英语修辞学

第一节Rhetoric

1, The definition of rhetoric

2, The development of rhetoric

3, The purposes of rhetorical study

4, The plan for this subject

The definition of rhetoric

1. The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.

2. Skill in using language effectively and persuasively

3. Verbal communication; discourse

修辞一词大体可以分为广狭两义:

(甲)狭义:修,作修饰解; 辞,作文辞解,修辞就是修饰文辞;(乙)广义: 修,作调整解, 辞,作语辞解,修辞就是调整语辞.

Rhetoric (from Greek ??τωρ, rhêt?r, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of spoken language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. In this sense, there is a divide between classical rhetoric (with the aforementioned definition) and contemporary practices of rhetoric.

The development of rhetoric

The Evolvement of Rhetoric

Historically, classical rhetoric has its inception(beginning) in a school of Pre-Socratic philosophers known as Sophists.(In Ancient Greece, the sophists were a group of teachers of philosophy and rhetoric ). It is later taught as one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture.

In ancient and medieval times, grammar concerned itself with correct, accurate, pleasing, and effective language use through the study and criticism of literary models, dialectic concerned itself with the testing and invention of new knowledge through a process of question and answer, and rhetoric concerned itself with persuasion in public and political settings such as assemblies and courts of law.

Grammar is the law of language, considered as language; rhetoric is the art of language, considered as thought.Grammar tells what is correct; rhetoric tells what is effective and pleasing. As such, rhetoric is said to flourish in open and democratic societies with rights of free speech, free assembly, and political enfranchisement (election)for some portion of the population.

Contemporary studies of rhetoric have a more diverse range of practices and meanings than was the case in ancient times. The concept of rhetoric has thus shifted widely during its 2500-year history. Rhetoricians have recently argued that the classical understanding of rhetoric is limited because persuasion depends on communication, which in turn depends on meaning. Thus the scope of rhetoric is understood to include much more than simply public--legal and political--discourse.

So while rhetoric has traditionally been thought of being involved in such arenas as politics, law, public relations, lobbying, marketing and advertising, the study of rhetoric has recently entered into diverse fields such as humanities, religion, social sciences, law, science, journalism, history, literature and even cartography and architecture.

Every aspect of human life and thought that depends on the articulation and communication of meaning can be said to involve elements of the rhetorical. In the last ten years, many scholars have investigated exactly how rhetoric works within a particular field.

The Purposes of Rhetoric Study

Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion.

In its long and vigorous history rhetoric has enjoyed many definitions, accommodated differing

purposes, and varied widely in what it included. And yet, for most of its history it has maintained its fundamental character as a discipline for training students 1) to perceive how language is at work orally and in writing, and 2) to become proficient in applying the resources of language in their own speaking and writing.

The Application of Rhetoric in Life

1. In songs

2.In advertising: ●Ask for MORE. ●The Unique Spirit of Canada. ●Trust us. Over 5000 years of experience.

3. In daily conversation:

●You are such a dish.

你是个绝色美人

●I?ve been dying to meet you.

我非常非常想见到你

●A: If I were married to you, I would put poison in your coffee.

B: If your were my wife, I would drink it.

●A: I am not a vegetarian because I love animals.

B: I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.

(Sarcasm)

●A prisoner's favorite punctuation mark is the period. It marks the end of his sentence.

●be at rest , be asleep in the Arms of God, answer the final call, depart to God, be out of pain, breathe one‘s last, pay one‘s last debt, settle one‘s account, be no more, throw up the cards, etc.

汉语中有―老了，没了，逝世，病故，作古，辞世，去世，不在了，与世长辞，上西天，升天，驾返瑶池，心脏停止跳动，去见马克思‖等。

4. In public speech

5. In literature

Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.

不要寻求令人称羡的财富，应当追求这样的境界：对财富正当地获取，清醒地使用，愉快地施舍并能知足地放弃。（Bacon‘s O f Riches）

6. In Proverb

1. Life is a comedy to him who thinks and a tragedy to him who feels.

对明哲善思的人来说，人生是喜剧；对多情善感的人来说，人生是悲剧。

2. Spend not where you may save; spare not where you must spend.

可以节省时，不要浪费；必须消费时，不要吝啬。

7. In News

●拉链门（zipper gate）

●艳照门

●垃圾门

●沙滩门

●间谍门

●Watergate Case

The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States in the 1970s, resulting from the break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974, the first—and so far, only—resignation of any U.S President.

8.In Film

The Arrangement of The Class

Lexical Devices

Syntactic Devices

Figures of Speech

Chapter One Lexical Devices

第二节Lexical Devices

1.Introduction

In this chapter, we will deal with lexical options, or the way writers choose their words to express their ideas clearly and effectively, in the appropriate context and situation.

