A Brief Analysis on the Significance of Rhetorical Figures Applied in Literary Works and Translation获奖科研报告

ABriefAnalysisontheSignificanceofRhetoricalFiguresAppliedinLiteraryWorksandTranslation获奖科研报告Languageisthefoundationofhumancommunication.Weuselanguagetoexpressourownthoughtsandfeelings，andhopetogetmutualunderstanding.Rhetoricfiguresareimportantelementsinanylanguage.AccordingtoZhangZhigong，rhetoricisaprocessofchoosinglanguagematerialscarefullyaccordingtoacertainpurposewhenusinglanguage.[1]Rhetorichelpsusexpressmoreclearly.Thesefunctionmustbethemainreasonthatthedevicesarewidelyusedbothinourdailylifeandliteraryworks.Evendifferenttypesofformexpressingdifferently，suchaspoem，proseandfiction，therhetoricalfiguresplaysameimportantrole.ChenWangdaobelievesthatrhetoricmeanstoconveymeaningandsensemoreaccuratebyadjustingthewordsorphrases.[2]Thisisfromadifferentangleofthesignificanceofrhetoric.Itmeanstherhetoricisdistinguishedfromgrammarinworks，butitsurelyhelptheauthortopresenthisorheridea，andhelpthereadertounderstand.Wewilltakesomerhetoricalfiguresasexample，andseethesignificanceofitintheliteraryworks.

1.Personification

Personificationisatypeofmetaphor.Itinvolvespresentingtheanimateintermsoftheinanimateorthehumanintermsofnon-human.Generallyithastwotypes，Ni-Jen，personificationofinsentientthingsandNi-wu，comparisonofahumanwithaninanimateobject.[3]Itisacommonusedtoolthatliterallyexistineveryworks.Byusingthisfigure，theworkcanbemorelively，andthetruthcanberevealedand

moreemotionscanbedeliveredtoreaders.[4]Forexample，inpoem“DIELIANHUA”（“蝶戀花”）byFengYansi（冯廷巳，aroundTangDynasty），line“泪眼问花花不语，乱红飞过秋千去”，“花不语”meansmuteflowers.However，noflowercantalk.Thisisatypicalpersonification.Inthepoem，noonewastherewiththewomanbutonlyflowersandwillows，soshetreatedthemaspeoplewhomshecouldtalkwith.However，theflowerscouldn’ttalknorunderstandthewoman，what’smore，thefallenflowersalsofliedfarawayandleftherlonely.Therefore，withpersonificationthepoetdepictsamoresorrowpicture，whichshowshowgriefandsorrowshewas.Thismakesthereaderhaveamoreclearandbetterunderstandingofthewoman’sfeeling.

Let’sseeanotherexample.TheIrishpoetThomasMoorewhopersonifiedroseasaloverin“LastRoseofSummer”line“Sincethelovelyaresleeping，Go，sleepthouwiththem”.Hecouldn’tmakethelastrosestaywithhim.Thelovelyroses“aresleeping”justlikeperson.Thiscausallyshowshowsadandsorrowthemanwaswiththefigureofspeech.

Fromtheaboveexamples，wecanseethefunctionandthesignificanceofthepersonification.

2.Hu-wen

Hu-wenmeanssubstitutionforaparallelexpression.[5]Bothpreviouslineandthefollowinglineareeachothers’supplement.Thismakesthefullexpressionwithcompletemeaning.Hu-wenhasbeenappliedformanyfamousancientChinesepoetry.Let’sseesomelinesfrom“BalladofMuLan”（木蘭诗.乐府诗集）.Inlines"开我东阁门，坐我西阁床”and“当窗理云鬓，对镜帖花黄”，“开我”and“坐我”areHu-wen.Inoriginaltext，itseemsthattheformerlinehadnorelationshipwiththelaterline，“opentheeasthousedoor，andsitonthewesthousebed”：Actuallytheyaretwoseparatepartstellingdifferentthing，andsupplyingwitheachother.Therefore，themeaningshouldbe“openthedoorofeastandwesthouse”.Sodoesline“当窗”，itshouldbe“brushhairandmakeupinfrontofthebronzemirrorandwindow”，whichshowshowhappyMulanwas.Thisfiguremakesthetextmoredramatic.

AnothergreatexampleofusingHu-wenisinXinQiji’s（辛弃疾，SongDynasty）poem“QingYu-an”（青玉案）.

“东风夜放花千树。更吹落、星如雨。宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。

蛾儿雪柳黄金缕。笑语盈盈暗香去。众里寻他千百度。蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处。”

Inthispoem，theHu-wenpartisfromthefourthlinetotheend.First，the“horse”lineand“moth”lineareHu-wen，theydescribeajoyfulandhappynight，andallpeopleenjoyedthenight.Thisthenmadethatman/woman“那人”morelonely，becauses/hewantedtobealone，s/hehadher/hisowndream，maybecannotberealized.ThisisanabnormalHu-wendoesmakethepoemmorefamous.

RhetoricaltoolsarenotonlyshowedupinancientChinesepoems，butalsointheWesternpoems.SuchasShakespeare’sSonnet，manyfigureshadbeenappliedinsonnet.ForexampleSonnet60，Shakespearegotafurthersteponthedepictionofthecrueltyoftimebythemetaphorofthesun，whichgoesthroughawholeday.Inthesecondquatrainwherecrawlandconfoundareasetofoppositewordstocarrygreatimpliedmeanings.

Fromtheabovesamples，wecouldseethatthesignificanceofrhetoricaldevicesintheliteraryworks.Thentalkingaboutthefiguresappliedintheprocessoftranslation，theessentialstillbegreat.Wecouldseeitfromthefollowingexamples.

Inthepoem“ShengShengMan”（声声慢）writtenbyLiQingzhao（李清照，SongDynasty），wecouldseemanyfigureshadbeenusedintheoriginaltext，suchasgradationandrepetitioninthefirstthreelines.Repetitioncoulddoublethemeaningofthewords，andtherepetitionofsoundcreatedmoresorrowfeeling.Second，itusedgradationtodepictgraduallyfromoutsidetoinside，whichmakesreadersfeelthecharacter’sfeelingsnaturally.Thispoemhasbeentranslatedbymanyscholars.SuchasRexrothdid，herepeated“search”and“seek”inline1，“cold”and“clear”inline2，“sorrow”and“pain”inline3，whichisabnormalinEnglishgrammar，butitisfaithfultotheoriginaltextinform，andcreatethesamefunctionandeffect.

Anotherpoem“ManJiangHong”“满江红”byYueFei.Letsseethelines“怒发冲冠，凭栏处，潇潇雨歇”translatedbyXuYuanchong.“Wrathsetsonendmyhair，Ileanonrailingswhere，Iseethedrizzlingrainhasceased.”[6]Wewouldfindoutthatinthisthreelines，XuYuanchongtriedtokeepassamerhetoricalfiguresinthesourcetextaspossible.Inthetranslation，heused“setson”toemphasishowthewrathis，andtrytokeeprhymeintheend.Intheoriginaltext，thereisalsoyung-shih，howeveritmaycan’tbeshownclearly.Italreadyaccuratelyconveysthemeaningandsense.

Toaconclusion，rhetoricalfiguresarequitenormalinthel