How are the poetic devices metaphor and personification different? How does metaphor differ from personification?

Instructions

Epithets include figurative definitions that highlight an essential feature in the depicted phenomenon (gray-haired, bottomless sky). Metaphor is a word or expression used in figurative meaning based on the similarity of objects or phenomena according to a selected characteristic (avalanche of stars, wall of fire).

You can distinguish between an epithet and a metaphor by the way they are expressed by different parts of speech. Epithets can be expressed:

It is easier to compare Siberian larch with oak than with pine. For example, Venice stands on stilts built from larches, because Concrete piles cannot withstand such a load in water. But its wood is much more difficult to process than pine wood. It is about 30% denser and heavier. Carefully swipe wooden surface fingernail If there is a mark on it, then it is pine. It should be taken into account that the wood of Angara pine is denser than the wood of its “European relative”.

Consider one more point. In the same forest grow different pines and different larches, which vary greatly in appearance, and in their own way internal characteristics. A pine tree, for example, grown in sunny and high place, has drier and dense wood than those that grew up next to the swamps. The wood of this pine is softer.

To determine whether the wood belongs to a particular tree, use fire, taking all precautions. According to studies conducted by specialists from the Moscow State University Forests, an indicator of fire resistance of Siberian wood larches 2 times higher than that of ordinary pine wood.

Sources:

Properties of wood of various species and their Comparative characteristics

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which the meaning of a word is transferred from it to another word or phrase. The concept itself was invented ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

When people first learned to speak, nouns and verbs were enough for them. Then lexicon supplemented with adjectives. Everything could have been limited to this if it were not for man’s desire to decorate, decorate and diversify everything for his own pleasure. Well, the rain can't just be strong and cold. To complete the feeling, for an experienced speaker it will become icy, wintery, with scorching frosty drops. And its sound will not just be the rustling of fallen leaves under the janitor’s broom, but also ringing and gurgling across drainpipes and the drumming of the autumn march on the tin window sills.

Reading classic literature, a true connoisseur often admires beautiful similes and metaphors. It is they who make the printed publication not just information listing facts and actions, but an interesting literary work that awakens fantasy and imagination. How can you come up with this yourself?

To do this, just let go of your stereotypes, take a walk and listen to your own feelings. By the way, the phrase “let me go for a walk” is also a metaphor. To find an original metaphor, you need to imagine what it looks like that you want to beautifully describe in words. Don't be afraid to be the first and misunderstood. If one person can see chicken pox or a holey umbrella in the starry night sky, then another, after reading this metaphor, will definitely be able to imagine all this. If to some the thick fog seems like cotton candy, then to others, with a good imagination, they will even want to lick it. Just don’t write definitions using the conjunction “as” or “as if”, so that instead of a metaphor you don’t end up with an ordinary comparison. Let the description of nature creep over the road cotton candy fog, and overhead the black umbrella of the night sky extends into a small hole.

Oddly enough, metaphors are used in science as often as in creative research. But they take root stronger and more reliably after some time. This is explained simply - the name that is given initially takes root more easily than the one that is used to rename something. For example, the concept " electricity"was named so immediately as soon as scientists learned about it. No one can call the light wave anything else, although everyone knows that this is not at all the wave that we have known since birth.

There are a lot of metaphors that have been used for so long and often that they have already set the reading and listening public on edge. For example, “tired to death,” “blood moon,” or “nose of the plane.” But these expressions were also once unusual and original.

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Both metaphor and personification are similar, but different in their own ways. They most often personify an inanimate object, comparing it with a person, with a person. Metaphor is applicable to absolutely everything; it enhances and emphasizes the properties of an object or the character of a person, for example.

Metaphor is the transfer of meaning from one word to another according to the similarity of signs, - Pushkin expressed it while we are burning with freedom, and is a sign of metaphor, that is, we must explain to the alien that we strive and strongly desire freedom. And the personification this is a variety metaphors, here natural phenomena or inanimate objects are endowed with the properties of living beings. Yesenin mastered this brilliantly, - my dear hands are a pair of swans, diving in the gold of my hair.

There is so much in one... In the question, the personification in some hidden comparison, floats - moves with an air current. If clouds, like white geese, swam across the blue lake of the sky, then you can sort it out, but a lot of things can float and it’s not a fact - alive.

Personification is to some extent also a metaphor, but it is based

Personification is used to describe nature. This is probably the main one hallmark. You can see what examples of metaphors and personification are in the text of famous works here.