When we say ―The pen is mighter than the sword ‖, we really imply that words have power. A large vocabulary alone, however, does not give one words with power. It is one‘s stock of vocabulary plus the knowledge of how to use words effectively and appropriately in the right place and to the right person that gives one the freedom and ability to influence with words.

2.Short Words and Long Words

●Short words: monosyllabic words of Anglo-Saxon origin.

●Long words: polysyllabic words of Latin, French and Greek origin.

(Advice: Prefer the short one to the long one, or not use a long one where a short one will do.)

Short Words

●Pope: He did not object to using short words if they fitted the sense.

―Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.‖ (Essay on Criticism)

●Hemingway: He also knew how to use short words to great effect, setting them off with a sprinkling of longer ones,

―All right. Now he would not care for death. One thing he had always dreaded was the pain. He could stand pain as well as any man, until it went on too long, and wore him out, but here he had something that had hurt frightf ully and just when he had felt it breaking him, the pain had stopped.‖

●Winston Churchill: ―I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears.‖ (spoken as he took over the leadership of the British anti-Fascist struggle in WWⅡ)

●Franklin Roosevelt: New Deal

●Deep Throat

●Neet

●Milk round

●Green card

●Man for the field and woman for the hearth;

Man for the sword and for the needle she.

Man with the head and woman with the heart;

Man to command and woman to obey.

Alfred Tennyson

Long Words

However, it must be admitted that there are many events and situations in life which require fuller descriptions than monosyllables can provide.

Example: An Author‘s Account of Himself by Washington Irving

― I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I

should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished.

Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains with their bright aerial tint; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure (green growing plant ) ;her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean.‖

广阔的湖泊如银波闪耀的大海; 崇山峻岭铺上空灵爽朗的色彩; 深邃的峡谷,繁茂的草木; 激荡的瀑布在寂静的荒原中轰鸣而下; 无边的草原连绵起伏,蓊蓊郁郁; 深厚宽阔的河流, 浩浩荡荡, 无声无息地奔流入海。

her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence(人迹罕至的森林,处处显露着豪爽的景观); her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine(夏季的天空, 云朵变幻莫测, 阳光灿烂), —no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.

Summary

It would be hard, indeed, for an adult writer to write all in monosyllables or in polysyllables; a judicious mixture of the two is the usual practice. The advice to avoid long words, really, is aimed not at long words themselves but at those who ―prefer long words to the short,‖ not for stylistic reasons, but for pretentious ones. Choose words according to your purposes, the writing style, etc., so as to make your expression more effective.

https://www.360docs.net/doc/d616825000.html,mon Words or Learned Words

?Introduction: In the history of English language, the question of whether English, the vernacular of the ordinary people was suitable for learned and elegant discourse was settled finally only as late as the 15th century. Before that Latin was generally acknowledged and accepted as the language of learning and scholarly discussion, and was a compulsory subject in schools and universities. The choice between common words and learned words was therefore originally a choice between vernacular English and Latin words. Today learned words still mainly refer to Latin words, but common words no longer refer purely to English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.

?The cosmopolitan vocabulary of English words contains thousands of words borrowed from other-than-Latin languages, especially French, and many of these are just as popular as common English words.

Examples

1. French Latin

agree concur

prove verify

surrender capitulate

2. Anglo-Saxon French Latin

fire flame conflagration

holy sacred consecrated

3.eat dine ingest

rise mount ascend

4.Dickens‘s David Copperfield (Micawber)

― My advice is, never do tomorrow what y ou can do today. Procrastination is the thief of life. Collar him!‖

―Under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities, contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, but remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoils— I allude to my spectacles —and possessing myself of a cognomen, to which I have no legitimate pretensions…‖.

Apart from his round-about way of expression, we can pick out the following learned words: pecuniary liabilities: debts

liquidation: payment

unliquidated: unpaid

assume a garb: take on a disguise

allude to: refer to

spectacles: glasses

possess myself of: give myself

cognomen: name, surname

?He could have made himself much clearer

if he had simply said that: he had to disguise himself and take a false name, as he is in debt, and hiding from his creditors.

5. 邓颖超致宋美龄的信(1988年5月)

庐山初识, 匆匆五十年矣. 山城之聚, 金陵之晤, 犹历历如昨. 别后音讯阔绝四十余年, 诚属憾事. 幸友谊犹存, 两心相通. 每遇客从远方来, 道及夫人起居, 更引起怀旧之情. 近闻夫人健康如常, 颇感欣慰.

