“移就”为什么可能?

Why is transferred epithet possible?

作为一种修辞格,"移就"是有意识地把只能用于描写"人"的修饰语用来描写"事物"。以往研究通常认为,之所以可以发生这样的"移就",是因为主体这时的感情和心境"映射"到相关的事物中。我们认为更合理的解释是描写语表示的是该事物的一种心理属性;心理属性是一种涌现属性。这一认识可能为移就及其他一些修辞格的研究提供新的分析工具。

Transferred epithet is a figure of speech in which the epithet is transferred from an appropriate noun to modify another to which it does not readily belong.Traditional rhetoric holds that in this figure of speech it is the 'mapping' of the subject's feelings that makes the transfer possible.Nevertheless,to our understanding this may only be a superficial interpretation of the phenomenon.The property expressed by the epithet might be one of the properties of the object itself.To be more exact,it is not a physical property but a mental one.Mental property is a kind of emergent property.It is hoped that this new understanding,enlightened by the recent research in the philosophy of the mind,may bring new light to the study of this figure of speech,and to that of other rhetorical expressions as well.