ONMETAPHORINTHECOPANDTHEANTHEM
Since the1960s and1970s,metaphor became the focus of study in phi-losophy.As early as in the ancient Greece,metaphor had been widely used in some genre like myth and poetry.Research on metaphor could be traced back to Aristotle’s"On Rhetoric"in more than2,000years ago.He defined metaphor,and even gave a meticulous narrative of its types and nature as well as function.Aristotle believed that metaphor is"a matter to the names of other things,"and that metaphor is a rhetorical device,mainly used in literary works.As the study went deep in terms of philosophy,psychology,sociology, linguistics,literary criticism,and so on,the limitations of Aristotle’s view be-came increasingly apparent.People’s comprehension of metaphor also under-went dramatic change.It is not only a kind of rhetorical device,but also a cog-nitive mode for people to understand,think and express other things with their acquaintance of one thing.Richards held that our world is a projected world, and the formation of metaphor which is a process of conversion of the word meaning,is set up on the basis of the metaphor.afterwards,Max black made a big success in the study of metaphor.His essay"metaphor"is acclaimed as a milestone in the study of metaphor.Metaphor in China was also studied by scholars,but only confined to its rhetorical function.Some other interdisci-plinary research has been under way but on its starting stage in recent years, and it appears very shallow compared with the study in Western countries. Metaphor is not seen only in terms of the word level,but also a discourse phe-nomenon,namely to understand its implications under the specific context.
O.henry is a great master of the art of fiction.His works aimed at soothing injured minor person in the world,are known as“smiling with tears",or"hu-morous Encyclopedia on people’s life in the united states at his time.One of his stories named"the cop and the Anthem"is the case in point.it is one of his best stories,the story tells a poor,unemployed and homeless outcast who commit all kinds of crimes intentionally in order to get into the prison in an is-land,which is a ideal place for him to live in.he made several attempts,but failed to reach his absurd goal.The moment he made up his mind to be good, he got arrested by a cop without reason.This story takes“soapy”as a typical image and exposes the extreme poverty of lower-ranking people from New York of the United States as a representative during that period,and condemns the injustice of the society toward the underprivileged,revealing the strong contrast between the material and spiritual civilization as well as political civ-ilization.The most important characteristic of this story is its humor which O. henry shows throughout the whole story in various expressing form.Its humor-ous and ironic wording along with rich rhetoric devices all contribute to reveal the essence of the novel.In this novel,humor find its strongest expression in those metaphors.this paper is the preliminary exploration of its unique lan-guage style and to see how the author express his unique humor through all kinds of metaphors to provoke people’s deep thought of the story.Next we will discuss it from the following aspects:
1.It is not difficult to find out one metaphor throughout the whole story, which is“island”.For example:
(1)Just as his more lucky fellow new Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Riviera each winter,so soapy had made his humble ar-rangements for his yearly stay on the island.
(2)It seems that his route to his dreamed island was not to be an easy one.
(3)The young woman had but to make a gesture with her hand and soapy would be practically on the way to his heaven on the island.
In The above examples,we couldn’t find the tenor”Prison”in the whole story,instead the author use vehicle“island“directly.Let’s take a look at the following examples:
(4)Would never a policeman lay hands on him?in his fancy the island
seemed an arcadia he could never reach。
(5)The total would not be so high as to call forth any revenge from the cafémanagement:and yet the meat would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter refuge.
In the above two examples,the author further liken prison to"arcadia”and winter refuge”.Arcadia is located at the middle of Baltic Peninsula,where people live an idyllic life.Winter refuge is a place to keep the chilliness away in winter,so both of the two terms are positive words,good place to live.Prison is a place to cage the criminals,nevertheless here prison turn out to be a place that soapy yearn to get in,because he can get his belly filled everyday without starvation,and a shelter for sleeping,without suffering the chilliness of the winter.It seems a good place for people to get into the prison.Island may de-prive him of his freedom,but at least he can have something to eat,but the poor lived a dogged life out of prison,so they actually can’t live a free life as they wish.Seemingly,these metaphors set us laughing,and we would think that soapy must be out of his mind,hoping to get into a prison.A person in his right mind would never have such thought,but on a second thought,it’s not that hard to figure out the reason.through the metaphor the author’s style of “smiling with tears”are fully displayed.