令姐孙夫人生前,极为思念夫人. 每每言及夫人爱国情切,必将致大力于中国之统一. 孙夫人手足情深,亟盼生前能与夫人一晤; 曾亲笔致函夫人,然未能如愿,终成憾事.

Two score and ten years have elapsed since our acquaintance at Mt. Lushan. Our gathering in Chongqing the Mountain City and our meeting in Nanjing the Stone City are still fresh in my mind as if they were occurrences only of yesterday. Much to our regret, we had been out of correspondence for forty odd years. Yet it is a comfort to us that we still retain friendship and mutual understanding. Every time a friend comes from afar and mentions your daily life, I can not refrain from recalling our old associations. It is a supreme comfort to me when I am informed that you are as healthy as ever.

Your honorable sister Madam Soong missed you intensely during her lifetime. She, on many occasions reiterated your ardent patriotism and utter devotion to the reunification of China. Madam Soong always cherished a sisterly affection for you and retained a strong aspiration to have a reunion with you, for which she wrote a letter. Yet she failed to fulfill her wish, which is a matter for regret.

6.The Nightmare Life Without Fuel

⑴One way out for the suburbanites is to form associations that assign turns to the procurement and distribution of food.

⑵Lukewarm sponge baths will do, and if the air is not always fragrant in the human vicinity, the automobile fumes are gone.

7. What Life Means to Me (Jack London)

In short, as I accepted the rising of the sun, I accepted that up above me was all

that was fine and noble and gracious, all that gave decency and dignity to life, all that made life worth living and that remunerated one for his travail and misery.

Summary

As non-native learners of the English language, we often learn new words as they come, and fine-sounding words of many syllables often impress us their ―profundity‖. We like to ―try out‖ these words in our writin g, and ignore their appropriateness. The choice of one‘s diction is, of course, determined by many factors. We do not usually talk about common everyday things or events in learned language. Neither can we avoid using learned words in scholarly, academic or legal discussions. The rule is to suit one‘s diction to the occasion, and not to mix things up.

第三节Formal, Informal or Colloquial Words

People communicate in different social settings, and the language they use varies with such settings.

A formal occasion demands the use of formal diction, and an informal one the use of informal or colloquial diction, as the list below shows:

Examples

?Formal Informal Colloquial

deception trick rip-off

depart leave split, scoot

insane mad a screw loose

residence house digs

commence start kick off

retire go to bed hit the sack

be sentenced to death ∕get an electric chair

Phrase

Many phrasal and prepositional verbs are characteristic of informal styles.

◇take up with

She has taken up with an unemployed actor.

take up with →to become friendly with

◇come off → a succeed b get on, fare c take place, happen

When is the wedding coming off?

The film doesn‘t come off.

He always comes off badly in fights.

◇take it out on

I know you‘ve had a bad day, but there is no need to take it out on me.

take it out on →release anger at

◇whoop it up

After the victory, they were whooping it up all night long.

Slang and colloquialism

The use of slang and colloquialism characterizes informal styles. Most writers will avoid using them in formal writing.

1. baby— girl, woman

2. hang-up —emotional inhibition or problem

She has a real hang-up about her freckles.

3. hip— sophisticated; up-to-date

4. square — a conventional person

5. some—excellent, outstanding, notable, distinguished.

That was some performance.

6. a couple of — a few

7. kind of∕sort of — somewhat ∕rather

Sentence Comparison

◇1.Penalties for overdue books will be strictly enforced.

2.You have to pay fines for overdue books.

◇1. The price of meat has been declining alarmingly.

2. The price of meat has been going down steeply.

◇1. They approved of the plan for the development of the inner city.

2. They agreed to the plan for the development of the inner city.

◇1. They made a decision to abandon the project.

2. They decided to walk out on the project.

There is an interesting dialogue from the English writer A.G.Gardiner‘s essay ―On Big Words‖. (One of the participants is the writer himself)

“You find the nettles very difficult to eradicate?”

I said I found them hard to keep down.

“They disseminated themselves most luxuriantly”, he said.

I replied that they spread like dickins.

―But they have their utility in the economy of nature‖, he said.

I replied that Nature was welcome to them as far as I was concerned.

He then remarked that it was most salubrious weather and I agree that it had been a fine day. But he

was afraid, he said , that the aridity of the season was deleterious to the crops, and I replied that my potatoes were going badly. I think, it occurred to him that we did not speak the same language.

◇Two dialogues:

The policeman said to the judge ―I apprehended the alleged perpetrator‖.

In a bar the policeman said to his colleagues, ―I collared the creep‖.

1. apprehend: arrest, seize

allege: state (sth) as a fact but without proof

perpetrator: a person who commits a crime

2. collar: seize, catch sb

creep: a person who makes someone dislike

The Inappropriate Use of Formal and Informal Language

1. When a student asked a foreign guest‘s opinion on his lecture, he uttered such a sentence:

―I‘m desirous of exploring your feelings on the lecture‖.

