英语修辞与写作·6.5　字面意义与比喻意义

6.5　字面意义与比喻意义

6.5A　字面意义与比喻意义的差别

“字面意义”（Literal meaning）与“比喻意义”（Figurative meaning）同前面6.2中讲到的“指示意义”与“隐含意义”有相同之处，前者指词语直接表示的意义，人们一看便知道，而后者则往往需要人们根据上下文加以引申才能理解。例如：

（1）The man was knocked down by an iron bar.

（2） Madame Curie completed her studies in Paris with an iron will.

句1中的“iron”是字面意义，指“铁（棒）”，而句2中的“iron”则为比喻意义，表示“钢铁般的（意志）”的意思。又如：

（3）Just a moment, please. The tea is brewing.

（4） Watch out: there's trouble brewing.

句3中的“brewing”是字面意义，指“沏茶”；而句4中的“brewing”则为比喻意义，表示“（麻烦事）即将发生”的意思。

6.5B　词语意义的细微差别

同样一个词语既有字面意义与比喻意义的不同用法，而且即使用于字面意义，也会出现种种细小的含义区分。试以literal和literally为例：

（1） The literal meaning of the expression “run after sb.” is “to chase sb.”, whereas its extended or figurative meaning is “to seek company of sb.”.

（literal: basic）

（2） Every word of this is literally as the man spoke it.

（literally: exactly）

（3） It's not a good idea to follow a literal approach to the subject. You need imagination and creativity.

（literal: stubborn, old-fashioned）

（4） You need to demonstrate to the examiners that you have more than a literal understanding of the text.

（literal: word for word, basic; a literal understanding = surface impression）

（5） During the World Cup, most of our eyes were literally glued to the television for every round of the competition.

（literally: almost）

（6） Twenty million people are threatened by famine and the food aid required runs quite literally into millions of tons.

（literally: completely, truthfully）

（7） Hurry up, my dear! We had literally ten minutes to catch the first train.

（literally: only, merely）

此外，literal和literally还可以用来强化比喻意义。例如：

（8） The village in the twenties was a literal hotbed of political, artistic, and sexual radicalism.

（literal: indeed）

（9） New York city is literally hanging by its fingernails.

（literally: just）

6.5C　掌握“比喻用法”的关键

掌握“比喻用法”的关键在于分清“What is said”和“What is implied”，即分清“指示意义”与“隐含意义”（见6.2）。请看下面的两句对话：

Harry: Would you like one more piece of cake, Jenny?

Jenny: I'm on a diet.

一般说来，当别人请吃什么东西时，正常的回答有两种；肯定的回答为“Yes, thank you”，否定式为“No, thank you”，但是这里Jenny的话却有点特别。表面看来，似乎是答非所问，实际上是另有其意：说她在控制饮食，就是说她不想再吃啦，等于说“No, thanks”。

日常生活经常会有这样的情况。如果夏天有人来到你的房间，说“It's quite warm here”，其意思不是称赞你的房间里暖和，而是抱怨那里温度太高，需要打开电扇或空调。

一个普通的疑问句也可以不是提出什么问题，而是对听话人提出要求或发出指令。例如妈妈看到厨房里垃圾箱满了，便对孩子说“Have you taken out the garbage?”

英语中的“比喻用法”（Figurative use）十分普遍，引出了各种各样的“辞格”（Figure of speech）。关于辞格，详见本书8－17章，另参见黄任（2012:15）。

练习六　（Exercise Six）

I. Preview Questions:

1. What does the phrase “to learn one's way round” mean?

2. What have you learned about the words “brick” and “BRIC”?

3. Which type of expressions do you prefer in communication, positive or negative?

4. Can you tell the difference between “to operate in the red” and “to achieve a programmed deficit”?

5. What is the key point in interpreting “the figurative use”?

II. Go over the following and fill in the blanks with either “work” or “mow” in their proper forms.

Now imagine the situation of Mr. Smith （1）____________his lawn Saturday morning. Inside the house, Mrs. Smith receives a telephone call from a friend, who asks, “Is your husband still in bed?” “No,” replies Mrs. Smith, “He's already outside, （2）____________in the garden.”

Consider now the same situation, except that we also know that Mr. Smith is a firefighter who is often on duty on Saturdays. A friend of his knows this is the case and is wondering whether Mr. Smith on this particular Saturday might be free to go fishing with him. He therefore calls and asks Mrs. Smith, “Is your husband （3）____________today?” “No,” replies Mrs. Smith, “He is outside （4）____________the lawn.”

III. Go over the following two passages and paraphrase the last sentence “Must you open the window?” in each of them.

Passage One:

Mrs. Smith was watering her garden one afternoon. She saw that the housekeeper was pushing a window open. She didn't understand why he needed to have it open. A bit worried, she went over and politely asked, “Must you open the window?”

Passage Two:

One morning John felt too sick to go to school. The night before he and his friends got very drunk. Then they went swimming in a cold lake. Because of this John caught a bad cold. He was lying in bed when his mother stormed into the room. When she started opening the window, John groaned, “Must you open the window?”

IV. In the following sentences, substitute each of the verbs in parentheses for the italicized one. Jot down the resulting difference in meaning as you find in Exercise V for the verb “look”, consulting a dictionary or synonym book if you wish.

1. When he closed the door, the girl cried out. （shut, banged; screamed, shrieked, yelled）

2. That day I saw them walking along the streets. （noticed, observed, watched, witnessed; doddering along, trudging along, strolling about, trotting along）

3. He fixed it in about two days. （repaired, corrected, mended, remedied）

4. What he had done made his colleagues and friends surprised. （performed, achieved, executed, fished for; alarmed, startled, irritated, baffled）

V. Further reading

Selecting words is rather like shopping in an enormous supermarket. But instead of roaming the aisles for groceries, a writer thumbs through the pages of a dictionary or thesaurus, searching for the right words. Both the shelves and the pages are well stocked; the English language has more words than any other language.Whether a writer wants plain bread-and-butter words, sweet words, tart words, tasteless words, kosher words, gourmet words, or playful words — they are all there for the taking, free of charge. Because there are so many words to choose from, a writer has countless opportunities to be creative, whether writing papers, letters, reports, poetry, or short stories. True, some writing offers more opportunities for creativity than expository writing does, but all rhetorical situations afford leeway in phrasing and sentence structure.

Reading widely and often will help you to become more aware of the nuances and subtle meanings of words.Frequent use of a good thesaurus and dictionary during revision will help you maintain an appropriate tone. Your awareness of the delicate distinctions in words will increase as you study this chapter. Your skill in detecting inappropriate words and in selecting appropriate words will be honed. With regular practice, your writing will become more precise and positive.

（Better M. Dietsch）

参考答案

Ⅱ. 1. mowing　2. working　3. working　4. mowing

Ⅲ. Passage One: Need you open the window?

Passage Two: Don't open the window.