英语修辞与写作·8.3　Simile和Metaphor用法中的两个问题

8.3　Simile和Metaphor用法中的两个问题

关于明喻和隐喻的使用，除上一节提到的以外，再着重说明两点，即注意本体和喻体的合理性和比喻的民族特色。

8.3A　本体和喻体的合理性

明喻说本体“像”喻体，隐喻说本体“是”喻体，但要注意它们都是指不同类对象之间的相似点，既有别于语法上同类对象（如两个人、两部汽车）之间的比较，又要把握本体和喻体间“相似点”的合理性。例如：

A） Paul looks very much like his brother.

B） The boy is more than intelligent.

C） My car runs as fast as the train.

D） I have an old photograph of the drug store, taken in 1894; it shows my grandfather and two clerks standing behind showcases, as if waiting for customers, and my grandmother sitting at the switchboard, surrounded by wires. She looks like a fish struggling in the net, and my grandfather and the clerks, though they smile bravely, are captives, held by invisible strands.

上述A句指同类对象之间的比较，B句是带强调含义的系表结构，C句中的car和train都是机动交通工具，也算同类对象，所以这3句都不是修辞上的比喻。D句摘自Richard Armour的文章Grandmother and My Grandfather，其中斜体部分原来是“... looks like a spider spinning a web ... are captive flies ...” 其中包含一个明喻和一个隐喻，但被改之后，明喻缺少合理性，隐喻也成了一般的系表结构。

下面几个句子原是改进后（划线部分）的学生习作（括号内是原文）：

Life was like a journey full of pitfalls.

（... studded with ...）

Not all pretty girls are paper flowers.

（... tigers.）

A real friend is like a mirror that can help you see any dirt on your face.

（... your mistakes clearly.）

Exams are the harvest season of a student.

（... death sentence to ...）

8.3B　比喻的民族特色

比喻是一种常见的修辞方法，其心理基础是对世间万物某些共同特点的联想。若以英语和汉语相比，我们会发现许多惊人的相似之处，如都以绵羊比喻温顺，以钢铁比喻坚强，用狐狸比喻狡猾等，还有不少成语和习语中的比喻简直不谋而合，如“火上加油”（add fuel to the flames），“晴天霹雳”（a bolt from the blue），“空中楼阁”（castles in the air），“滴水穿石”（constant dropping wears the stone），“轻如鸿毛”（as light as a feather），“坚如磐石”（as hard as a stone），“像狐狸一样狡猾”（as cunning as a fox）等；有些意思相符，但措辞稍有差别，如“寿比南山”（as old as the hills），“欢欣雀跃”（as cheerful as a lark），“船到桥头自会直”（you will cross the bridge when you get to it）等。

但是由于各个民族的自然环境、社会文化背景和风俗习惯不同，比喻各有特色。例如我们用“四面楚歌”来比喻处境孤立，而英国人没有这个历史故事，也没有这个比喻；反之，英语里却有meet one's Waterloo来形容遭到惨败，这样的比喻也不可能出现在汉语里。英语里说carry coals to Newcastle（比喻多此一举），汉语里讲“洛阳纸贵”（比喻著作风行一时），分别与各自的地名有关。英语里的have a Christian concern for others，汉语里的“立地成佛”，各与自己的宗教信仰相联系。凡此种种，都是比喻中不同民族特色的反映，需要我们在学习和使用中留意。

练习八　（Exercise Eight）

I. Preview Questions:

1. Can you tell a few words or phrases that can be used as simile markers （indicators of resemblance）?

2. Why is a metaphor also called a condensed simile?

3. Does simile have the same rhetorical functions as metaphor?

4. What metaphors are regarded as “faded metaphors”?

5. Can you cite examples to indicate similar similes or metaphors in English and Chinese?

II. Read the following passages and fill in each blank with one word chosen from those in brackets:

A simile is a （complicated, brief） comparison, usually introduced by the preposition “like” or the conjunction “as”, eg:

My words swirled around his head （like, as） summer flies.

The decay of society was praised by artists （like, as） the decay of a corpse is praised by worms.

（G. K. Chesterton）

A simile consists of two parts: tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the primary subject — “words” in White's figure, the “decay of society ... artists” in Chesterton's. The vehicle is the thing to which the main subject is compared — “summer flies” and the “decay of a corpse ... worms.”

Usually, though not invariably, the vehicle is or contains an image. An image is a word or expression designating something we can perceive with one or another of the senses. “Summer flies,” for example, is an image, primarily a visual one, though like many images it has a secondary perceptual appeal: we can hear the flies as well as see them.

Although generally （brief, complicated）, now and then similes may be expanded. Most often this is done by analyzing the vehicle into its parts and applying these to the tenor. Thus a historian, writing about the Italian patriot Garibaldi, explains: ... his mind was （like, as） a vast sea cave, filled with the murmur of dark waters at flow and the stirring of nature's greatest forces, lit （here and there, now and then） by streaks of glorious sunshine bursting in through crevices hewn at random in its rugged sides.

