摘 要：关于修辞，用英语作定义为“The art of speaking or writing effectively”or“Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively”即“修辞是有效地说话或写作的艺术”或“修辞是有效地使用语言的艺术”。笔者结合多年的英语学习和教学实践，尝试着粗浅地归纳一下英语中常用的修辞方式。
关键词：英语修词 理论学习 实践应用 提高素养
一、明喻（Simile）
为了鲜明形象地刻画某一人物，人们将具有某种共同特征的两种不同事物加以对比，用另一种事物来比仿所要说明的事物，这种对比在修辞上叫做明喻。我们把被比的事物叫本体，用作比较的事物叫喻体，通常用as、like等词。如：“The part rises before me like a dream.”“Tom's face is as red as an apple.”两种比较的事物在总体上是不相似的，但在某一方面却是极其相似的，如往事与梦——记不清了，汤姆的脸与红苹果——红。
二、隐喻（Metaphor）
隐喻与明喻一样，也是在两个不同的事物之间进行比喻，区别在于：明喻把本体和喻体说成是相似的，而隐喻则干脆把两者说成是一致的。如：“He is stubborn like a mule.”（明喻）“He is a mule.”（隐喻）“The news is as a dagger to his heart.”（隐喻）“The news is a dagger to his heart.”(隐喻)很明显，在隐喻中不使用as、like这样的词，而直接说“A is B”。如：“The world is a stage.”“Learning is climbing up a mountain.”“Joe is a lion in the battle.”
三、转喻（Metonymy）
不要把要说出的事物直接说出，而用和它有不可分离的关系的事物来表现的修辞方式，叫着转喻。转喻的着重点不是相似（这是与明喻和隐喻不同的），而是联想。如：“The kettle is boiling.”“The press is in favor of this proposal.”“We are told to respect gray hairs.”“The whole China turned out to mourn for the death of Zhou Premier.”
四、提喻（synecdoche）
以某事物的局部表示整体，或反过来以整体表示局部，此种修辞方法叫做提喻。如：“More hands are needed at the moment.”“We had dinner at ten dollars a head.”“He is the Newton of this century.”“All the plants in the cold country are turning green in this smiling year.”
五、类比（Analogy）
类比就是将两种本质上不同的事物之间的共同点加以比较，从结构上看，它常常既有带比喻的明喻，又有直接把本体说成喻体的隐喻，它是通过比喻手法的综合运用来说明道理式的情况。如：“The inspiration for a story is like a pull on the line…the outside signal that started or moved the creative mind to complicity and brought the story to active being….”“An individual human existence should be like a river--small at first，narrowly contained within its banks，and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls.Gradually the river grows wider，the banks recede，the waters flow more quietly，and become merged in the sea，and painlessly lose their individual being.”
六、讽喻(Allegory)
讽喻也叫寓意，是一种比隐喻更为委婉的比喻。如：“All that glisters is not gold.”
七、讽刺（Irony）
讽刺是把词、词组、句子用于反意，以表示说话人对事物的批判性评价。
如：“What a noble illustration of the tender laws of his favoured country!——they let the paupters go to sleep.”“…you devils ought to search our heads and not our pockets.”“When people are in trouble，we must leave them alone and not bother them，that is my idea of friendship and I’m sure I am right.”
八、讽刺的几种变异形式
1.反论（Paradox）。反论是一种看上去是矛盾着的，但细想起来却是颇有道理的修辞方式。如：“More haste，less speed.”“Let him who desires peace prepare for war.”“He who praises everybody praises nobody.”“The more things a man is ashamed of，the more respectable he is.”
2.矛盾修辞法（Oxymoron）。矛盾修辞法是一种修辞手段，它将一组相互矛盾的词语搭配在一起，起到一种强烈的修辞效果，从而使表达的语义更强烈。如：“‘How you shot the goat and frightened the tiger to death’，said Mebbin with her own disagreeable pleasant laugh.”“And when he，being the eldest had told the noble tie that he was not hungry， could not eat a bit more，in order to imitate his mother is bravery，and still the sharp of the younger infants.”
3.暗讽（Innuendo）。即用婉转的口气讲反话。如“--Have you finished my book yet？—Sorry，I stopped at page 412，with 407 pages to go.”“—It is rather cold today，isn’t it？But the weather man said it would be warm. He must have taken his reading in a bathroom！”
4.讥讽（Sarcasm）。Sarcasm与Innuedo相反，是指尖刻的挖苦，甚至是严厉的叱责，不留情面地以反语指责他人。如：“When children call a boy Four Eyes because he wears glasses，they are speaking in sarcasm.”“‘How unselfish you are！’said Ellen in sarcasm as her sister took the biggest piece.”
九、夸张（Hyperbale）
用主观的眼光去渲染，铺饰客观事物，故意言过其实的表现法，叫做夸张。如：“Polly，I love you，you are the whole world to me，and the moon and the stars…”“I was scared to death.”“I have been beating my brains out all day over that report，and I still can not find a way to make my suggestions politely.”
十、低调陈述（Understatement）
也叫“含蓄陈述”，是与夸张相对应的一种辞格，其表现形式主要有两种：
1.以反说代替正说：即曲言法（Iitotes）。如：“That is not laughing matter.”
2.以弱说代替强说：即用形容词或副词比较级或用程度副词（如almost、hardly、kind of、rather、scarcely、something of、sort of 等）减弱语气，这种形式也叫弱陈法（Meiosis）。如：“I am not quite too late，I see.”
十一、委婉语（Euphemism）
倒用语气温和、含意较雅致或含糊的表达方式代替粗俗、生硬、直露的说法，即委婉语。如：“He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes， and when we came back，we found him in an armchair peacefully gone to sleep——but for ever.”
综上所述，关于英语修辞，我们不但要从理论角度学习，而且要结合实践学习，针对语境使用，要摆脱母语的影响，要学习与修辞相关的多种学科，有意识地从修辞学的角度吸取 知识。并在我们的口笔头中加以运用，从而提高我们的文化素养和英语素质。
。