Island In Silence

I have moved this blog to WordPress indefinitely; here is the link--
http://laoxiuwustudy.wordpress.com/

Word Choice

diction 措辞, 用语 : the choice of words 讲话或书写中，对词的使用或选择

poetic diction 诗歌用语: the use of elevated language over ordinary language

formal diction: consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language

middle diction: spoken by most educated people

informal diction: presented colloquially（用通俗语）, in a conversational manner that in this instance includes slang expressions not used by the culture at large

dialect 方言: spoken by definable groups of people from a particular geographic region, economic group, or social class.

jargon 行话: a category of language defined by a trade or profession

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

denotations 直接意义：the literal, dictionary meanings of a word一个词字面的/最直接的意义

connotations 言外之意：associations and implications that go beyond a word's literal meanings 字面意思之外涵的意义

connotations derives from how the word has been used and the associations people make with it. They derives their resonance from a person's experience with a word.

persona: a speaker created by the poet 第一人称：在文艺作品中代表说话者的声音/个性

ambiguity 模棱两可,晦涩: allows for 2 or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action or situation, all of which can be supported by the context of a work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Word Order

syntax 句法 : the ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns 研究词或其它句了成分如何联合起来形成合乎语法的句子规则的学科

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tone: the writer's attitude toward the subject, the mood created by all of the elements in the poem (serious/light,sad/happy, private/public, angry/affectionate, bitter/nostalgic 怀旧的)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

image：language that addresses the senses

 

figure of speech 修辞, 形象化说法,：A way of saying one thing in terms of sth. else. (indirect, but not obscure)  如隐喻/直喻等表达方式, 如拟人/夸张等文学手法，通过这些方法文字能用非字面的意义获得超过普通语言的效果

the most common figure of speech:

simile 明喻 : an explicit comparison between 2 different things by using words such as like, as, than, appears or seems .

俗称直喻，是依据比喻和被比喻两种不同事物的相似关系而构成的修辞格； 把两种基本不相像的东西进行比较，通常在由like 或 as 引导（比喻词acknowledging word，是辨别明喻的显著特征），明喻较为直白，比喻物和被比喻物之间相似点较为明显，所以明喻是一种比较好判断的修辞手法。“我的离开好象是冬天来临” 或 “你对我的思想就象食物对于生命一样重要”（Shakespeare）

metaphor 暗喻：an implicit comparison between 2 unlike things without words such as like or as . 也称隐喻，依据比喻和被比喻两种不同事物的相似或相关关系而构成的修辞格。

• “忧愁之海”/“All the world's a stage”“整个世界一台戏”(Shakespeare)
• His friend has become a thorn in his side. 他的朋友已变成眼中钉肉中刺。
• Hope is a good breakfast, but it's a bad supper.

暗喻没有引导词，这是明喻和暗喻在形式上的最大区别:

• He has a heart like stone. 明喻
• He has a heart of stone.暗喻（比喻物和被比喻物之间的相似点较为含蓄，乍看毫无关系，实际却有着某种内在联系）

metaphors are frequently more demanding than similes because they're not signaled by particular words. They are both subtle and powerful.

1. implied metaphor 潜喻: it hints rather than explicitly identify,

2. extended metaphor 延喻: make an initial comparison and then develop it, expanding the author's idea  作出初次比较再扩展，以延伸作者的意图

• some poets write extended comparisons in which part or all of the poem consists of a serious of related metaphors/similes
• extended metaphors are more common than extended similes
• extended comparisons can serve as poem’s organizing principle

A photographer is a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity. 摄影师像鳕鱼，产卵百万为的是长成一条

摄影师通常拍片成堆，难觅一成功之作，似鳕鱼产卵无数，长成者廖廖。故萧伯纳把摄影师先比作cod，再进一步用cod的习性比喻之，生动地道出了摄影师的艰辛。这里which后的从句就显示了延喻的功能。

3. controlling metaphor 全景控制比喻: the comparisons are at work throughout

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

一般比喻只需抓住主喻体之间的相似之处，延喻不仅要注意比喻本身，还要注意延伸部分是否与喻体保持了一致。也就是说，延伸部分应当是喻体的一部分，能够进一步描绘喻体发出的动作或产生的状态，对喻体特性进行扩展，解释喻体的功用。它使喻体由单一性变化为多样性，在结构、内涵等方面具有单一喻体无法比拟的修辞效果，

延喻的构成分以下几种：

①由动词构成

a.The mist, like love, plays upon the heart of the hills. 薄雾,如心灵深处的爱，在山的深处飘荡。 b.Her eyes, pools of love, were rippling in tenderness.她的双眼似爱的池塘，正泛着柔情蜜意的涟漪。

②由介词短语构成

a.The stone shaped as a kitten with crystal eyes. 石头形如小猫，眼似水晶。                             b.The huge sunlight flamed like a monstrous dahlia with petals of yellow fire.煤气灯燃得像一朵巨大的大丽花，黄黄的火舌恰似花瓣。

③由句子构成：He is as poor as a church mouse, and a church mouse like him eats like a horse. 他一贫如洗，赤贫的他又特别能吃。

