Questions tagged [personification]

Personification is the rhetorical practice of applying human traits or demeanor to non-human objects through metaphor, simile, synecdoche, idioms or other figures of speech.

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Question about literary devices (probably personification)

Is there any literary device? I suspect that the part with "relationship" is connected with personification. From: https://www.britishtours.com/greenwich-tours. The Museum packs a treasure ...
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Is this lyric a metaphor?

From a Swedish song (translated): Standing at your door, just standing still A minute ago, you were mine A third of who I was goes home Because one is crushed, one is yours This is the end of our ...
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What is a word for the thing or idea that something personifies?

For instance, I am writing a paper in which I am arguing that the Ancient Greek mythological Harpies originated as personifications of the Sirocco (dry wind from the Sahara). The Harpies are the ...
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Personification appropriateness

Is it appropriate to say that an inanimate object, such as a wall, can ‘perform a job‘? I thought as there is no physical task occurring, as the wall is passive, that the more correct phrase would be ...
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Question about the literary device personification

But what I miss, Among these mahua trees, When merrily I pace, Is the beholding pleasure Of her face. This is a stanza from a poem.I would like to know if 'beholding pleasure'could be an example of ...
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these data of yours [duplicate]

"These personal data of yours will be shared with authorized public institutions and organizations." Is this sentence correct?
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Is "My teeth chatter" a form of personification? [closed]

Is the phrase "my teeth chatter" (due to the cold) an example of personification? Teeth can't literally chatter, but they can make a chattering noise, so I am a bit torn on this one.
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851 views

Using Verbs With Inanimate Objects

I have two ways to write the same sentence: The writing sings. The writing is musical. To me, the first sounds a lot better. It's better, I think, because I'm using a verb to describe what the ...
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Can a model or hypothesis "assume?"

The model assumes such and such. The hypothesis assumes such and such. In scientific writing, I commonly see similar phrases indicating the construction or use of a model with an assumption. It is so ...
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1 answer
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Is it personification to say that something inanimate requires something? [closed]

I personally do not think this is personification but can find no guidance one way or the other that is specific enough. If someone has advice or better yet a link to guidance proving one way or the ...
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

Hate people touching or using his things [closed]

What do we call a person who don't share his or her personal belongings or things with others? or hate people touching his things
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How to describe a person who has many faces inside him [closed]

I need a phrase to describe a person who has many faces such as good, bad, pure soul, kind but also evil. A person who can't be judged or categorised.
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3 answers
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Is this an example of personification?

"It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower people I had ever met." (John Muir) If so, what part? I know saying "flower people" makes it personification but there are a few other parts of this ...
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Reverse personification [duplicate]

Personification is an object or a thing described with a human-like aspect (eg. The Sun smiled at me). Can personification also be used to describe a human with an aspect from an object? For example,...
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What do you call an animal being 'personified' as another animal? [closed]

I was reading a poem earlier entitled 'A walk on the Beach' by Margaret Scott (I do not believe I fully understand the poem but that is not meant for here so), but one phrase was 'the crabs writhe. I ...
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What do you call a person who is different from the people in his community

When we look at a particular community we have a sort of opinion about the people of that community . There are sevaral things which sort of generalise people from a community or caste like whether ...
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Why does Joseph Addison use 'her' to refer to 'soul'?

I’m reading an article by Joseph Addison, The Tatler #108, dated December 17, 1709. He says: The finest authors of antiquity have taken him on the more advantageous side. They cultivate the ...
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Would 'Storm clouds gathering' be considered as an example of personification?

I came across this phrase in school and I became quite confused with whether it should be seen as a personification or not. It may be a collocation but does that mean it can't be a personification? '...
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In personification, the vehicle is always _____ [closed]

personification - the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/personification ...
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1 answer
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Is 'tangle' anthropomorphisim?

I wondered if describing bushes as a 'tangle', whether it is a form of personification. (if it is it would be anthropomorphism). As humans frequently get tangled, surely this is just a word that we ...
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2 answers
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Is this pathetic fallacy or a different type of literary technique?

In the novel I am currently reading, it is said that someone hits the iron: "...raining blows down on the victim" I originally thought that this was pathetic fallacy, as the author is using the ...
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1 answer
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Personification of a Vehicle and it's sleeves

Normally, to describe something which has special abilities or something secret, we use the phrase Something up its sleeve or something similar to that. Now, if I had to say the same thing about a ...
4 votes
3 answers
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Must "Eldest" Always Apply To People?

If you have a collection of things that are related to one another, can you use "eldest" to denote the oldest, or should that term only be used with respect to people? Another question on this site: ...
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Word for giving animal characteristics (esp. physical ones) to humans

I am writing a paper about Art Spiegelman's Maus, specifically the metaphor that Spiegelman creates by depicting his obviously quite human characters with the heads of various animals, or a couple ...
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Equivalent for "personify" that's not human-specific

I'm looking for a word that is similar to personify, but that would imply it has life-like qualities, rather than human-like. For example, I am discussing the fact that a self-driving car, if ...
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15k views

Personification of cold [closed]

I'm looking for terms that personify cold. For example, 'the cold bit at my nose'. They will be part of a post/article on the cold weather, so the more options the better. Edit: see comments below, ...
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2 votes
3 answers
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Looking for an English word or personality associated with "quality", "humour", and "elegance" [closed]

I am looking for an English word or famous personality or anyone famous who can be associated with quality, funny and elegant. If I could find all three qualities in a single subject that would be ...
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2 answers
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Are these examples of personification?

I have two sentences that I think use personification: You find your voice by feeding your mind with your passions. and This apathetic culture that we live in is silencing our voices. Am I ...
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What to call a person who doesn't respect personal space? [closed]

What would you call a person that doesn't care for your personal space and is kind-of sticky and doesn't get the hint that people are awkward around him/her and generally avoid him/her?
3 votes
10 answers
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Is "The Walking Dead" a personification?

Personification (or anthropomorphism) is attributing human features to non-humans. Technically, a dead human is not a human and we give the attribute of walking to the dead. So, Is "the walking ...
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Possession and personification

Is the act of possessing an example of personification if attributed to inanimate objects? Here, "possession" means the possession of physical things as well as the possession of virtues or qualities ...
2 votes
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638 views

Term that means making humans look inanimate

Keeping personification as a related (yet opposite) concept, is there a term that means "to give humans lifeless or inanimate appearance"? For example, in a recent photo shoot, the photographer ...
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3 answers
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Who is whose sister or brother? [duplicate]

You might like our sister site, English Language Learners I have read this time and time again in replies to users who ask questions which are not a good fit for EL&U but are so for ELL. I am ...
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When does "nature" require an article and why? [duplicate]

I was wondering about a sentence like this: If nature were to design a bicycle, how would it look? Is nature missing an article? Should it be a nature or the nature, or is it correct as is? If a ...
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Anthropomorphism vs Personification usage

There seems to be a large overlap in the definitions of Anthropomorphism and Personification and they are somewhat interchangeable, but in what context is one of these words preferred over another? ...
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