In order to distinguish metaphor from personification, let's look at the definitions of these two means of linguistic expression. Metaphor is a word or expression used in a figurative meaning, which consists of comparing objects or phenomena that have similar characteristics. Personification- this is a literary device in which behavioral features of a person’s character are assigned to inanimate objects based on the principle of similarity of manifestations. Metaphor and personification are artistic tropes.

Differences between metaphor and personification

In a metaphor, the transfer of meaning does not directly indicate the object being compared. Personification refers to the quality of a person or his action transferred to an inanimate object.
The metaphor has many meanings and in many cases can be interpreted differently due to the subjective perception of reality. The personification is clear.
Metaphor, compared to personification, has a more complex structure.

Expression the cloud is floating- This is a metaphor, not personification. Not only a person can float, but also an inanimate object (ship, boat, straw, plastic, etc.).

The main features of metaphors and personification have been known to us since school, but for clarity, I will give their brief definitions:

Metaphor call the use of a word or several words when the author applies a figurative meaning, guided by the similarity of one phenomenon or object to another according to any of the selected characteristics. For example: dawn of life.

Personification called a trope, the essence of which is that the author attributes to one or another inanimate phenomenon or object one or another property of a living being. For example: the wind howls.

As we see, metaphor and personification, in fact, are in hyperonymic-hyponymous lexical relationships. To put it simply, personification is a type of metaphor (very often a dry, petrified metaphor).

The cloud floats is not a personification, since not only can float Living being, but also a piece of paper, a straw or a burnt match. But since the main meaning of the verb to swim is to move on water or in water, and the cloud is not in the water, the combination cloud swim is a trope. This is a metaphor. Quite dry, worn out from a linguistic point of view.

A metaphor is just a strengthening of some quality of an object or hero of a story in order to emphasize this characteristic. And personification is when an initially inanimate or fictitious creature acquires the properties of a living person.

Example of personification: A birch tree in the forest began to whisper with other trees from the gentle swaying of the wind.

Example of metaphor: There was a birch whiter than snow, it was hard to watch. (the example is weak, but I hope you understand the logic).

Let's start with personification. Personification is an artistic device (trope) in literature when an inanimate object is endowed with the properties of a living being. For example: the icicle is crying (that is, melting) - the child is crying; the volcano woke up - the owner woke up; man rests - nature rests.

Metaphor, as an artistic trope, is based on the transfer of the properties of one object to another according to the principle of their SIMILARITY in something (there are some points of intersection in the lexical sense, function, form, color, etc. of two phenomena). Here are examples of metaphors:

1) in shape: a shock of hay - a shock of hair;

2) in direction, outline: the sole of the shoe is the sole of the mountain; mushroom cap - an elegant cap;

3) by function: our wiper is car wipers;

4) by color: pink petals-- rose-colored glasses, etc.

By by and large, personification is a type of metaphor, but it appears when inanimate object are attributed, as I noted above, to the qualities or actions of a living person. In my opinion, the concept of metaphor is much broader than personification.

The cloud floats - the ship floats. I would classify this phrase as a metaphor: just as a ship floats on the sea plain, so the cloud floats across the blue sky, similar to the ocean.

Personification and metaphor are tropes that are used to add expressiveness to a literary text.

Personification is understood as a technique when inanimate objects and animals are endowed with human traits and properties.

For example: Willow is crying.

Spring came.

Metaphor is understood as a technique when a word is used in a figurative sense to emphasize the similarity with another object or phenomenon.

For example: Golden braids.

Sunny smile.

Music of the waves.

The sentence A cloud floats is more related to metaphor; the cloud is compared to a ship. And not only animate objects can float, so this is not personification.

Metaphor and personification have, so to speak, the same function, but different meanings.

Personification (Personification) has the ability to revive inanimate objects, improving their quality. When, for example, some inanimate object can be brought to life in this way, example:

A Metaphor can paint everything Metaphor- this is the transfer of a phenomenon or objects of reality to others; there should be a contrast between them. Here's an example:

As for your question, the cloud floats, the answer will be different, depending on the sentence in which it is written.

Both of these relate to tropes and add poetic imagery to the narrative. It can be difficult to distinguish, but not for those who understand that personification is when the qualities or actions of a living person are attributed to an inanimate object - feel this definition.
- the window is breathing, a living pattern, the grove has dissuaded, time flies, the river has risen, the sound of waves, blind rage, the tongue is lame, etc.
And the metaphor is primarily built on associations of similar features, to some extent synonymous reinforcements:
- an icy heart, iron nerves, a diamond eye, a hare about a stowaway, a sunny smile, a golden grove, labyrinths of love, bronze muscles, etc.

