英语演讲中的修辞手法Rhetoric Device in English Speech 第3页
英语演讲中的修辞手法Rhetoric Device in English Speech 第3页
2.2 The Function of Rhetoric
Rhetorical devices are variations of literal or ordinary forms of expressions. Their function is to make the thought more striking and effective. A fresh and suitable rhetorical device appeals to the imagination, creates mental pictures and makes the speech or writing vivid, impressive and interesting.
Rhetorical devices can make language more vivid by using the simple words to express complex meanings. By the use of rhetoric, even abstract ideas can become concrete. Rhetoric can make the modified subjects more prominent, distinctive, and specific. By the use of rhetoric, the language can give people more space to imagine. Whereas, without the use of rhetoric, the language is boring and there is no vigor in the language. For example: Light as a breeze, soft as a cloud.
In the sentence, the writer used a kind of rhetorical devices—simile. Simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike subjects are compared. Simile often signals itself by ―like‖ or ―as‖. By using simile, it helps the writer to better communicate with his readers. It is easy for the readers to understand and remember the sentence. 3． An Analysis of Rhetoric in English Speech
Speech can arouse people‘s attention and profound feeling to take action. Languages should be used properly in specific situations and occasions. Figures of speech are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively. Hence, it is quite necessary for us to learn rhetoric, which serves as a helper to us in writing and speaking different kinds of styles. Through learning rhetoric, we may be in a position to express ourselves more eloquently and properly.
Several kinds of rhetorical devices are frequently used in speech, and it is necessary to study them one by one by giving definitions and making illustrations.
3.1 Simile
A simile is a direct comparison between two objects or attributes that, although essentially different, do have some similarity. These direct comparisons are easy to identify, as they use words such as \create the clear image, much easier for the others to accept.
A simile is made up of four parts: ―the tenor‖, ―the vehicle‖, ―the comparing word‖ and ―the ground‖. ―The tenor‖ is the subject of simile. ―The vehicle‖ is the thing compared to or the part transported. ―The comparing word‖ is the simile marker such as, ―like, as, than, as if, similar to.‖ ―The ground‖ is the common properties owned by ―the tenor‖ and ―the vehicle‖. For example:
―No, no, we are not satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.‖
This sentence is from Martin Luther King's ―I have a dream‖ speech, It can be found that, in this sentence, ―justice‖, ―righteousness‖ are ―the tenor‖ and ―waters‖ , ―a mighty stream‖ are ―the vehicle‖. The word ―like‖ signals this sentence makes use of the rhetoric device—simile. Thus by using simile, this sentence makes this two words--―justice‖ and ―righteousness‖ more vivid and lively. It means that we will not quit until justice is as plentiful as water and is raining on all of us and the force of its power to enforce equality and fairness is as powerful and inevitable as the force of a large river. This simile is effective because it communicates not only the extent of his hope but also the passion he has for the fulfillment of his expectations to become a powerful force that will not be stopped.
Another example:
―America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.‖
This sentence is from Jesse Jackson's 1984 Democratic National Convention Address. In this address, ―the tenor‖ is ―America‖, ―the vehicle‖ are ―blanket‖ and quilt. The word ―like‖ is the simile marker in this sentence. More examples,
①―It hates Israel because of the West -- because it sees Israel as an outpost of freedom
and democracy that prevents them from overrunning the Middle East.‖ (Binyamin Netanyahu, Speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee)
②―I look forward to hearing the truth, exactly where they are. They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm.‖(George W. Bush, Prime Time Press Conference on Iraq War)
③―The very many times own body occupies as if in a stage, the criticism and the opposition sit under looked I perform, they meet do not stop throw the tomato and the egg to me But this time I was only thinking how develops own role.‖ (Clinton)
④―The Chinese held that ―one should be as inclusive as the ocean, which is vast because it admits hundreds of rivers‖ and called for drawing upon the strength of others.‖(Chinese President Hu Jintao's Remarks at Yale)
英语演讲中的修辞手法Rhetoric Device in English Speech 第4页
英语演讲中的修辞手法Rhetoric Device in English Speech 第4页
⑤―These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.‖( General Douglas MacArthur, Sylvanus Thayer Award Acceptance Address)⑥―Those two things the Almighty said to be necessary -- I should say He knew to be necessary, or else He would not have so prescribed that the property would be kept among the general run of the people and that everyone would continue to share in it; so that no one man would get half of it and hand it down to a son, who takes half of what was left, and that son hand it down to another one, who would take half of what was left, until, like a snowball going downhill, all of the snow was off of the ground except what the snowball had.‖(Huey P. Long, Every Man a King -- Radio Speech to the Nation)
⑦―Indians, Chinamen, Filipinos, Japanese and representatives of any other dark race can find hotel accommodations, if they can pay for them. The colored man alone is thrust out of the hotels of the national capital like a leper.‖(Mary Church Terrell, What It Means to be Colored in Capital of the U.S.)