④由从句构成：The chess-board is the world, where the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature.棋盘如世界，游戏规则如同自然法则。

===============================================================

The humblest figure of speech: pun 双关: a play on words that relied on a word having more than one meaning or sounding like another word 一种文字游戏，利用同一个词的不同意思, 或利用不同词的相近意思或发音

它非常能够体现使用者的睿智机敏、幽默俏皮，造成印象隽永的效果。它的使用场合亦庄亦谐，既常见于故事、笑话、谜语、儿歌等，又可用于正式场合，表达严肃的思想和深邃的感情。

1. If we don’t hang together, we’ll hang separately.（如我们不通力合作，就将分别被处绞刑。）
2. — Why is an empty parse always the same? — Because there is never any change in it.(change表示“零钱”“变化”。“空钱包”里没“零钱”就永远瘪着，毫无“变化”了。)
3. “Doe, a deer, a female deer, Ray, a drop of golden sun, Me, a name, I call myself, Far, a long long way to run, Sew, a needle and pulling thread, La, a note to follow sew, Tea, a drink with jam and bread, ...” 《音乐之声》插曲中的歌词，为世人传唱，经久不衰，不仅因为其优美激越的调子，还因为它把音符双关处理，在电影中用于教孩子们记单词，使各个音符具有了更深的内涵，不仅烘托了影片主体，而且留下了双关语使用的典范。)

========================================================

Synecdoche 提喻法, : A figure of speech in which

• a part is used for the whole (hand  for sailor) 局部代表整体: 手→水手
• the whole for a part (the law  for police officer) 整体代表局部: 法律→警官
• the specific for the general (cutthroat  for assassin) 特殊代表一般: 直柄剃刀→杀人者
• the general for the specific (thief  for pickpocket) 一般代表特殊: 贼→扒手
• the material for the thing from which it is made (steel  for sword) 原材料代表用该材料制造的东西: 钢→剑

Metonymy 转喻,借代: A figure of speech in which sth. closely associated with a subject is substituted for it  一种一个词/词组被另一个与之有紧密联系的词或词组替换的修辞方法[Washington→ the U. S. government, the sword →military power]。

借代法不直接说出事物的本来名称，而是换一种说法。所以借代不是比喻，不需要两个事物相比。

when a figure of speech overlaps categories, it is usually labeled a metonymy

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

借代的表现手法有三种，借代（metonymy）、换称（antonomasia）、提喻（synecdoche）。

1.借代

1. 装束指代人 woman in furs or men in grand coats（有钱人） black gown（美国大学生）。
2. 人体部分或器官指代人/物 :I won’t let my heart rule my head.(我不会用感情代替理智。)
3. 人/物的显著特征指代人/物: the gray hair（老年人） the egg head（秃头） zebra crossing（横穿人行道）
4. 颜色指代 :the black, the white, the yellow(代各种肤色的人)
5. 容器指代乘物:  He indulged in glass.(他沉湎于喝酒。)
6. 乘物指代容器 They ordered 2 beers and 1 whisky. (beer为不可数,2 beers显然指的是2 glasses of beer，同样1指1 glass of whisky。)
7. 人名指代作品 :Will Mozart be played at the concert?
8. 所在地指代机构:Berlin(德国政府) The Pentagon（美国国防部） Beijing(中国政府)
9. 工具指代动作或行为 :Only a knife could save him.(只有动手术他才有救。) He chose the gun instead of the cap and gown.(他选择当兵而不是上大学。) The pen is mightier than the sword.（文治强于武攻。）

2.换称 :其原理与借代相同，常常是用具有特征性的称谓来戏称同一种东西。例如：

1. He indulged in games after he bought an “Apple”. (Apple这里指“苹果牌”计算机。)
2. The documents from the Foggy Bottom revealed the military budget for next year.(雾谷，代称美国国务院。)
3. The emblems on the party tickets tell their members to vote for the “big chick” - Democrats, or the “bird on the dollar” - Republicans.（用“大鸡”和“美钞上的秃鹰”分别指代民主、共和两党。）

3.提喻:以小见大，或以大见小，以局部代整体，整体代局部，一类代个体，具体代抽象，抽象代具体等手法为特点。    

(1) 局部代整体

• Two heads are better than one.(三个臭皮匠顶个诸葛亮。——用“头”代“人”。)
• He toiled all day long to earn his bread.(他整日劳作以维持生计。——以“面包”代整个生活。)
• sails - navy; wings - airplane; marching feet - army等等，都是很好的例子。

(2) 整体代局部

• It was reported that Korea beat China in a soccer game yesterday.(报道说韩国足球队昨天击败了中国足球队。——用国名代替国足。这是新闻报道中常用的提喻手法。)
• Class 1 is superior to class 2 in the crossword games.(1班学生做填字游戏超过了2班学生。——用班称代替班上的学生。)

(3) 一类代个体

• Save our souls! (SOS!) (救命！——用“命”代替单个的“人”。)
• Nearly 4.8 million vehicles rolled off the assembly lines.(约四百八十万辆车下了生产线。——用“运载工具”代替“车辆”。)

