Transliteration is an often-used and effective rhetorical device as well as a method of pronunciation-based translation. Choice of Chinese characters is free thanks to the dominance of homonyms in the Chinese language. After a detailed summary and analysis of the rhetorical functions which are shared by all transliterated words, or specific of pure transliterated words or homophonic transliterated words, it is reached that different choice of Chinese characters in foreign language-Chinese transliteration leads to different rhetorical functions of being pleasant to the eyes, humorous and fashionable.