2.The author uses a great number of personifications,that is to say,to add human characteristics to non-living things.For example:
（6）And then to the waiter he told the fact that the smallest coin and himself were strangers.
Let’s look at the sentence“coin and himself were strangers”.
coin is not a human being,because soapy is poor,who rarely see coin,let alone to have some coins,so here coin are compared to strangers,which means that soapy never had any money,even the smallest coin.
（7）A dead leaf fell on soap’s leg.That was Jack Frost’s card.Jack is kind to the regular people of Madison square,and gives fair warning of his an-nual call.At the corners of four streets he hands his card to the north wind,the male servant of all outdoors,so that the people there may get ready.
In the example(7),the author use two personifications,the first one is "Frost"in Chinese which means“霜冻”,but here the author likened it to a person.The second one is the north wind which is also given a human’s char-acteristic.it become the male servant of all outdoors,the author compare the first fallen leaf in the winter to a card which frost(winter)send to the homeless inhabiting in the park,informing them of the arrival of the winter.The card (the leaf)borrows the force of wind to achieve this,it’s quite funny to read and fully display the author’s humor as well.
(8)For years,the hospitable Blackwell’s had been his winter quarters.
Blackwell is an island where the prison is located,and we know that a place can’t be generous or hospitable,but here it possibly mean that the prison accommodates many criminals or people there and provide them with food to eat and bed to sleep,so in soap’s eyes,the Blackwell is like a hos-pitable host.for one thing the personification there add to the humor of the story,for another thing,it set people reflecting on the nature behind those fun-ny aspects,figuring out what’s wrong out there in his society.
(9)The umbrella owner slowed his steps.Soapy did likewise,realizing that luck would again run against him.The policeman looked at the two curi-ously.
In order to get into the prison,soapy did a variety of evil things,to which the police turned a blind eye,soapy can’t realize his dream to the island,so here“luck”an abstract none is compared to a human being who always work against soapy.
3.We can also find lots of metaphors which come from myth,legend,and
ON METAPHOR IN THE COP AND THE ANTHEM
广西师范大学外国语学院曾慧
[Abstract]This paper discusses the development of metaphor and people’s all kinds of view toward it.O.henry is the famous short story writer of critical realism.He is well-known for his humorous language.The cop and the anthem is one of such representative.The thesis aims to analyze the metaphors in the novel,appreciating how the author makes use of such rhetoric device to achieve humorous effect,so that the author's unique writing style is fully brought to its play,making this story classic work.
[Key words]metaphor humor the cop and the anthem
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象征。人们对数字13忌讳、恐惧到了这种地步:不能13人同桌吃饭,请客、开会等不能只有13人;举行重大活动避开13号那天,高层建筑、旅馆等隐去13的编号;电梯不停在13层;医院更不敢设第13病床和病房,如此等等。
5、数字сорок“40”
数字сорок(40)在俄语中古时有“一批”之意,零碎的物品和毛皮被
看做是成批的。
例如,在西伯利亚成批成批地卖黑貂皮:按每捆40个(能够做一个毛皮大衣)或成捆成捆地装袋。人们常说:Дорогитвоисорок
соболей,анаправдуценынет。此外,сорок还有много
“许多”之意,泛指某物之多。在昔日莫斯科,东正教堂比比皆是,以致有сороксороков的说法来形容古代莫斯科教堂之多。А.Толстой在长篇小说《彼得大帝》中就曾描写过莫斯科教堂的盛况:Всесороксороковмосковскихзабилинабат。
在以上各例中，数词在该表达语句中已失去数字含义，已成为语言文化单位,是民族文化的一部分,包藏着深厚的文化底蕴。它们能够以不同方式反映俄罗斯民族的历史、宗教、迷信、禁忌等习俗以及俄罗斯民族的语用心理。（李发元，1995：46-47）学习和研究“数”，应注意其深层的文化背景知识,以便准确地把握“数”的内涵意义,揭示其民族文化
的特点。
参考文献
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（上接第537页）the natural circumstances as well as social culture in which the author had
lived,like other culture,all those things have their distinct national identities,reflecting a nation's cultural psychology.For example:
(10)as Caesar had his Brutus,every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath,every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition.
