CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ……………………………………… 1\1.1 A Historical Overview of Rhetoric ………………………………… 1\1.2 Background of the Study ………………………………………… 8\1.3 Research Methodology ………………………………………… 10\1.4 Signif icance of the Study ……………………………………… 11\1.5 Structure of the Study …………………………………………… 11\CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………… 14\2.1 Previous Studies on Phonetic Rhetoric ……………………… 14\2.2 Previous Contrastive Studies on Phonetic Rhetoric ………… 18\2.3 Previous Studies on the Translation of Phonetic Rhetoric … 22\2.4 Summary ………………………………………………………… 28\CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL BASIS ………………………… 30\3.1 Relevance Theory ……………………………………………… 30\3.2 Text Type Theory ………………………………………………… 37\CHAPTER FOUR A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND\CHINESE PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS …………………………… 42\4.1 Heterology of Languages ……………………………………… 42\4.2 Phonetic Aspects of Heterology ……………………………… 42\CHAPTER FIVE A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND\CHINESE PHONETIC RHETORICAL DEVICES …………………… 52\5.1 Contrastive Analysis: An Introduction ………………………… 52\5.2 Onomatopoeia vs. Mosheng (摹声) ………………………… 53\5.3 Rhyme …………………………………………………………… 63\5.4 Homophonic Puns vs. 谐音双关 ……………………………… 80\CHAPTER SIX TRANSLATION OF PHONETIC RHETORICAL\DEVICES ………………………………………………………………… 88\6.1 Translatibility …………………………………………………… 88\6.2 The Translation of Phonetic Rhetorical Devices ……………… 96\CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION …………………………………… 134\Bibliography …………………………………………………………… 138