kick the bucket, be no more, depart, join the majority, go west, go to glory, go to one’s account, go to one’s last home, go to a better world)
12. washroom, bathroom, restroom, comfort station, powder room, ladies’, gents
13. old enemy, Old Harry, Old Ned, Old Nick, Old Poker, the old boy, old serpent
14. tree-trimmer→ tree surgeon; hairdresser→ beautician; bootblack→ footwear maintenance engineer; cobbler→ shoe rebuilder; dustman→ street orderly; whore→ working girl, call girl, business girl, pavement princess
15. madhouse→ mental hospital, mental health center; small business→ hotel industry, tourist industry

II. Irony

1. What a noble illustration of the tender laws of his favored country!–They let the paupers go to sleep!
2. The student plays football all day long during the time of examination. What a diligent student he is!
3. His designs were strictly honorable, as the saying is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.
4. You’ve got us into a nice mess.
5. He was sage indeed.
6. This hard-working boy seldom reads more than an hour per week.
7. When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff,

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honorable man.

 

Rhetoric–B2: Hyperbole & Pun/Paronomasia

III. Hyperbole

1. Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars.
2. I haven’t seen you for ages.
3. She shed floods of tears.
4. The waves ran mountain high.
5. He complains, and with millions of reasons.
6. Blood streams down from the forehead.
7. I was scared to death.
8. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Chinese medicine.
9. I’ve told you fifty times.
10. The cheers reached the stars.
11. He bombarded me with a number of questions.
12. He is no fool. I should say.
13. He is no mean opponent in the coming debate.
14. Man is not born to die.
15. I was not a little surprised at the news.
16. It’s no easy matter to repair that machine.
17. After one year’s illness he was reduced to a skeleton.
18. He sat perfectly quietly, and never spoke a syllable.

IV. Pun/Paronomasia

1. An ambassador is an honest man who lies abroad for the food of his country.
2. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.
3. What do lawyers do when they die?       Lie still.
4. On the first day of this week, he became very weak.
5. They didn’t write well, so they tried to right the wrong.
6. On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on you.
7. There were a row of young fellows in the street, and a row among them, too.
8. Finding tears on her coat, she burst into tears.
9. Customer: I would like a book, please.

Bookseller: Something light?

Customer: That doesn’t matter. I have my car with me.

10. Hotel-keeper: Here are a few views of our hotel for you to take with you, sir.

Guest: Thanks, but I have my own views of your hotel.

 

Rhetoric–B3: Oxymoron, Imitation, & Transferred epithet

V. Oxymoron

1. an audible stillness; traitorious truthfulness; honest thief; carefully careless; victorious defeat; sorrowful gladness; busy idleness; wise fool; friendly enemy; heavy lightness; cheerful pessimist; cruel kindness; tearful joy; orderly chaos; bitter-sweet memories; bad good news; dully bright; mercifully fatal; shine darkly; hasten slowly; love-hate relationship; deliciously aching; changelessly changing; jarring concord; living death; walking dead
2. Would you have the cruel kindness to give me a quicker death?
3. What she said is falsely true.
4. She said it with her disagreeable laugh.
5. He was restlessly tired, even as he lay in bed.
6. Make haste slowly.
7. He is a clever fool.
8. Why, then, O bawling love! O loving hate!

O anything, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

9. Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical,

Dove feather’s raven, wolfish-ravening lamb,

Despised substance of divinest show,

Just opposite to what thou justly seemest,

A damned saint, an honorable villain.

10. It (New York) has the poorest millionaires,

The little great men, the haughtiest beggars,

The plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers,

The dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw.

11. His honor rooted in dishonor stood

And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

VI. Imitation

1. The door banged shut.
2. The bees were buzzing among the flowers.
3. He was puffing his cigar.
4. My father’s voice boomed, “Don’t argue!”
5. Down came his whip, and away we clattered.
6. The tick-tack of the clock was heard.
7. red with anger; green with envy; feel blue; turn white with fear; give someone a black eye; a heart of gold; The future looks grey; Speech is silver, silence is golden.
8. They zigzagged up the mountain. They walked in zigzags.
9. The players formed an O on the playground.
10. He wears a T-shirt at times.

VII. Transferred epithet

1. The indefatigable bell now sounded for the fourth time.
2. Darrow had whispered, throwing a reassuring arm round my shoulder as we were waiting for the court to open.
3. Darrow walked slowly round the baking court.
4. This is not a cheerful sight.
5. I enjoy the clean voluptuousness of the warm breeze on my skin and the cool support of the water.
6. He passed many an anxious hour in the train.
7. surprised silence; pitiful white smile; dizzy height; easy writer; sleepless bed; extreme and pathetic beauty; embarrassed delight; dreamy, gloomy, friendly trees

 

Rhetoric–C1: Parallelism & Antithesis/Contrast

I. Parallelism

1. He doesn’t ride, nor shoot, nor fish, nor swim.
2. We can gain knowledge by reading, by reflection, by observation or by practice.
3. He knows a good thing; he knows a safe thing.
4. Their sunburned faces were dark, and their sun-whipped eyes were light.
5. Their powers of conversation were considerable. They could describe an entertainment with accuracy, relate an anecdote with humor, and laught at their acquaintance with spirit.
6. No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
7. Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean,

And the pleasant land.

