Alliteration is an important term in English stylistics. Alliteration is one of the means of English phonetic rhetoric. It contains the beauty of music and the neatness of language, which makes the language sound and emotion blend, sound and meaning integrate, and has strong expressive force and appeal. It is helpful for us to understand and appreciate this figure of speech to analyze and discuss it from three aspects: scope of application, structural characteristics and aesthetic value.
English alliteration, also called vowel rhyme, or alliteration, is transformed from the Latin phrase ad literam, which means that two or more words have the same initial letter, forming a pleasant pronunciation. The most common alliteration phrases are: first and foremost, (with) strength and foremost, saints and sinners, (in) happiness and (or) sadness.
2. The meaning and function of alliteration;
(1) History of alliteration: If we trace the origin of alliteration, I'm afraid alliteration can be traced back to Old English. Around the fifth century, Anglo-Saxon invaders brought Anglo-Saxon to the British, which is the basis of modern English. Perhaps even then, they also brought a new form of poetry, whose main feature is the frequent use of alliteration.
(2) The alliteration around you
(1) Poetry
Examples of alliteration are common in poetry, such as: John, an English metaphysical poet? The title of john donne's poetry collection Songs and Sonnets itself uses alliteration techniques. Love is the basic theme expressed in this poem. The poet even thinks that the essence of love is the combination of soul and body, pointing out that spirit alone is not enough and not perfect. This concept is remarkable, because it is completely opposite to the medieval concept of focusing only on the spirit rather than the human body. British poet William? William blake wrote a work entitled The Wedding of Heaven and Hell. In this work, prose and poetry go hand in hand and discuss the relationship between two extremely contradictory things. Scottish poet Robert? Robert Burns has a famous poem, the title of which is "Ah, my love is like a red rose" ("My love is like a red rose"). The last three words of the poem are connected by three R letters, which rhymes beautifully and inexpressibly. In the west, even in many big cities in China, roses have become a symbol of love. 999 roses are sung in popular songs to give to their lovers, and street flower sellers pray that every day is Valentine's Day, so that they can sell sky-high roses every day. Although this situation may not be entirely caused by Burns' poem A Red Rose, this poem must have played a lot of roles in the evolution of roses as a symbol of love.
American poet Edgar? Allen. Edgar Allan Poe once fell in love with his classmate's mother when he was a child, and wrote a short poem "To Helen", which he described as "a poem written in my passionate childhood, the first pure and ideal love in my soul". At the beginning of the poem, this woman is called the beauty Helen, saying that in the eyes of the poet, her beauty is like the bark of an ancient victory, slowly crossing the fragrant ocean and bringing the homeless home. This poem is written as follows: "Helen, your beauty is to me/like the ancient Nicaean bark,/the gentle, fragrant sea,/the tired, poor tramp walks to his hometown coast". Here, the worn, poor tramp (the tired tramp suffers from wandering) are three examples of alliteration that begins with W. An example of the alliteration of three W's in English is the grand opening sentence of Shelley's famous poem "ode to the west wind": Ah, the wild west wind, you are the breath of autumn. In Shakespeare's works, examples of alliteration abound: cunning confusion, fantasy of fame and fortune, happiness and joy, describing the grand occasion, idiomatic ways, misplaced materials and crazy rotating words. Maybe it's because the alliteration is beautiful and easy to remember, British novelist Jane? The titles of Austin's two novels are alliteration: Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. People who fall in love often suffer between reason and emotion. The English of this sentence is "tearing between reason and emotion".
(2) Prose
In prose, people often use alliteration skills to increase literary talent. Francis Bacon, a famous English essayist, used the pleasure of having fun in Jealousy, pointing out that a nosy person is watching the pleasure of others watching white plays. The politician's Sobersort is also used to remind us to pay attention to those politicians who are thoughtless and sober. When they are prominent, they will sigh that they have a miserable life. Waves and weathers are used for nobleness, and they think that the weather-beaten and timeless aristocrats are respectable, because the nouveau riche is made by power, while the hereditary aristocrats are made by time. The Secret Expansion of the Ocean is used to incite rebellion and trouble, warning that, just like the strong wind and undercurrent before the storm, there are omens before a country's political rebellion. Bertrand Russell, an English mathematician, philosopher and writer, wrote an autobiography. In the quotation of the book, the publisher used a phrase "a granular and lasting reason" (a special and lasting reason) to explain that Russell has always had great charm in his life for more than 90 years, especially for young people. One of the special and lasting reasons is his tireless work. The quotation also uses comparable combination of qualities (balanced combination of qualities) and alliteration phrases to explain why Russell is respected. In Russell's autobiography, I also read many examples of alliteration, such as: deliberate design, lonely spirit, doomed dark fate, darkest despair, painful attack, saints and saints, stupid fear, mere worldly misfortune, daily pursuit and happiness, mixed public and private events, and so on.
