The Aesthetic Values and Causes of Transferred Epithet
Abstract
Transferred epithet, as an important rhetorical device, has been studied by many scholars and great contributions have been made by them. Transferred epithet is a figure of speech where an epithet is transferred from the appropriate noun to modify another to which it does not really belong. It can create various aesthetic values when it is used in a specific context. Transferred epithet can not only create the beauty of fuzz and the beauty of image, but also create the sense of humor and the beauty of nihility. Moreover, the aesthetic beauty can also be felt from miscollocation of Words. There are mainly two causes for transferred epithet: psychological and logical causes. From the angle of the formation of transferred epithet, it is generated on the basis of psychological function of “empathy”, while empathy is mainly founded on the psychological mechanism of Association, especially “Association by Similarity”. However, from the angle of psychology, transferred epithet belongs to “Figures Based on Contiguity”. So it is certain that the psychological base of transferred epithet is associative activities mainly. As to logical base, it includes three aspects: the unconventional collocation, the deep structure and the presupposition. Transferred epithet belongs to unconventional collocation. Like other rhetorical devices, unconventional collocation can create something that is uncommon to all. From the deep structure of transferred epithet, its internal language meaning can be tenable. At last, transferred epithet doesn’t excess the domain regulated by semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition no matter how it is transferred. This thesis will discuss the aesthetic values and causes of transferred epithet in detail.
Key Words: transferred epithet; aesthetic values; psychological cause; logical causes; unconventional collocation; deep structure
摘要
移就，作爲1種重要的修辭手法，已被許多學者研究過，這些學者對此做出了很大的貢獻。 移就是1種詞格，把屬於形容甲事物的修飾語移屬於乙事物。它1旦被用於特定的語言環境中，就能創造出不同的美感。 它不但能創造朦朧美和意象美，也能創造出幽默感和虛無美。此外，它還能創造錯位美。移就的生成基礎主要有心理基礎和邏輯基礎。從移就的構造基礎來看，它是在“移情”的基礎上產生的，而移情主要建立在聯想的基礎上，特別是“相似聯想”。但是，從移就的心理基礎看，它又屬於“鄰接聯想”。由此可見，移就的`心理基礎主要是基於聯想。移就的邏輯基礎包括異常搭配、深層結構而後前提。移就屬於異常搭配，與其他修辭手法1樣，移就別出心裁，其效果也就特別有力。從移就的深層結構來看，其內在的話語意義是可以成立的。最後，修飾語可以從甲移到乙的的另1個重要的原因，是它不管怎麼移來移去都沒有超越語義前提與語用前提所規定的範疇。這篇論文將詳細討論移就的審美價值和生成基礎。
關鍵詞： 移就、審美價值、 心理基礎、 邏輯基礎、 異常搭配、 深層結構