8. The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter.

9. The seed ye sow, another reaps;

The wealth ye find, another keeps;

The robe ye weave, another wears;

The arm ye forge, another bears.

II. Antithesis/Contrast

1. Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.
2. In the face of sickness, health is wonderful.
3. He that has never hoped can never despair.
4. The skyscraper is highest but the foundation is shakiest.
5. No life, no death.
6. Work is cheap, but bread is dear.
7. To say is easy, but to do is hard.
8. Be slow of tongue, and quick of eye.
9. Easy come, easy go.
10. Adversity reveals genius; fortune conceals it.
11. Out of sight, out of mind.
12. Penny wise, pound foolish.
13. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
14. Give me liberty, or give me death!
15. No bees, no honey; no work, no money.
16. Grief counts the second; happiness forgets the hours.
17. Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
18. A fair face may hide a foul heart.
19. Soon learnt, soon forgotten; soon ripe, soon rotten.
20. In the mirror, we see the face; in wine, the heart.
21. There are tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and death for his ambition.

 

Rhetoric–C2: Repetition/Reiteration, Rhetorical question, & Inversion/Anastrophe

III. Repetition/Reiteration

1. Oh, the dreary, dreary moorland!  Oh, the barren, barren shore!
2. We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day.
3. She was seventeen years old then, and a very beautiful girl, very beautiful, very beautiful.
4. Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold,…
5. Home! Home! Sweet home! There’s no place like home!
6. But there was a difference, a vital difference.
7. It’s their wealth and security that makes everything possible, makes your art possible, makes literature, science, and even religion possible.
8. Tell me the tales that to me were so dear

Long, long ago, long, long ago;

Sing me the song I delighted to hear,

Long, long ago, long, long ago.

9. Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow!

Farewell to the streams and green valleys below!

Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods!

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

IV. Rhetorical Question

1. What business is it of yours? You mind your own affairs.
2. What’s the good of that? That’s the sort of trick they served me twice last week.
3. Is not China a big country?
4. Will they cower before difficulties when they are not afraid of death?
5. Who can bear such an insult?
6. Can a man be too cruel to his mother’s enemy?

V. Inversion/Anastrophe

1. Come frightful days of snow and rain. He did not know when he made camp, when he broke camp.
2. Again returned the scenes of youth.
3. Most stirring are speeches like those by Churchill.
4. Happy shall I be when his stay at Netherfield is over!
5. All this we must take fully into account.
6. Chinese she can speak.
7. In came a man with a white beard.
8. Away ran the girls, too eager to get in to have time for speech.
9. Not until then did he realize his own fault.
10. Only by working hard can we achieve the aim.
11. Not a single sail had we sighted since we weighed anchor.
12. Up the road came a sound of creaking axles, and then a slow cloud of dust, and then a bull-cart bearing Ransie Bilbro and his wife.
13. Scattered like stars in the deep mountains are numerous reservoirs and ponds.
14. Involved were the right of a speaker to speak and in particular the right of the faculty and students to listen–and think and question.
15. Last year he got acquainted with a young teacher, and this young teacher he was to work with in the coming five years.
16. My opinion of the coal trade on that river is, that it may require talent, but it certainly requires capital. Talent, Mr. Micawber has; capital, Mr. Micawber has not.

 

Rhetoric–C3: Gradation, Catchword repetition, & Zeugma

VI. Gradation (climax & anticlimax)

1. The audience smiled, chuckled, and finally howled.
2. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I am so extremely sorry.
3. The book has a power, so to speak, a very exceptional power in fact, one may say without exaggeration it is the most powerful book of the month.
4. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
5. He has gone; he has escaped; he has broken away.
6. We honored him, we trusted him, and we loved him.
7. Let’s face it. Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them that there are no gains without pains.
8. I came. I saw. I conquered.
9. David was a great statesman, a great warrior, a great poet, and a skillful performer on the harp.
10. She fears thunder and lightning, she fears dogs and cats, she fears moths and caterpillars.

VII. Catchword Repetition

1. Now, what I want is, facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.
2. Success breeds complacency; complacency breeds laziness; laziness breeds failure.
3. Margot looked at them both and they both saw that she was going to cry.
4. Three fishers went sailing out into the West. Out into the West, as the sun went down.

VIII. Zeugma

1. weeping eyes and hearts; to wage war and peace; …when I and my sorrows are dust.
2. This murderer killed the boy and his parents’ only hope.
3. She opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy.
4. At noon Mrs. Turpin would get out of bed and humor, put on the kimono, and the water to boil for coffee.
5. He picked up his hat and his courage.
6. He lost the game and his temper.
7. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief.
8. He halted in the district where by night are found the lightest street, hearts, vows and librettos.
9. He swallowed bread and butter and a spasm of emotion.
10. He caught a bus and a cold.