（George Macaulay Trevelyan）

III. Go over the passages and decide whether each of the statements is true （T） or false （F）:

A metaphor is also a comparison. The difference is that a simile compares things explicitly — that is, it states literally that X is like Y. A metaphor compares things implicitly. Read literally, it does not state that things are alike; it says that they are the same thing, that they are identical:

Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts ...

（Henry David Thoreau）

Thoreau writes “is,” not “is like.” We understand, however, that he is making a comparison — that he means the Cape resembles an arm, not really is an arm. The metaphor has simply carried the comparison a degree closer and expressed it a bit more economically and forcefully.

Metaphors have the same functions as similes. They are valuable in clarifying unfamiliar concepts and in translating abstractions into images that readers can intuit directly, as in this passage about science:

[Science] pronounces only on whatever, at the time, appears to have been scientifically ascertained, which is a small island in an ocean of nescience.

（Bertrand Russell）

Metaphors also enrich meaning by implying a range of ideas and feelings and evaluations. Consider all that is suggested by the term “idol” in this metaphor: We squat before television, the idol of our cherished progress.

“Idol” means a false god and thus questions the value of the progress television symbolizes and celebrates. The word implies also the unreason and subservience of those who worship it.

Such a metaphor not only complicates an idea, it also implies judgment. In the next example the judgmental quality of the metaphor is even more pronounced. Speaking of ancient Romans, a writer remarks:

They were marked by the thumbprint of an unnatural vulgarity, which they never succeeded in surmounting.

（Lawrence Durrell）

Statements:

1. Both the simile and the metaphor are used to make comparisons.

2. Russell's image of a small island （scientific knowledge） in a wide and lonely sea （the vastness of all we do not know） is a memorable expression of the relationship between knowledge and ignorance.

3. Not only can a metaphor complicate an idea, it can also imply judgment.

4. The image of a greasy thumbprint, like one left on a china or a white wall, is a graphic signature of crudeness.

5. Similes and metaphors are identical because they are both comparisons and have the same functions.

6. A most valuable function of a metaphor and a simile is to clarify an unfamiliar idea or perception by expressing it in more familiar terms or turn something abstract into an image that people can see or hear.

IV. Identify the similes and metaphors in the following; then convert the similes into metaphors or expand the metaphors into similes, if possible.

1. He is a wolf in sheep's skin.

2. The parks are the lungs of our city.

3. His voice sounded like a thunder in the hall.

4. Money is a lens in a camera.

5. Lottie staggered on the lowest verandah step like a bird fallen out of the nest.

6. We tore through the black-and-gold town like a pair of scissors tearing through brocade.

7. The machine-gun was shooting down the enemy like a mower cutting down grass.

8. Slim canals crept like green snakes beside the road.

9. Applications for jobs flooded the Employment Agency.

10. Hitler's attack on Poland in 1939 was like lightning.

V. Study and improve the following sentences:

1. Life was like a journey studded with pitfalls.

2. Not all slim girls are paper tigers.

3. A real friend is like a mirror that can help you see your mistakes clearly.

4. Examinations are the death sentence to students.

5. Jack's house was destroyed by fire. Jim went to comfort him and asked him to contact the insurance company. “Cheer up, my friend,” he said. “Your insurance claim will be proceeding like a house on fire, I'm sure.”

VI. Translate the following into Chinese:

1. Their data processing is going on as slow as a snail.

2. Every man has a fool in his sleeve.

3. The brains don't lie in the beard.

4. Two heads are better than one.

5. The exception proves the rule.

6. An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory.

7. Variety is the soul of pleasure.

8. Caution: Frenemies Can Be Bad for Your Health.

参考答案

Ⅱ. brief, like, as, brief, like, here and there

Ⅲ. 1. T　2. T　3. T　4. T　5. F　6. T

Ⅳ. 1. He is like a wolf in sheep's skin.

2. The parks of our city are like human lungs.

3. His voice thundered in the hall.

4. Money is like a lens in a camera.

5. (Not possible to change.)

6. (Not possible to change.)

7. The machine-gun was mowing down the enemy.

8. Slim green canals snaked beside the road.

9. Applications for jobs came into the Employment Agency like a flood.

10. Hitler made a lightning attack on Poland in 1939.

V. 1. Life was like a journey full of pitfalls.

2. Not all slim girls are paper flowers.

3. A real friend is like a mirror that can help you see any dirt on your face.

4. Examinations are harvest seasons of students.

5. ...“your insurance claim will be processing quickly / fast / soon.”

Ⅵ. 1. 他们的数据处理慢得像蜗牛一般。

2. 人人都有糊涂的时候。

3. 有智不在年高。

4. 一人智短，两人智长。

5. 例外能检验规律。

6. 一分实践抵得上十分理论。

7. 多样化是快乐的灵魂。

8. 注意：伪善朋友有害健康。