Text and Rhetoric

1. Text and Rhetoric • Text building- sentence, sentence group,text • Features of discourse

2. Study the paragraph • Generally speaking, people tend to stare at persons who are extremely unusual, say, the charmingly beautiful ones, the fairly ugly ones and the rather disabled ones. Since the father was short, severely crippled, and when they walked along the street, the father leaned on his son for balance, it is not strange for the father and the son to be the center of the attention.

3. Study the paragraph • To my knowledge, a “good heart” refers to the good nature of a person, which involves the aspects as follows: To begin with, he is kind with the people around him, thinking as much of others as of himself. Besides, he is honest in dealing with any affairs. He has a strong sense of what is right and wrong. And best of all, he is ready to help when someone is in trouble or in need of his help.

4. Text building • sentence : the highest rank of grammatical unit and also the basic linguistic unit of a text • a study of the text : beyond the realm of grammar and into the field of rhetoric and pragmatics • Sentence: the basic linguistic unit of a text, not meant that the text is directly composed of individual sentences • sentences first organized into sentence groups • sentence groups organized into a text • the sentence group: between the sentence and the text there is an intermediate textual unit

5. Sentence group • The sentence group: a meaningful unit composed of sentences organized in an orderly sequence • a sentence : a grammatical unit • stand alone and express a relatively complete idea • be by no means constitute a “complete thought” • If we want to express a more complicated idea or “a complete thought”, we will have to organize a group of sentences into a larger unit. • the sentence group:a larger meaningful unit than the sentence • a number o f such meaningful units constituting a text.

6. Sentence group/paragraph • not equivalent • paragraph :normally larger unit • A short paragraph may consist of only one sentence group, but a fully developed paragraph is usually composed of several sentence groups. • Do you agree to the idea that the text is made up of three ranks of components-the sentence, the sentence group, and the paragraph? • depends on whether a text is divisible into paragraphs or not • focus on a central idea

7. Topic sentence group • Single sentence group only one sentence group • Multi-sentence group : more than one sentence group. • A text: normally with a topic sentence or sentence group supporting and supporting sentences or supporting sentence groups • a topic sentence or sentence group stating its central idea, and supporting and supporting sentences or supporting sentence groups centering around the topic sentence group to develop or expand the topic of the text

8. The topic sentence group :usually at the beginning of a text, but sometimes delayed till the end • The key words or expressions in the topic sentences group usually determine the way in which the supporting sentences or sentence groups are organized so as to make the text as unified and coherent as a text should be.

9. Ordering of Information • Another striking feature of the capital’s squares and parks are the plane trees. The plane tree can reach 35 meters in height and has leaves similar to those of the maple. It has a vigorous and robust habit and highly resistant to cold and air pollution.These features make it an ideal choice for city parks in northern Europe.

10. Ordering of information • 用英语写作时， 信息的组织方式与讲话方式通常相同。 用与已提及过的内容相关的信息引导句子， 能增强篇章的流畅性，使读者更容易理解篇章。而新信息一般不要置于句首。

11. End –focus principle • A striking feature of the central areas of the capital are the elegant classical squares which were originally laid out by aristocratic developers in the eighteenth century. • 句首使用冗长的分句会使句子显得笨重， 难于理解。

12. Discourse Devices • Furthermore, similarly, in addition, on top of this, what is more • You can save yourself a full five per cent of interest with our new credit plan,. Furthermore, we are offering no repayments for a real to customers who sign up before the end of this month.

13. Discourse Devices • However, nevertheless, on the other hand • Your counsel has made a convincing case in mitigation, Mr Belgrave. Nevertheless, we feel that in a case of this gravity the only appropriate option is a custodial sentence. • Consequently, it follows from this, for this reason, as a result, so • Your repayments are now three months in arrears. Consequently, we have no option but to withdraw credit facilities immediately.

14. Discourse Devices • Then, after that, an hour later, finally, at last • The troops trudged for weeks through the snowy wasters. Finally, as they were nearing the point of exhaustion, they saw the faint lights of the city on the horizon.

15. Figure of speech • Simile （明喻）: as, like, seem, like, as though • The moon is like a silver coin. • Childhood is like a swiftly passing dream. • Metaphor （暗喻） • The road of life has many turns. • Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound. • Personification （拟人） • The hungry flames tore up the buildings faster than anything I had seen. • The gentle breeze caressed my cheeks and soothed my anger.

16. Figure of speech • Hyperbole （夸张） • I will love you until the sky falls and the sea runs dry. • I’ll be damned if I’ll! • Euphemism （委婉语） • Pregnant : in the family way • Foolish : unwise • Irony （反语） • How great you are to lord it over a small nation! • Antithesis （对偶） • Well begun, half done! • Idle young, needy old. • United we stand, divided, we fall. 团结则立， 分裂则亡。

17. Figure of speech • Metonymy （转喻） • The power of pen is mightier than sword. • The kettle boils. ( the kettle= the water in the kettle) • Gray hairs should be respected. • Analogy （类比） • Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flower. • 明智的赞扬对孩子的作用， 犹如阳光对于花朵的作用一样。 • Forest s are to nature what the lung is to man. • 森林之于大自然， 就像肺之于人一样。

18. Figure of speech • Synecdoche （提喻） • More hands are needed in the work. • 这项工作需更多的人。 • There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in his character. 他既残暴又狡猾。 • He has five mouths to feed. 他要养活5 口人。 • Paradox （反论） • The child id the father to the man.从小看大 • More haste , less speed. • Oxymoron (矛盾修辞法） • Sour-sweet days 苦涩而甜蜜的岁月 • Poor rich man ，Living death 死一般的活着 • Creative destruction创造性的破坏，

19. Figure of speech • Pun (双关） • We must hang together, or we shall hang separately. • 我们必须团结在一起， 不然我们简将被一个个被绞死。 • Contrast （对照） • He is rich in goods, but poor in spirit. • 他物质丰富， 但精神贫乏。 • Parallelism (排比） • Studies serves for delight, for ornament, and for ability. • Alliteration (头韵） • They have returned home, safe and sound. • Ideological education is part and parcel of our education programme. 思想教育是我们教育方案的组成部分。

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