(3) newspapers and periodicals
This alliteration technique is also widely used in British and American newspapers. Let's take a look at some examples of Newsweek. For example, in the twenty years after World War II, James Reston, a journalist who was very popular in the new york Times, was called the Prince of Printing by Time magazine. In addition, a Malaysian woman writer established the international status of Malaysian literature with her novel Mama Mi, and was called the mother of Malaysia by Time magazine. In the United States, some advertised heart drugs, such as diuretics, actually cost only a few cents, so the reporter of Time magazine called it hypertension hype.
(4) Daily life
It should be pointed out that even in our daily life, alliteration is widely used, and we often encounter examples of alliteration inadvertently. We often say that "monks from afar can recite the scriptures", and English is an excellent example of alliteration: the long-distance birds have beautiful feathers; Say someone is "kind and evil", English is a beautiful face with a dirty heart; Say "drunken nonsense", English is when the wine is heavy, the words swim; There is also an alliteration proverb that I like very much: a closed book is just a piece of wood (a book that is not opened for reading is no different from a piece of wood). This reminds me of a scene in American novelist F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby: In Gatsby's private library, a drunken middle-aged man marveled at the books there, saying that they were not books with titles painted on thick cardboard, but real printed materials with page numbers and everything a book should have, and they were put in the right place. It was the 1920s in the United States, and it was called "Dollar Decade". A large number of "nouveau riche" made a fortune by taking risks. They don't have much education, but they like to be arty and put a ranking in their library as decoration. According to the scenes in the novel and many practical situations in society, I try to make some adjustments to the above proverb: a closed book is a decorative block. Nowadays, one of the conditions for many people to choose a spouse is to require the object to be both "talented" and "interesting". If talents and interests are expressed in English, you can use alliteration: "a person full of wisdom and humor." If you meet a smart and witty man, don't miss the opportunity to marry him. You see, this is another example of alliteration with three W's. Not long ago, one of my doctoral students saw that I was writing a short paper on alliteration, and told me that there is a very good saying in Sichuan that what flies in the sky, runs on the ground and swims in the water is called "sea, land and air", which should be translated into "feathers, feet and fins" in English. This is a good example of alliteration. I heard that people ask this question when ordering food in foreign restaurants now. In translation, the proper use of alliteration can add a lot of color to the translation. In the bidding report for the Shanghai World Expo, the original text reads "Shanghai has rapidly developed into a city full of vitality and hope". We translate it into: "Shanghai has rapidly developed into a city full of vitality and shows great potential." Among them, the "dynamic" translation uses alliteration skills.
(5) Examples of alliteration in literary masterpieces
1. Hogwarts: A History "The History of Hogwarts"
One of Lockhart's works.
2. Destination, determination, delivery target, determination and calmness
This is the secret of the success of many young wizards.
3. Myrtle's crying gold digger
This is a very important name. When Harry was in Grade One and Grade Two, she made many plays.
4. polyjuice potion, polyjuice potion
Eating this will change people's appearance. It is said that this is Snape's favorite.
5.the patron saint Potter, the patron saint of Potter
One of the first spells Harry learned was that he could summon his patron saint, which was very powerful.
6. marauder's map marauder's map
A map of Hogwarts made by Harry's father and his friends at school was originally used as a prank, which helped Harry a lot.
7. Triwizard Tournament Triwizard Tournament
This is the title of Chapter 12 of Book Four, which tells the most wonderful story of this book in detail.
-all quotations from Harry Potter ("Harry? Porter ")
(6) Examples of alliteration in FLTRP's new senior high school English textbooks.
1. They have a city twinning agreement. -Book 3 Module 2
This is an agreement between towns of similar size. This is the place where the city and the town argue. )-Volume III Module 2
Live with a foreign family for a week. )-Volume III Module 2
4. Fur and Feather-Volume 3 Module 3
Sandstorms are dry and strong winds that carry sand. A sandstorm is a dry strong wind that carries sand. )-Book 3 Unit 4
6. Sandstorms sometimes surprise people. Sandstorms can sometimes surprise people. )-Book 3 Unit 4
7. Swimming and sunbathing-Volume 3 Module 7
8. Steep Side-Volume 4 Module 5
9. When we passed through a hilly area, the sun was shining brightly. It was sunny, so we went down the river from the mountain. )-Book 4 Unit 5
10. We can see the sun setting behind the white Pogoda. We can see the white color after sunset. )-Book 4 Unit 5
A tall tree (a big tree)
Steep slope-Book 4 Unit 5
13. Symbol, Power and Feeling (Symbol, Power and Feeling)-Volume IV Module 6
It can be seen that the alliteration with s as the initial rhyme is the most.
3. Conclusion
We think that English will be more interesting if we pay a little attention to the use of alliteration in our composition. Generally speaking, alliteration is used properly, just like a fairy spirit, which blows away the original dry and monotonous things and makes the language and written articles more vivid. If high school students can use alliteration and other figures of speech in their compositions, they will certainly attract the attention of marking teachers and get high marks. Due to the limited ability, it is suggested to use the alliteration starting with S (because there are more words starting with S).