To the question: What is the difference between metaphor and personification? given by the author Kosovorotka the best answer is METAPHOR - a type of trope (see), the use of a word in a figurative meaning; a phrase that characterizes a given phenomenon by transferring to it features inherent in another phenomenon (due to one or another similarity of the related phenomena), so to speak. arr. replaces him. The uniqueness of M. as a type of trope is that it represents a comparison, the members of which have merged so much that the first member (what was compared) is supplanted and completely replaced by the second (what was compared with), for example. “A bee from a wax cell / Flies for a field tribute” (Pushkin), where honey is compared with tribute and a beehive with a cell, with the first terms being replaced by the second. M., like any trope, is based on the property of the word that in its meaning it is based not only on essential and general qualities objects (phenomena), but also for all the wealth of its secondary definitions and individual qualities and properties. Eg. in the word "star" we, along with the essential and general meaning(celestial body) we also have a number of secondary and individual signs - the radiance of a star, its remoteness, etc. M. arises thanks to the use of “secondary” meanings of words, which makes it possible to establish new connections between them (a secondary sign of tribute is that its collect; cells - its cramped, etc.). For artistic thinking, these “secondary” signs, which express moments of sensory clarity, are a means of revealing through them the essential features of the reflected class reality. M. enriches our understanding of a given object, attracting new phenomena to characterize it, expanding our understanding of its properties. Hence the cognitive meaning of metaphor. M., like trope in general, is a general linguistic phenomenon, but takes on special meaning in fiction, since for a writer striving for the most concretized, individualized figurative display of reality, M. gives the opportunity to highlight the most diverse properties, signs, details of a phenomenon, bringing it closer to others, etc. The very quality of M. and its place in the literary style, naturally, is determined by specific historical class conditions. And those concepts with which the writer operates, and their secondary meanings and their connections with other concepts, reflecting to one degree or another the connections of phenomena in reality - all this is determined by the historically conditioned nature of the writer’s class consciousness, i.e., ultimately account of the real life process that he is aware of. Hence the class character of M., its various historical contents: different styles correspond to various metaphorical systems, principles of metaphorization; at the same time, the attitude towards M. is different within the same style, depending on the focus and characteristics of the literary skill, as well as within the work of one writer (Gorky’s metaphors in the story “The Old Woman Izergil” and in “The Life of Klim Samgin”), within one work (the image of an officer and the image of Nilovna in Gorky’s “Mother”), even within the deployment of one image (M.’s wealth, which characterizes Nilovna, in the last part of the book and their absence in the first). So. arr. M acts as one of the means of creating a given artistic image, and only in a specific analysis can the place, meaning and quality of metaphor in a given work, creativity, or style be established, since in metaphor we also have one of the moments of class reflection of reality. See "Trope", "Vocabulary".
PERSONIFICATION [or personification] is an expression that gives an idea of a concept or phenomenon by depicting it in the form of a living person endowed with the properties of this concept (for example, the Greek and Roman depiction of happiness in the form of a capricious goddess of fortune, etc.). Very often O. is used when depicting nature, where it is endowed with certain human traits and is “animated,” for example. : “the sea laughed” (Gorky) or the description of the flood in Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman”: “... The Neva all night / was rushing to the sea against the storm, / not defeating their violent foolishness... / and
Source: Literary Encyclopedia

Answer from 22 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: What is the difference between metaphor and personification?

Facilities artistic expression

Possible difficulties

Good advice

The text may contain words that already exist in the Russian language, reinterpreted by the author and used in an unusual combination for them, for example: spring language.

Such words can be considered individual author’s neologisms only if they acquire in this context some fundamentally new meaning, for example: vodyanoy - “plumber”, quartering - “to give grades for a quarter”.

In the example given, the word spring means “clean, unclogged” and is an epithet.

Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between an epithet and a metaphor.

The night bloomed with golden lights.

Metaphor is a figurative device based on the transfer of meaning by likeness, resemblance, analogy, for example: The sea laughed. This girl is a beautiful flower.

Epithet is special case a metaphor expressed in an artistic definition, for example: lead clouds, wavy fog.

The above example contains both a metaphor (the night was blooming with lights) and an epithet (golden).

Comparison as a figurative device can be difficult to distinguish from cases of using conjunctions (particles) as if, as if for other purposes.

This is definitely our street. People saw him disappear into the alley.

To make sure there is a figurative device in the sentence comparison, you need to find what is being compared with what. If there are no two comparable objects in a sentence, then there is no comparison in it.