3.2 Metaphor
Metaphor can also transfer qualities from one thing to another. There is a formal difference between metaphor and simile, however, in metaphor the word like or as do not appear. A metaphor, like a simile, also has a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. This means the words \are omitted. For instance, \metaphor.
Metaphor is not explicitly signaled, so they are more difficult to identify. In metaphor, one thing is directly compared to another thing, without the marker—―like‖ or ―as‖. Thus the relationship between them is implied in other words is unstated. The use of metaphor in rhetoric is primarily to convey to the audience a new idea or meaning by linking it to an existing idea or meaning with which the audience is already familiar. By making the new appear to be linked to or a type of the old and familiar, the person using the metaphor hopes to help the audience understand the new. The following is a good example:
Franklin Roosevelt used this technique in his 1933 inaugural address when he stated that, to cite one example, \One would not immediately compare factories with a forest; but by doing so, Roosevelt suggests to his audience that the bleak autumn of the Great Depression would eventually turn back into spring. By using metaphor, the image is more vivid.
Another example of metaphor is this passage attributed to a speech by Abraham Lincoln about a political adversary in which Lincoln said that his adversary had \down deeper into the sea of knowledge and come up drier than any other man he knew\This attributed quote uses a body of water as a metaphor for a body of knowledge with the ironical idea of someone who gained so little from his education that he achieved the impossible of jumping into a body of water and climbing back out without getting wet. More examples,
①―With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.‖ (Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream)
In this sentence, King used ―the mountain of despair‖ as a metaphor for the system of apartheid, ―a stone of hope‖ for the racial equality society, the ―the jangling discords‖ for racists‘ advocacy for white people, and ―a beautiful symphony of brotherhood‖ for the peace propaganda toward Washington. Through using metaphor, his speech, was deeply inspired the audience.
②―And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor — not a new balance of power, but a new world of law — where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved. (John Kennedy, Inaugural Address)
Kennedy used ―a beachhead of cooperation‖ as a metaphor for the peaceful contact and negotiation between America and The Soviet union at that time, ―the jungle of suspicion‖ for the distrust of both sides. The image of metaphor tactfully struck a chord with his audiences.
3.3 Parallelism
Parallelism structure is the most commonly used in English speech is an important rhetorical tool, it‘s a common rhetorical devices which grammatical structure symmetry (including the same or similar word, phrase or word) to highlight the significance. Parallelism is syntactic over-regularity. It means exact repetition in equivalent positions. It differs from simple repetition in that the identity does not extend to absolute duplication, it ―requires some variable feature of the pattern-some contrasting elements which are ?parallel‘ with respect to their position in the pattern‖.
To put it simply, parallelism means the balancing of sentence elements that are grammatically equal. In parallel construction it is necessary to balance word for word (noun with noun, verb with verb, adjective with adjective, etc) phrase with phrase, clause with clause, sentence with sentence and so forth. The use of parallelism can make a speech with the appeal and enhance language potential to improve expressive effect.