英语修辞讲义-美学修辞Aesthetic Rhetoric.ppt

Chapter 9 Syntactic Figures of Speech (Ⅱ) 9.1 Climax 9.2 Anticlimax 9.3 Syllepsis 9.4 Zeugma 9.5 Chiasmus 9.6 Asyndeton 9.7 Polysyndeton 9.8 Rhetorical question 9.1 Climax Climax (层进法): is the arrangement of words, phrases, clauses or sentences in ascending order of importance, force and intensity, from light to weighty. Ideas arranged in such a way develop gradually, like climbing a ladder, each idea outweighing the preceding one until reaching the summit. For example: 1. What light is to the eyes, what air is to the lungs, what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man. (R.G.Ingersoll) 2. It is an outrage to bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is a crime; to put him to death is almost parricide. (Cicero) 3. The world watches. The world listens. The world waits to see what we will do. (Richard Nixon) 4. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon) 9.1 Climax The successful construction of climax depends much on the character of the thought and good command of vocabulary. climax is widely used by speakers and writers to stir up feelings and emotions and drive home a point. The progression of thought in climax must ascend at least three steps, and used together with repetitive devices such as parallelism, anaphora, epiphora. For example: 1. Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance; And to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. (The Bible) 2. Having power makes totalitarian leadership isolated; isolation breeds insecurity; insecurity breeds suspicion and fear; suspicion and fear breeds violence. 9.2 Anticlimax Anticlimax (突降法): a figure of speech that involves stating one’s thoughts in descending order of significance or intensity, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from strong to weak, from weighty to light or fr