This is definitely our street. - there is no comparison here, the affirmative particle is used exactly.

People saw him disappear into the alley. - there is no comparison here, the conjunction is like adding an explanatory clause.

The cloud was flying across the sky like a huge kite. The kettle whistled like a poorly tuned radio. - in these sentences comparison is used as a figurative device. The cloud is compared to a kite, the teapot to a radio.

Metaphor as a figurative device is sometimes difficult to distinguish from a linguistic metaphor, which is reflected in the figurative meaning of a word.

In physical education class, children learned to jump over a horse.

A linguistic metaphor is usually enshrined in explanatory dictionary as a figurative meaning of the word.

In physical education class, children learned to jump over a horse. - In this sentence, the horse metaphor is not used as a figurative device, this is the usual figurative meaning of the word.

The value of metaphor as a pictorial device lies in its novelty and the unexpectedness of the similarities discovered by the author.

And autumn tears off the fiery wig with the paws of the rain.

What is personification? Personification is the assignment of attributes of living beings to nonliving things. For example: tired nature; the sun is smiling; voice of the wind; singing trees; Bullets were singing, machine guns were beating, the wind was pressing our palms into our chests...; More and more bleakly, more and more clearly the wind is tearing the years by the shoulders.

Also included in the task:

Antithesis - opposition.

Gradation is a stylistic figure that consists of an arrangement of words in which each subsequent word contains an increasing or decreasing meaning.

An oxymoron is a combination of directly opposite words in order to show the inconsistency of a phenomenon.

Hyperbole is an artistic exaggeration.

Litotes is an artistic understatement.

Periphrasis - replacing the name of an object with a description of it essential features. For example: king of beasts (instead of lion).

Outdated words as a figurative device

Colloquial and colloquial vocabulary as a figurative device

Phraseologisms as a figurative device

Rhetorical question, rhetorical exclamation, rhetorical appeal

Lexical repetition

Syntactic parallelism

Incomplete sentences (ellipsis)

Epithets, metaphors, personifications, comparisons - all these are means of artistic expression that are actively used in the Russian literary language. There is a huge variety of them. They are necessary in order to make the language bright and expressive, enhance artistic images, and attract the reader’s attention to the idea that the author wants to convey.

What are the means of artistic expression?

Epithets, metaphors, personifications, comparisons refer to different groups means of artistic expression.

Linguistic scientists distinguish sound or phonetic visual means. Lexical are those that are associated with a specific word, that is, a lexeme. If means of expression covers a phrase or a whole sentence, then it is syntactic.

Separately, they also consider phraseological means (they are based on phraseological units), tropes (special figures of speech used in a figurative meaning).

Where are the means of artistic expression used?

It is worth noting that the means of artistic expression are used not only in literature, but also in various fields communication.

Most often epithets, metaphors, personifications, comparisons can be found, of course, in artistic and journalistic speech. They are also present in colloquial and even scientific styles. They play a huge role, as they help the author to realize his artistic concept, his image. They are also useful for the reader. With their help, he can penetrate into the secret world of the creator of the work, better understand and delve into the author's intention.

Epithet

Epithets in poetry are one of the most common literary devices. It is surprising that an epithet can be not only an adjective, but also an adverb, noun and even a numeral (a common example is second Life).

Most literary scholars consider the epithet as one of the main devices in poetic creativity, decorating poetic speech.

If we turn to the origins of this word, it comes from the ancient Greek concept meaning literal translation"applied". That is, it is an addition to the main word, the main function of which is to make the main idea clearer and more expressive. Most often, the epithet comes before the main word or expression.

Like all means of artistic expression, epithets developed from one literary era to another. So, in folklore, that is, in folk art, the role of epithets in the text is very large. They describe the properties of objects or phenomena. Make them stand out key features, while extremely rarely addressing the emotional component.

Later, the role of epithets in literature changes. It is expanding significantly. This means of artistic expression is given new properties and filled with functions that were not previously inherent in it. This becomes especially noticeable among the poets of the Silver Age.

Nowadays, especially in postmodern literary works, the structure of the epithet became even more complex. The semantic content of this trope has also increased, leading to surprisingly expressive techniques. For example: the diapers were golden.

Function of epithets

The definitions epithet, metaphor, personification, comparison come down to one thing - all these are artistic means that give prominence and expressiveness to our speech. Both literary and colloquial. The special function of the epithet is also strong emotionality.

