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Personification

 
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Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.

The term "personification" may apply to:
  1. A description of an inanimate object as being a living person or animal as in: "The sun shone brightly down on me as if she was shining for me alone". In this example the sun is depicted as if having the possibility for intent and if referenced with the pronoun "she" rather than "it".
  2. The act of personifying.
  3. A person or thing typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or exemplification: "He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative" (Ralph Ellison).
  4. An artistic representation of an abstract quality or idea as a person, for example the four cardinal virtues
    Cardinal virtues

    In some Christian traditions, there are four cardinal virtues:*Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time...
     or nine Muses.


front of the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is the largest municipal public library in the United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use...
]] The pathetic fallacy
Pathetic fallacy

The pathetic fallacy or anthropomorphic fallacy is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations....
 is the generalization of personification which applies to any description of inanimate objects or abstractions imbuing them with human-like traits.






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Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.

The term "personification" may apply to:
  1. A description of an inanimate object as being a living person or animal as in: "The sun shone brightly down on me as if she was shining for me alone". In this example the sun is depicted as if having the possibility for intent and if referenced with the pronoun "she" rather than "it".
  2. The act of personifying.
  3. A person or thing typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or exemplification: "He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative" (Ralph Ellison).
  4. An artistic representation of an abstract quality or idea as a person, for example the four cardinal virtues
    Cardinal virtues

    In some Christian traditions, there are four cardinal virtues:*Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time...
     or nine Muses.


Similar figures of speech

" in front of the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is the largest municipal public library in the United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use...
]] The pathetic fallacy
Pathetic fallacy

The pathetic fallacy or anthropomorphic fallacy is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations....
 is the generalization of personification which applies to any description of inanimate objects or abstractions imbuing them with human-like traits. Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of uniquely human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, natural and supernatural phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts....
 is a particular form of personification which gives such traits to tangible objects or natural phenomena. These are allusive
Allusion

An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, mythology, or work of art, either directly or by implication....
 figures of speech called tropes
Trope (linguistics)

In linguistics, trope is a rhetoric figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e., using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form....
. An example is " the sun smiled a warm smile," or "the table and chairs danced across the floor in the earthquake."

Personification is not to be confused with prosopopoeia
Prosopopoeia

A prosopopoeia is a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object. The term literally derives from the Greek language roots meaning "a face, a person, to make"....
, which is the act of a speaker or writer narrating as another person or some other object. An apostrophe
Apostrophe (figure of speech)

Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a talker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea....
 is where one addresses a personified or anthropomorphized object.

See also


  • Description
    Description

    amin is the bestDescription is one of four rhetorical modes , along with exposition, argumentation, and narration. Each of the rhetorical modes is present in a variety of forms and each has its own purpose and conventions....
  • National personification
    National personification

    A national personification is an anthropomorphism of a nation; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations of the majestic wisdom and war goddess Minerva/Athena, and often took the Latin name of the ancient Roman province....
  • Father Time
    Father Time

    Father Time is a personification of time. He is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, dressed in a robe, carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device ....
  • Mascot
    Mascot

    The term mascot ? defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck ? colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or Brand....
  • Heraldry
    Heraldry

    Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
  • metaphor
    Metaphor

    Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
  • alliteration
    Alliteration

    Alliteration is the repeated occurrence of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in the same phrase. Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sound anywhere in a string of words, not just the initial sound as is in alliteration....


External sources


  • Unknown, . . Poetry As We See It. 1 June 2003. ThinkQuest. 30 May 2008.