The foreign guest was surprised, and said that ―Your English is too beautiful to be true‖.

He should ask like this:

I‘d like to hear your views on the lecture. or May I have your views on the lecture?

A passage from George Bernard Shaw‘s Pygmalion .

My Fair Lady

Mrs Higgins: Will it rain, do you think?

Eliza: The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any change in the barometrical (about the air pressure) situation…

Mrs Eynsford Hill: I’m sure I hope it won’t turn cold. There’s so much influenza about. It runs right through our whole family regularly every spring.

Eliza(darkly): My aunt died of influenza: so they said.

Eliza(in the same tragic tone): But it’s my belief they done her in.

Mrs Higgins (puzzled): Done her in?

Eliza (piling up her indictment): What call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? What become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Some body pinched it; and what I say is, them as pinched it done her in.

Mrs Enysford Hill: What does doing her in mean?

Eliza commits some more mistakes in diction until she is stopped from going on by professor Higgins, her language coach. When leaving the party, she makes the most devastating mistake of all. Freddy (opening the door for her): Are you walking across the park, Miss Doolittle? If so…

Eliza: Walk! Not bloody likely! I am going in a taxi!

No wonder Mrs Higgins tells her son: you silly boy, of course she is not presentable. She is a triumph of your art and her dressmaker’s; but if you suppose that she does not give herself away in every sentence she utters, you must be perfectly cracked about her.

The Lines in the Film Titanic

Jack (on the deck): Well, I‘ve been on my own since my folks died. And I had no brothers or sisters or close kin in the part of the country, so I haven‘t been back since. You can just call me a tumbleweed blowing in the wind. Well, Rose, we have walked about a mile around this boat deck and chewed over how great the weather has been and how I grew up, but I reckon that‘s not why you come to talk to me, is it?

How to Avoid Colloquial Words in Formal Writing

?Anybody, anyone – "Anyone" and its variants are more formal than "anybody" and its variants. This is because the word "body" derives from German whereas the word "one" derives from Latin."

?I didn't see anybody.

?I saw no one.

?Introduce, present –"Present" is more formal than "introduce." It is also more respectful to the

person presented.

?The queen was introduced. . . .

?The queen was presented. . . .

?Kid – Whether a verb or noun, "kid" is not appropriate in formal writing. Replace "kid" with "child" or "joke."

?I saw a kid on a skateboard.

?I saw a child on a skateboard.

?I‘m kidding!

?I am joking!

?On the other hand – "On the other hand" is a very common phrase when adding a new and different fact to a statement, but should be avoided in extremely formal English. You sometimes will need to use "conversely" or "by contrast." "On the other hand" is particularly useful in everyday writing, though.

?The use of "pretty" as an adverb is not appropriate in formal writing. Replace it with "relatively," "fairly," or "quite."

?Avoid contractions. Contractions dramatically reduce the formality of your composition. Depending on how formal you need to be, you may want to avoid all contractions or use fewer contractions in your writing than yo u would use in your speech. "Cannot" is preferable to "can‘t" in formal contexts. Some contractions such as "o‘clock" (for "of the clock") are so commonplace that they are condemned in only the most formal writing.

◇John,I‘m looking for a job, and I‘ve h eard through the grapevine(means by which news is passed on from person to person) that you need a workhorse for your shop. Well, I‘m the man of the hour, as I‘ve got a lot to offer. I‘m pretty hard-working, and I‘m really good about being on time. I‘m als o used to working by myself. Anyway, tell me whether you want to get together for an interview, okay?

◇Dear John,I understand that you are looking for a strong worker to assist you in your shop. I should appreciate consideration because I am diligent, punctual, and accustomed to working with minimal supervision. Please contact me if you are interested in setting up an interview. I thank you for your time.

Exercises:

?涉外经济法合同:

第十条:采取欺诈或者胁迫手段订立的合同无效.

第二十一条: 当事人双方都违反合同的,应当各自承担相应的责任.

第二十八条:经当事人协商同意后, 合同可以变更.

第三十二条: 变更或者解除合同的通知或者协议, 应当采取书面形式.

Law of the People‘s Republic of China on Economic Contracts Invol ving Foreign Interests.

Article 10: Contracts concluded by means of fraud and duress shall be void.

Article 21: If both parties breach the contract, each should be commensurately (suitable, appropriate) liable for the breach of the contract that is its responsibility.

Article 21: A contract may be modified if both parties agree after consultation.

Article 32: Notices or agreements on the modification or rescission (rescind) of contracts should be made in writing.