These means of artistic expression, and especially epithets, help readers or listeners to visualize what the author is talking or writing about, to understand how he relates to this subject.

Epithets serve to realistically recreate historical era, defined social group or people. With their help, we can imagine how these people spoke, what words colored their speech.

What is a metaphor?

Translated from ancient Greek, metaphor is “transfer of meaning.” This characterizes this concept as well as possible.

A metaphor can be either a separate word or a whole expression that is used by the author in a figurative sense. This means of artistic expression is based on a comparison of an object that has not yet been named with some other one based on their common feature.

Unlike most other literary terms, metaphor has a specific author. This is a famous philosopher Ancient Greece- Aristotle. The initial birth of this term is associated with Aristotle’s ideas about art as a method of imitating life.

Moreover, the metaphors that Aristotle used are almost impossible to distinguish from literary exaggeration (hyperbole), ordinary comparison or personification. He understood metaphor much more broadly than modern literary scholars.

Examples of the use of metaphor in literary speech

Epithets, metaphors, personifications, comparisons are actively used in works of art. Moreover, for many authors, metaphors become an aesthetic end in themselves, sometimes completely displacing the original meaning of the word.

As an example, literary researchers cite the famous English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. For him, what is often important is not the everyday original meaning of a particular statement, but the metaphorical meaning it acquires, a new unexpected meaning.

For those readers and researchers who were brought up on the Aristotelian understanding of the principles of literature, this was unusual and even incomprehensible. So, on this basis Leo Tolstoy did not recognize Shakespeare’s poetry. His point of view Russia XIX century, many readers of the English playwright adhered to.

At the same time, with the development of literature, metaphor begins not only to reflect, but also to create the life around us. A striking example from classical Russian literature is Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's story "The Nose". The nose of the collegiate assessor Kovalev, who went on his own journey around St. Petersburg, is not only a hyperbole, personification and comparison, but also a metaphor that gives this image a new unexpected meaning.

An illustrative example is the futurist poets who worked in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Their main goal was to distance the metaphor as far as possible from its original meaning. Vladimir Mayakovsky often used such techniques. An example is the title of his poem “A Cloud in Pants.”

Moreover, after October revolution The use of metaphor became much less frequent. Soviet poets and writers strived for clarity and straightforwardness, so the need to use words and expressions in a figurative sense disappeared.

Although it is impossible to imagine a work of art, even by Soviet authors, without metaphor. Almost everyone uses metaphor words. In Arkady Gaidar's "The Fate of a Drummer" you can find the following phrase - "So we parted ways. The stomping has stopped, and the field is empty."

In Soviet poetry of the 70s, Konstantin Kedrov introduced the concept of “meta-metaphor” or, as it is also called, “metaphor squared”. The metaphor has a new one distinguishing feature- she is constantly involved in development literary language. As well as speech and culture itself as a whole.

For this purpose, metaphors are constantly used when talking about the latest sources of knowledge and information, they are used to describe modern achievements humanity in science and technology.

Personification

In order to understand what personification is in literature, let us turn to the origin of this concept. Like most literary terms, it has its roots in ancient greek language. Literally translated it means “face” and “do”. With the help of this literary device, natural forces and phenomena, inanimate objects acquire properties and signs inherent in humans. It’s as if they are animated by the author. For example, they can be given the properties of the human psyche.

Such techniques are often used not only in modern fiction, but also in mythology, religion, magic and cults. Personification was a key means of artistic expression in legends and parables, which explained to ancient people how the world works and what is behind natural phenomena. They were animated, endowed human qualities, were associated with gods or supermen. This made it easier for ancient man to accept and understand the reality around him.

Examples of avatars

Examples of specific texts will help us understand what personification is in literature. Thus, in a Russian folk song, the author claims that "bast is girded with grief".

With the help of personification, a special worldview appears. It is characterized by an unscientific understanding of natural phenomena. When, for example, thunder grumbles like an old man, or the sun is perceived not as an inanimate cosmic object, but as a specific god named Helios.

Comparison

In order to understand the main modern means artistic expression, it is important to understand what comparison is in literature. Examples will help us with this. At Zabolotsky we meet: "He used to be loud, like a bird"or Pushkin: "He ran faster than a horse".

Very often comparisons are used in Russian folk art. So we clearly see that this is a trope in which one object or phenomenon is likened to another on the basis of some characteristic common to them. The purpose of comparison is to find in the described object new and important properties for the subject of artistic expression.

Metaphor, epithets, comparisons, personifications serve a similar purpose. The table, which presents all these concepts, helps to clearly understand how they differ from each other.