常见英文修辞手法（Figures of Speech）英文的修辞手法种类繁多，功能多样，但总体说来，采用修辞手法，目的是为了使表达生动、形象，有感染力，给人以美感，即实现许渊冲先生所指的的语言的三美：“音美、形美和意美”。

1. figures of comparison: simile, metaphor. (resemblance of two identities) Simile: a figure involves an expressed comparison, always introduced by “like”, “as”or “as if”.e.g.:a. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail. (Alice Walker: Everyday Use for Your Grandmama)b. Maggie‟s hand is as limp as a fish. (Alice Walker: Everyday Use for Your Grandmama)Metaphor: the substitution of one thing for another because of the resemblance between them. It is an implied comparison without “as” or “like”. Nouns, verbs and adjectives can be used metaphorically.e.g.:a. Little donkeys with harmoniously tinkling bells thread their way among the throngs of people entering and leaving the bazaar. (The Middle Eastern Bazaar)b. The dye-market, the pottery-market and the carpenters‟ market lie elsewhere in the maze of the vaulted streets which honeycomb this bazaar. (The Middle Eastern Bazaar)c. Darrow walked slowly round the baking court. (The Trial that Rocked the World)d. H. L. Mencken wrote sulphurous dispatches sitting in his pants with a fan blowing on him…(The Trial that Rocked the World)2. Personification: a figure that endows objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions with human form, character, or sensibility.1）TO inanimate objects（把无生命的物体拟人化）e.g.:a. The thirsty soil drank in the rain.b. The mist, like love, plays upon the heart of the hills and brings out surprises of beauty.2) to inanimate living organisms (把有生物拟人化) e.g.a. He (the Fox) muttered as he retreated: “Well! What does it matter! The Grapes are sour!”….( Aesop’s Fables)b. Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.(Tagore: Stray Birds)3) To inanimate concepts or ideas (把抽象概念拟人化) e.g.:a. Wrong cannot afford defeat but Right can. (谬误经不起失败，但真理却不怕失败)(Tagore: Stray Birds)b. These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have their whisper of joy in my mind.(这些微思，是绿叶的簌簌之声呀；他们在我的心里，愉快地微语着。

)(Tagore: Stray Birds) 郑振铎译c. In November, a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side the ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores. (O. Henry: The Last Leaves )3. Metonymy: the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated1) To substitute sb./ sth. with instrument; e.g.:a.The pen is mightier than the sword.b.He is too fond of the bottle. /The baby was brought up on the bottle.c.The pot has boiled over.2) to substitute sb./ sth. with its own typical features; e.g.:a.The blue eyes walked into the office.b.Led on the gray-hair’d wisdom of the east.c.His aunt wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old hartso; and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave,for it was no use for her to try any more. ( Tom Sawyer)3) other formsa.On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest livingthinker ceased to think.b.Do you like Beethoven?c.The captain had fallen in possession of a complete Shakespeare.d.Washington has reacted cautiously to the latest peace proposals.4. Synecdoche (: the naming of a part to mean the whole, or the whole to the part, as in “hands”for “men who do manual labor.1) Part for the wholea.Many hands make light work. 人多好办事。

b.Two heads are better than one.2)The whole for the parta.T he world knows his worth.b.The football match was a close contest. In the end, England won.c.This fox goes very well with your cap.3) Material for the producta.The little girl’s piggy bank is full of nickels.b.He is preparing a paper on World population for our next meeting.5. Euphemism （委婉语）: the substitution of an offensive expression for one that may be disagreeable, a taboo, etc. e.g.:a.And, it being low water, he went out with the tide. (Charles Dickens: DavidCopperfield) Other euphemistic expression for death: to pass away, to be no more, to be gone, to go west, to fall asleep, to breathe one‟s last, to meet one‟s Maker, to go to the way of all earth, to return to dust, to join the majority, etc.b.He fed his family on bowls of sunshine. (He had nothing to feed his family on.)Other similar expressions: to live on air, to live on illusionsc.西方媒体常用委婉语来掩盖矛盾，粉饰太平：e.g.: “the culturally deprived, theunderprivileged or disadvantaged”for “the poor”; “ethnic neighborhood”for “slums or ghettos”, “industrial action”for “strike”, “disturbance”for “riot”, “in difficulties” for “in debts”, “a man of doubtful taste” for “a man of bad taste”, “a lady of the town” for “a prostitute”, “queer” for “homosexua l”.中文中也不乏类似的例子：“工读学校”--- “青少年罪犯劳教学校”；“待业青年”---“没有工作的或者失业的青年”6. Allusion (引喻)：这一修辞手法与汉语引用中的“暗引”相近似，它包括引用典故、谚语、成语、格言和俗语等。