At first read,we may not get the main meaning of this sentence,we do not know much about the Western culture,so we can ’t conjecture the author ’s implication here from the metaphor.In ancient Greek culture .Caesar was murdered by the Roman aristocracy politicians Brutus,the metaphor convey the nature of municipal and all various charitable institution,whose philan-thropists are the same as the murderer,Brutus,who let soapy lose his dignity and freedom.
(11)Just as his luckier fellow New Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Riviera each winter,so soapy had made his humble ar-rangements for his yearly stay on the island.
The author must be very familiar with the phenomenon that New Yorkers would buy tickets to the Palm Beach each year in winter,but foreign readers may not know their living style.The author makes use of this phenomenon around him to produce the analogy.
(12)Because he wanted to fall into their hands,they seemed to regard him as a king who could do no wrong.
"A king who could do no wrong ”
is a proverb from the British.In china,even if the king is the most powerful person in a kingdom,he will do wrong,after all no one can be all right all his life,but in England,their king would never be wrong in their mind.Soapy try many crimes,but failed to fall into ar-rest by police.It seems that the police there take him as a king who would never be wrong,from which we can sense the arbitrariness of the law in his society.
4.Author use many similes in the story as well,that is to say,in a
metaphor,with the word
“as,like or seems ”and so on in it.For example:(13)don ’t you figure it out that I might have had some thing to do with it?“Said soapy,not without sarcasm,but friendly,as one greeted good fortune.
Soapy throws stones at the glass windows in a shop,and he thought this time he would realize his aspiration to his dreamy island,so he didn ’t run away.Reversely,he waited there anticipating to be arrested like some one who would hit his good luck.The simile conveys soap ’s eagerness to be catched at this moment.
(14)He arose,joint by joint,as a carpenter's ruler opens,and beat the dust from his clothes.Arrest seemed but a rosy dream.
the authors used two metaphor;the first one is ”when he arose,joint by joint,as a carpenter's rule opens ”.The Second one is ”the arrest seemed but a rosy dream ”.The former vividly describes soapy ’s action,and the later one show us that every time when soapy who desired to be arrested all ended up in a failure.The rosy dream may be beautiful,but difficult to achieve.If we go any further to appreciate this metaphor,it is not difficult to find out the impli-cations behind .arrest become a dream.When we laugh aloud at soapy ’s thinking,and don ’t you think it ’s absurd?
5.Beside the simile easily found in the text,we can also find many other metaphors here.the metaphor here in Chinese mean “暗喻”,which is one type of ”隐喻”in English.We can ’t find any marker “as,like or seem ”in it.For example
(15)The moon was above,bright and peaceful;vehicles and pedestrians were few;sparrows made some sleepy sounds in their nests -for a little while the scene might have been a country churchyard.
Through the description of the surrounding environment,visual scene,
"the moon,vehicles,pedestrians,"and acoustic "some sleepy sound ”
,the au-thor displays us a scene,just like “a country churchyard ".we know that"a country churchyard ”is a desolate scene,which make people feel more lonely.In this society there are no footholds for the poor.
(16)He would pull himself out of the deep mud.Author likens his tragic situation to "deep mud ”.First of all,let us look at the similarities between them.Soapy is one member of the society,and he lives in the bottom of the society,but He want to get out of that life,like some one trapped in deep mud.
6.Plants also here are used to make metaphor as well.For example:
(17)"no cop for you,"said the waiter,with a voice like butter cakes and an eye like the cherry in a Manhattan cocktail,"hey,con!"
(18)The young woman held soapy tightly just as ivy clung to his oak.The author use plants like cherry in a Manhattan and ivy to produce metaphors to describe the waiter and young women's movements and attitude.This vivid description actually pictures us the whole scene and we even can imagine the ridiculous situation that soapy is in.
In short,Metaphor widely used in ”the cop and the anthem ”
,make the entire story more stunning,language more expressive and lively,and at the same time all those together reflect O.herny ‘s unique writing style,humorous ,witty ,bitterly ironic.When readers laugh out loud at the story,they will nev-er fail to put themselves in the character ’s shoes,thinking his thinking,and
feeling for themselves people ’
s suffering and misery at that time,which further adds to reader ’s understanding of the work as a whole.This short story is greatly acclaimed,and become classic story,because of the writer ’s unique writing style as well as his experience toward his society.
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