英语修辞与写作·8.1　Simile

8.1　Simile

8.1A　Simile的含义和形式

1） Simile一词源自拉丁语的similis，意思是like（像），通常译作“明喻”，亦称“直喻”，它是就两个不同类对象之间的相似点进行比喻。例如：

New China is like a red sun rising in the east.

（本体）（比喻词）（喻体）

从结构上看、明喻包括“本体”（subject或tenor），“喻体”（reference或vehicle）和“比喻词”（indicator of resemblance或simile marker）。本体指被比喻的对象，喻体指用来作比喻的对象，比喻词like用在本体和喻体之间起连接介绍作用。

2） 明喻中除用like作比喻词以外，常用作比喻词的还有as, as if, as though, as ... as, （just） as ... so, similar to, to bear a resemblance to等。

例如：

Records fell like ripe apples on a windy day.

（E. B. White）

It is with words as with sunbeams — the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

（Leuthey）

She spoke hurriedly, as if her heart had leaped into her throat at the boy's words.

（Hardy）

3） 许多以as为比喻词组成的明喻，如fresh as a rose, brave as a lion, cunning as a fox, proud as a peacock等等，已成为习语，虽然生动形象，但人们用得多了，已失去新鲜感。

4） 除上述明喻结构外，有时比较级结构、介词短语及其他某些词语搭配也可构成明喻。例如：

He has no more idea of money than a cow.

（Galsworthy）

With the quickness of a long cat, she climbed up into the nest of cool-bladed foliage.

（Lawrence）

The process of gaining or losing weight can be explained by comparing your body to your car ... And just as your car uses more energy when the engine is racing than when it is idling, so does your body use more energy when you are working hard than when you are resting.

（Kirszner）

8.1B　Simile的使用

明喻具有丰富的修辞功能，尤其适用于描写和说明。

1） 用于描写时，明喻能形象、生动地勾画出各种不同的形状、动作或状态等，如形容女孩清瘦，说她“长得像绿豆芽似的”，说某人的行动“慢得像蜗牛爬一样”，说天气“热得如汤煮”，屋子里“冷得像冰窟窿”等等，十分形象生动，使人如同耳闻目睹或身临其境一般。明喻能使人对熟悉的东西感到新意，对陌生的东西产生熟悉感。例如：

Mother was short and plump and pretty. Her eyes were blue, and her brown hair was like a bird's smooth wings ...

（Wilder）

The mothers stayed back in the kitchen washing and drying, putting things away, recrossing their traceless footsteps like the life time journeys of bees, measuring out the dry cocoa for breakfast ....

（Knoxville）

下面是Annie Dillard对黄鼠狼（weasel）的一段描写：

He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruit-wood, soft-furred, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a lizard's; he would have made a good arrowhead. There was just a dot of chin, maybe two brown hair's width, and then the pure white fur began that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window.

2） 用于说明时，明喻能使深奥的哲理变得浅显易懂，如把积累知识的艰难比作针尖取土，把开展批评与自我批评的必要性比作天天需要洗脸和扫地，把个人与祖国的亲密关系比作孩子与母亲，等等，生动、深刻，有很强的启示和感染作用。下面一个例子是以细线结成粗绳索的过程说明人的习惯一旦形成就难以改变的道理：

Habit may be likened to a cable; every day we weave a thread, and soon we cannot break it.

科普文章中常常通过比喻把人们不易认识的自然现象解释成看得见摸得着的东西。如果要问激光和普通光束有何区别？只要想象一下军训时正步前进和人群涌向足球赛球时的混乱情景就有数了：

So compared with any ordinary beam of light, the laser beam is a very orderly affair indeed. It's like a military march — everyone in step. In an ordinary beam, the waves are like the people in a crowd going to a football match, justling and bumping into one another.

（Cooley）