英語修辭與寫作·6.5　字面意義與比喻意義

6.5　字面意義與比喻意義

6.5A　字面意義與比喻意義的差別

“字面意義”（Literal meaning）與“比喻意義”（Figurative meaning）同前面6.2中講到的“指示意義”與“隱含意義”有相同之處，前者指詞語直接表示的意義，人們一看便知道，而后者則往往需要人們根據(jù)上下文加以引申才能理解。例如：

（1）The man was knocked down by an iron bar.

（2） Madame Curie completed her studies in Paris with an iron will.

句1中的“iron”是字面意義，指“鐵（棒）”，而句2中的“iron”則為比喻意義，表示“鋼鐵般的（意志）”的意思。又如：

（3）Just a moment, please. The tea is brewing.

（4） Watch out: there's trouble brewing.

句3中的“brewing”是字面意義，指“沏茶”；而句4中的“brewing”則為比喻意義，表示“（麻煩事）即將發(fā)生”的意思。

6.5B　詞語意義的細微差別

同樣一個詞語既有字面意義與比喻意義的不同用法，而且即使用于字面意義，也會出現(xiàn)種種細小的含義區(qū)分。試以literal和literally為例：

（1） The literal meaning of the expression “run after sb.” is “to chase sb.”, whereas its extended or figurative meaning is “to seek company of sb.”.

（literal: basic）

（2） Every word of this is literally as the man spoke it.

（literally: exactly）

（3） It's not a good idea to follow a literal approach to the subject. You need imagination and creativity.

（literal: stubborn, old-fashioned）

（4） You need to demonstrate to the examiners that you have more than a literal understanding of the text.

（literal: word for word, basic; a literal understanding = surface impression）

（5） During the World Cup, most of our eyes were literally glued to the television for every round of the competition.

（literally: almost）

（6） Twenty million people are threatened by famine and the food aid required runs quite literally into millions of tons.

（literally: completely, truthfully）

（7） Hurry up, my dear! We had literally ten minutes to catch the first train.

（literally: only, merely）

此外，literal和literally還可以用來強化比喻意義。例如：

（8） The village in the twenties was a literal hotbed of political, artistic, and sexual radicalism.

（literal: indeed）

（9） New York city is literally hanging by its fingernails.

（literally: just）

6.5C　掌握“比喻用法”的關(guān)鍵

掌握“比喻用法”的關(guān)鍵在于分清“What is said”和“What is implied”，即分清“指示意義”與“隱含意義”（見6.2）。請看下面的兩句對話：

Harry: Would you like one more piece of cake, Jenny?

Jenny: I'm on a diet.

一般說來，當別人請吃什么東西時，正常的回答有兩種；肯定的回答為“Yes, thank you”，否定式為“No, thank you”，但是這里Jenny的話卻有點特別。表面看來，似乎是答非所問，實際上是另有其意：說她在控制飲食，就是說她不想再吃啦，等于說“No, thanks”。

日常生活經(jīng)常會有這樣的情況。如果夏天有人來到你的房間，說“It's quite warm here”，其意思不是稱贊你的房間里暖和，而是抱怨那里溫度太高，需要打開電扇或空調(diào)。

一個普通的疑問句也可以不是提出什么問題，而是對聽話人提出要求或發(fā)出指令。例如媽媽看到廚房里垃圾箱滿了，便對孩子說“Have you taken out the garbage?”

英語中的“比喻用法”（Figurative use）十分普遍，引出了各種各樣的“辭格”（Figure of speech）。關(guān)于辭格，詳見本書8－17章，另參見黃任（2012:15）。

練習六?。‥xercise Six）

I. Preview Questions:

1. What does the phrase “to learn one's way round” mean?

2. What have you learned about the words “brick” and “BRIC”?

3. Which type of expressions do you prefer in communication, positive or negative?

4. Can you tell the difference between “to operate in the red” and “to achieve a programmed deficit”?

5. What is the key point in interpreting “the figurative use”?

II. Go over the following and fill in the blanks with either “work” or “mow” in their proper forms.

Now imagine the situation of Mr. Smith （1）____________his lawn Saturday morning. Inside the house, Mrs. Smith receives a telephone call from a friend, who asks, “Is your husband still in bed?” “No,” replies Mrs. Smith, “He's already outside, （2）____________in the garden.”

Consider now the same situation, except that we also know that Mr. Smith is a firefighter who is often on duty on Saturdays. A friend of his knows this is the case and is wondering whether Mr. Smith on this particular Saturday might be free to go fishing with him. He therefore calls and asks Mrs. Smith, “Is your husband （3）____________today?” “No,” replies Mrs. Smith, “He is outside （4）____________the lawn.”

III. Go over the following two passages and paraphrase the last sentence “Must you open the window?” in each of them.

Passage One:

Mrs. Smith was watering her garden one afternoon. She saw that the housekeeper was pushing a window open. She didn't understand why he needed to have it open. A bit worried, she went over and politely asked, “Must you open the window?”

Passage Two:

One morning John felt too sick to go to school. The night before he and his friends got very drunk. Then they went swimming in a cold lake. Because of this John caught a bad cold. He was lying in bed when his mother stormed into the room. When she started opening the window, John groaned, “Must you open the window?”

IV. In the following sentences, substitute each of the verbs in parentheses for the italicized one. Jot down the resulting difference in meaning as you find in Exercise V for the verb “look”, consulting a dictionary or synonym book if you wish.

1. When he closed the door, the girl cried out. （shut, banged; screamed, shrieked, yelled）

2. That day I saw them walking along the streets. （noticed, observed, watched, witnessed; doddering along, trudging along, strolling about, trotting along）

3. He fixed it in about two days. （repaired, corrected, mended, remedied）

4. What he had done made his colleagues and friends surprised. （performed, achieved, executed, fished for; alarmed, startled, irritated, baffled）

V. Further reading

Selecting words is rather like shopping in an enormous supermarket. But instead of roaming the aisles for groceries, a writer thumbs through the pages of a dictionary or thesaurus, searching for the right words. Both the shelves and the pages are well stocked; the English language has more words than any other language.Whether a writer wants plain bread-and-butter words, sweet words, tart words, tasteless words, kosher words, gourmet words, or playful words — they are all there for the taking, free of charge. Because there are so many words to choose from, a writer has countless opportunities to be creative, whether writing papers, letters, reports, poetry, or short stories. True, some writing offers more opportunities for creativity than expository writing does, but all rhetorical situations afford leeway in phrasing and sentence structure.

Reading widely and often will help you to become more aware of the nuances and subtle meanings of words.Frequent use of a good thesaurus and dictionary during revision will help you maintain an appropriate tone. Your awareness of the delicate distinctions in words will increase as you study this chapter. Your skill in detecting inappropriate words and in selecting appropriate words will be honed. With regular practice, your writing will become more precise and positive.

（Better M. Dietsch）

參考答案

Ⅱ. 1. mowing　2. working　3. working　4. mowing

Ⅲ. Passage One: Need you open the window?

Passage Two: Don't open the window.