(4) 具体代抽象

• He has a torrential tongue.（他口若悬河——用具体的“舌头”代替“口才”。）
• You could hardly hear the jingle of a cent in his wallet.(他的钱包里没有一个子儿。——用“硬币”代替“没钱”这个抽象概念。)

(5) 抽象代具体

• Truth speaks louder than eloquence.(事实胜于雄辩。)
• There was a large gathering -business, art, science, all walks of life.(这是一次盛大集会——商界，艺术界，科学界，社会各界。——其中黑体字部分实际指代各界人士。)

==========================================================

Personification 拟人：the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things 把物(诸如动物、植物、物体、思想或抽象概念等)比作人，赋予它们人的特性、外表、思维、动作。即把本来适用于人的词汇用于物，使之人格化。    

• Freedom blushed for shame.自由因羞愧而脸红。
• How rarely reasons guide the stubborn choice. 固执的选择很少是理智的。
• The sun looks over the mountain’s rim.太阳挂在山边。
• The moans of the autumn wind wound in the deep of the mountains.秋风的呻吟萦绕在大山深处。

Apostrophe 呼语：an address either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker, or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend 直接称呼不在场或虚构的人物或称呼拟人的事物，尤指作为演讲或作文过程中的离题话

===========================================================

overstatement/ hyperbole 夸张: a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect without intending to be literally true

understatement 轻描淡写的陈述: the opposite figure of speech to overstatement, which says less than is intended, consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in "This is no small problem”. 用有节制的陈述所构成一种修辞手法，即通过否定其反面来表达肯定，例如“这并不是一个小问题”

==========================================================

paradox 悖论: a statement that initially appears to ne self-contradictory but that, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense 似非而是的论点, 自相矛盾的话; 逆说,

Oxymoron 矛盾修饰法: a condensed form of paradox in which 2 contradictory words are used together. 把明显矛盾的词用在一起，以产生语言上的奇效。

既然是矛盾的词，其词汇意义往往相对立，形成反义关系，它们用在一块可以深刻地揭示事物间矛盾对立，同时又协调统一的方面。例如：

1. The interview lasted for an endless morning, I got quite exhausted. (“morning”不可能“endless”，因为“interview”把人搞得“exhausted”，才有了时间上的“endless”。把有限和无限的东西放在一起，形成矛盾修饰。)
2. He sat there and watched them, so changelessly changing, so bright and dark, so grave and gay.他坐在那儿注视着他们，觉得眼前的景象既是始终如一，又是变化多端，既是光彩夺目，又是朦胧黑暗，既是庄严肃穆，又是轻松愉快。

   矛盾修饰法的特点就是构成相互关联的、属于反义的词被安排在一块，二者之间彼此对立，却又有着必然的联系，其产生的语言效果非常独特，令人过目不忘。比如：

• cruel kindness 残酷的仁慈
• painful pleasure 悲喜交加
• ugly beautiful 丑中带俊
• old young man 事故的年轻人
• wise fool 聪明的傻瓜
• loving hate 爱恨交织
• unfaithful faith 不坚定的信心
• walking dead 行尸走肉

从这些例子，可以发现它们结构上的一个特点，即意义相反的词都存在修饰和被修饰的关系，总结以下：

1. 形容词+名词：cruel kindness, orderly chaos, wise fool, painful pleasure
2. 动词分词+名词：loving hate, walking dead
3. 形容词+形容词：ugly beautiful, bitter sweet, poor rich
4. 副词+形容词：mercifully fatal, deadly alive, disagreeably pleasant
5. 副词+动词分词：changelessly changing, stably moving
6. 名词+名词：enemy friend, life-and-death
7. 动词+副词：hurry slowly, talk silently, live deadly

Reading Poetry

• all you need to do at the start is listen for the pleasure produced by poet's arrangement of words
• read the poem aloud before you read it silently
• pay attention to its punctuation & don't stop at the end of every line where there is no punctuation
• the title
• most important about your initial readings is to ask questions about the words, descriptions, sounds, structures…
• a variety of specific elements: speaker, image, metaphor, symbol, rhythm
• note your response at different points

 

doggerel 打油诗 : lines whose subject matter is trite (老生常谈的主题) & whose rhythm and sounds monotonously heavy-handed (单调笨拙的韵律)  → Crudely or irregularly fashioned verse, often of a humorous or burlesque nature.多属幽默滑稽、粗劣、无章法的诗

“Poetry has two outstanding characteristics. One is that it is indefinable. The other is that it is eventually unmistakable.”                                                    -- Arlington Robinson

Shakespeare's Sonnets 莎士比亚十四行诗

the English sonnet, more commonly known as the Shakespearean sonnet, is organized into 3 quatrains and a couplet, which typically rhyme abab cdcd efef gg.

一种由莎士比亚完善的十四行诗形式，由三个四行诗及一抑扬格五音步诗行的对句组成，具有韵律格式abab cdcd efef gg  也作  Elizabethan sonnet,English sonnet

 

奥赛罗