English proverbs are concise and expressive. Emphasis sentences are widely used in English proverbs because of their clear focus. According to ideographic needs, the emphasized components are flexible.
General emphasis
1 key points of flip chip structure
The use of inverted structure emphasizes the balanced structure and prominent emphasis of English proverbs. Inverted sentences in English proverbs often put the parts that need to be emphasized at the front, so they are particularly emphasized. It can not only highlight the semantic key points, but also balance the sentence structure and avoid top-heaviness. For example:
There is truth in wine. The heart is seen in wine.
He who has nothing is happy.
In the above example, example (1) emphasizes adverbial; Example (2) emphasizes predication, making the sentence structure balanced and the key semantics prominent.
2 General "IT" focus
This kind of sentence usually uses "It is(was)+ emphasis +that/who+? 6? 8 "as the carrier, highlighting the main part of the sentence. In English proverbs, the emphasis is generally on the subject. This kind of stressed sentence is easy to understand and will not cause any ambiguity. For example:
(3) A heart that never rejoices is sad. I didn't know there was joy in the world.
Only a foolish sheep can confess to a wolf. Never tell the secret to the enemy. In addition, there is a double negative structure, such as never too old to learn.
(b) with particular emphasis on
The biggest feature of this kind of sentence is irony, which is easily confused with the above-mentioned "general' it' emphasis" and causes misunderstanding. Therefore, we must understand its characteristics and carefully consider its meaning. For example:
What is not good for anyone is bad wind. No matter how bad the wind is, it won't make everyone uncomfortable. Misunderstanding: The bad wind makes everyone uncomfortable. )
A wise man never makes mistakes. Even smart people sometimes make mistakes. (Myth: Smart people never make mistakes. )
(7) The alley without turning is very long. Roads don't always turn and things don't stay the same. (Myth: The road is long, but Xiu Yuan doesn't turn. )
A father who knows his children is a wise father. A father may no longer know his son. (misunderstanding: a wise father knows his son. )
A bold mouse will nest in a cat's house. No brave mouse will settle in the cat's ear. Taking unnecessary risks is not true courage. Myth: Only a brave mouse will settle in a cat's ear. )
To sum up the above examples, this ironic emphatic sentence actually implies concession, and its ironic meaning needs to be analyzed from the context or the logic of the proverb itself (pay attention to distinguish it from the general "it" emphasis). In short, the semantics of such sentences can be understood as: the part after the semantic negation of "that". For example, in (5) and (6), the part after "that" is negative, and its practical significance is affirmative; Example (7), (8) and (9) are the opposite.
Second, ellipsis
Ellipsis is a grammatical means to avoid repetition, highlight key words and make the context closely related. In English proverbs, highly compressed ellipsis is quite common because of its colloquial characteristics. In these ellipsis sentences, sometimes only the head words that need to be emphasized and highlighted are kept, and the rest are omitted. But the premise of ellipsis is that the expression is unambiguous. Omitted sentences are particularly concise in structure, more prominent in semantics and greatly enhanced in expressive ability.
(A) common ellipsis
There are few omissions and obvious omissions in this sentence structure, such as repeated parts, auxiliary words, be verbs, have and other simple entity verbs. For example:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Everyone goes back to their own state.
(12) finder, discoverer, owner. The lost search, the found possession.
Obviously, in the example (10), the repeated component "bird" is omitted after "two" to make the sentence more concise; However, in the examples (1 1) and (12), the commonly used predicate verbs "has" and "is" are omitted to facilitate readers' understanding, thus making the sentences "abbreviated".
(2) Special Ellipsis Sentence This kind of sentence is a symmetrical compound ellipsis sentence in form, and its meaning essentially expresses the content of the master-slave compound sentence. English proverbs are short, pithy and catchy. Because of their weaknesses, such as long sentences and complex structures, complex sentences often need to be tempered. Many English proverbs often use coordinate complex sentences to express the content of master-slave complex sentences.
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