II。Trope

2。1 A Brief Introduction of Trope

Trope, also called “analogy”。 It is a rhetoric method and technique of expression by human’s association and imagination to seize the similarities between things, as a thing to describe and explain b things。 At the same time, it is also a form of thinking。 In daily life of communication, we cannot leave this rhetoric; in literary creation, the meaning of trope is indispensable。 It enhances the vitality and infection of the literary expression and shows the writer’s unique creativity。 The commonly used tropes of figures of speech in modern Chinese are: simile, metaphor and allusion while the frequently used in English are simile, metaphor, sustained metaphor, dead metaphor, mixed metaphor, extended metaphor and so on。 Essentially, Chinese and English metaphor is same basically, but there are some differences on the content and forms of expression and habits of metaphor between English and Chinese。 Especially the English metaphor is much richer than the Chinese, and some even beyond the range of Chinese metaphor rhetoric。 In modern Chinese rhetoric, there are some people classified metaphor as “rhetorical mode of describing,” there is a grain of truth, but not comprehensive, because there are also some what are “reasoning。” Tropes in English are considered as “a lexical stylistic devices”。 The range of rhetorical devices has been reduced, because there were aspects of the structure and context, not only just on the stylistic or vocabulary。 From the perspective of linguistics, both of which are negative figure of speech。 There are also some people who bringing them into the “aesthetic rhetoric” of the range from an aesthetic point, which actually makes sense。 Because the purpose of this figure of speech is to beautify the language, to make the language more vivid and make it easy to appreciate and understand the meaning of the expression, even there are some differences in the form of performance and pattern of thinking between English and Chinese。

2。2 Simile in English and Chinese

2。2。1 The Similarities 

Chinese simile is clearly “analogy”, the basic format for a as b。 Such as: 

1。 She is like a red flower what just bloomed in grasslands, bright and beautiful, full of youthful vitality! 

(Zhao Yanyi “New Legend Prairie”) 

2。 The prairie is the infinite flat, just like in a calm sea, in the sun, like the little bubble of package, flashing light。 

(Bi Ye “Tian Shan Mountain Scenery”) 

The above two cases are typical simile sentence。 The adding parts of the sentence which by the words, phrases, or sentences to act as the noumenon and metaphorical object; the underlined portion is figurative word。 The noumenon and metaphorical object through a figurative word connect with each other and form a relation to make the reader at a glance。

 The concept of simile in English comes from the Latin word Similis (meaning “like。。。。。。。”) refers to connecting two kinds of different things by a figurative word such as: “as”, “like”, “than” and so on to indicating the similarity relation。 Such as: 文献综述

1。 O, my love is like a red red rose 

That is newly sprung in June。 

O, my love is like the melody 

That’s sweetly played in tune。

(Robert Burns, A Red Red Rose) 

This example is a typical simile sentence in English。 The underlined parts of sentence are figurative word and metaphorical object。 The metaphorical object is act as a phrase or sentence, which constitute the predicate clause or an adverbial clause of comparison to illustrate or modify the noumenon。 

Through the comparison of simile sentence in Chinese and English above, it is not difficult to find that they have a lot of common features: