Personification is the endowment of inanimate objects with the signs and properties of a person [... Star speaks to star (L.); The earth sleeps in a blue radiance... (L.)]. Personification is one of the most common tropes. The tradition of its use goes back to oral folk poetry (Don't make noise, mother, green oak tree, don't disturb me, good fellow, from thinking...).

Personifications are used to describe natural phenomena, things surrounding a person that are endowed with the ability to feel, think, act

A special type of personification is personification (from Latin persona - face, facere - to do) - complete likening of an inanimate object to a person. In this case, objects are not endowed with private characteristics of a person (as in personification), but acquire a real human appearance:

Allegory

Allegory (Gr. allēgoria - allegory, from allos - other, agoreúo - I say) is the expression of abstract concepts in specific artistic images. For example, in fables and fairy tales, stupidity and stubbornness are embodied in the image of a Donkey, cowardice in the image of a Hare, and cunning in the image of a Fox. Allegorical expressions can receive an allegorical meaning: autumn has come can mean “old age has come.”

Individual author's allegories often take on the character of an expanded metaphor, receiving a special compositional solution. For example, A.S. Pushkin’s allegory underlies the figurative system of poems “Arion”, “Anchar”, “Prophet”, “Nightingale and Rose”; at M.Yu. Lermontov - poems “Dagger”, “Sail”, “Cliff”, etc.

Metonymy

Metonymy (from the gr. metonomadzo - to rename) is the transfer of a name from one object to another based on their contiguity. For example: Porcelain and bronze on the table (P

The metonymy of definitions is of interest. For example, in Pushkin the combination of over-starched impudence characterizes one of the secular guests. Of course, in terms of meaning, the definition overstarched can only be attributed to nouns that name some details of a fashionable dandy’s toilet, but in figurative speech such a transfer of the name is possible. In fiction there are examples of such metonymy (Then a short old man with astonished glasses came. - Boone

Antonomasia

A special type of metonymy is antonomasia (gr. antonomasia - renaming) - a trope consisting in the use of one's own name in the meaning of a common noun. A strong man is sometimes figuratively called Hercules. The use of the words Don Quixote, Don Juan, Lovelace, etc., in a figurative sense, has become firmly established in the language.

The names of famous public and political figures, scientists, and writers also acquire common meaning [We all look to Napoleons... (P.)].

An inexhaustible source of antonomasia is ancient mythology and literature.

However, antonomasia, based on rethinking the names of historical figures, writers and literary heroes, still retains its expressive power. Publicists use this trope most often in headlines.

Synecdoche

A type of metonymy is synecdoche in the use of the name of a part instead of the whole, a particular instead of a general, and vice versa. (A yellow leaf flies inaudibly from the birch trees.) (Free thought and scientific audacity broke their wings about the ignorance and inertia of the political system

An epithet (from the gr. epitheton - application) is a figurative definition of an object or action (The moon makes its way through the wavy fogs, it pours a sad light onto the sad meadows. - P.).

There are exact red viburnums

(golden autumn, tear-stained windows),

Epithets are most often colorful definitions expressed by adjectives

The creation of figurative epithets is usually associated with the use of words in a figurative meaning (cf.: lemon juice - lemon moonlight; a gray-haired old man - gray-haired fog; he lazily waved away mosquitoes - the river lazily rolls waves).

Epithets expressed in words that have figurative meanings are called metaphorical (A golden cloud spent the night on the chest of a giant cliff, in the morning it rushed off early, playing merrily across the azure ... - L.).

The epithet may be based on a metonymic transfer of the name; such epithets are called metonymic (... The white smell of daffodils, the happy, white spring smell... - L. T.). Metaphorical and metonymic epithets refer to tropes [cardboard love (G.); moth beauty, tearful morning (Ch.); blue mood (Cupr.); wet-lipped wind (Shol.); transparent silence (Paust.)].

PERSONALIZATION -I; Wed 1. to Personify (1 digit). and Personify. O. forces of nature. 2. An image of something. elemental force, a natural phenomenon in the form of a living being. Dove - oh. peace. 3. what. The embodiment of an idea, concept, etc. Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary

Personification is a rhetorical figure that allows you to endow inanimate objects with properties, qualities and characteristics of a person. Another name for personification is personification. This literary device is based on the mechanism of projection, which helps to transfer certain human qualities to inanimate objects.

Increasingly, in literature one can find personification when describing nature and its phenomena. For example, in the construction “the wind whispers,” human properties are attributed to a natural phenomenon. In literature, this artistic technique helps to add color and expressiveness to speech.

How to find an avatar?

When analyzing the text, pay special attention to the person to whom certain properties and qualities are attributed. In personification, this object is not a person. It is an animal, a natural phenomenon, a plant, etc. It is this object that is endowed with human qualities, thanks to which the reader can even better imagine the object and its qualities.

What is personification used for?

What are the next challenges?

• Giving the text expressiveness. Personification is used in fiction and scientific literature for a reason. Personification attracts the reader’s attention and helps to better understand the essence of the work.
• Development of imagination. Comparing inanimate objects with a person helps to more colorfully imagine the picture being described and feel the lines read.
• Education. It is much easier for children and adolescents to remember the image and properties of an object if it is endowed with the qualities of a person. For example, in fairy tales and fables there are many personifications, due to which children’s interest in the work and, consequently, their learning ability increases.

Where is impersonation used?

Personification can be found in fairy tales and myths. When describing a real or imagined event, the writer uses personification to give expressiveness to the text. In myths, personification helps to further explain the essence of what is read. That is why in myths there are so many examples of works where human qualities were attributed to oceans, seas, plants and inanimate objects.

Personification is also often found in other fiction. Thus, Tyutchev often used personification to better convey natural phenomena. For example, in his work there is the line “No matter how hot the noon breathes.” Here, humanity attributes a quality to noon, which gives every reason to call this phrase personification.

Personification does not appear very often in scientific literature. In such texts, personification is used as a stable expression.

Examples

Personification occurs in colloquial speech. For example, it is present in all familiar phrases: “it is raining”, “winter has come”, “clouds are running”, “the wind is howling”, “the blizzard is angry”, etc.

In folk poetry, personification occurs in the following lines:

• "The trees tremble joyfully, Bathing in the blue sky"
• "The trees sing, the waters sparkle"
• "The blue sky is laughing"
• “Silent sadness will be comforted”

Personification is a powerful artistic technique that allows you to give even a scientific text brightness and expressiveness. Moderate use of this speech flap helps to better understand the essence of what you read.

Personification - this is the endowment of inanimate objects with living qualities!

Personification - a verb used in a figurative meaning, which transfers the action of a living creature to other objects. For example, nature has become quiet; the grass is sleeping.

In the poem “Here the wind is driving the clouds,” A.S. Pushkin talks about winter as about a person, about a living being. For example, it [winter] came, lay down, flattened it, and plays pranks. This personification.

Personification - bringing an inanimate object to life

Personification - an artistic technique based on endowing inanimate objects with human qualities and feelings.

And so they start whispering trees between each other : white birch with another white birch from afar echo; a young aspen came out into the clearing like a green candle, and calls to him the same green aspen candle,waving a twig; bird cherry gives a branch to bird cherry with open buds. (M.M. Prishvin.)

Close to comparison and personification metaphors . Metaphors can rightfully claim a dominant role among all tropes.

The basis of any metaphor is an unnamed comparison of some objects with others.

Metaphor - a hidden comparison, which is based on the figurative meaning of the word, the conjunction (as, as if, as if) is absent, but is implied.

In the garden red rowan bonfire burns, but he cannot warm anyone (S.A. Yesenin).

A particularly striking means of expressive speech areextended metaphors.They arise when one metaphor entails new ones that are related to it in meaning.

The grove dissuaded golden birch cheerful language (S.A. Yesenin).

What is an epithet

Epithet (from Old Greek ἐπίθετον - "attached") -definition with a word, affecting its expressiveness. Expressed predominantlyadjective , but also adverb (“to love dearly”),noun (“fun noise”), numeral (“second life”).

An epithet is a word or an entire expression, which, due to its structure and special function in the text, acquires some new meaning or semantic connotation, helps the word (expression) gain color and richness. It is used both in poetry (more often) and in prose. Many writers use epithets (T.G. Shevchenko, I. Franko)

Epithet - this is a figurative definition that gives an artistic description of a phenomenon or object. An epithet is a comparison and can be expressed as an adjective, a noun, a verb or an adverb.

Epithet - this is a bright figurative definition, for example: golden autumn, blue sea, snow-white winter, velvet skin, crystal ringing.

What is comparison

Comparison - trope , in which one object or phenomenon is compared to another according to some characteristic common to them. The purpose of comparison is to identify new, important, advantageous properties for the subject of the statement in the object of comparison.

In comparison, the following are distinguished: the object being compared (object of comparison), the object with which the comparison takes place (means of comparison), and their common feature (base of comparison, comparative feature,lat. tertium comparisonis ). One of the distinctive features of comparison is the mention of both objects being compared, while a common feature is not always mentioned. Comparison should be distinguished frommetaphors .

Comparisons are typical forfolklore .

There are different types of comparisons:

Comparisons in the form of a comparative phrase formed with the help of conjunctions as if, as if, exactly: “The man is stupid as a pig, but cunning as the devil.” Non-union comparisons - in the form of a sentence with a compound nominal predicate: “My home is my fortress.” Comparisons formed using a noun in the instrumental case: “he walks like a gogol.” Negative comparisons: “Trying is not torture”

Comparison is a figurative expression based on a comparison of two objects or states that have a common feature.

...black eyebrows, like mourning velvet,his pale features were set off (N.V. Gogol).

The comparison could be

• comparative turnover (reflectedlike in a mirror; like a bird,he dived between the branches) joins with the help of unionsas, exactly, as if, as if, as if, like, that;
• complex sentence with comparative clause (You will freeze on the shore of a puddle,like a rock in the sky holds you, and below – blue.);
• a combination of a verb and a noun in the instrumental case (creeps snail);
• comparative form of adjectives, adverbs (A bush creeps out of the darkness,furry bear cub.)

Comparisons can be direct (And the leaves run along the path,like yellow mice from a cat...) and negative:

It is not the wind that rages over the forest,

Streams did not run from the mountains:

Moroz the voivode on patrol

Walks around his possessions...

(N.A. Nekrasov)

D. Ushakov believes that personification is a type of metaphor. In essence, this is how it is. Personification is the transfer of properties of living things to inanimate objects.. That is, inanimate objects (objects, natural phenomena, physical manifestations, etc.) are identified with living ones and “come to life.” For example, it is raining. Physically he cannot walk, but there is such a turn of phrase. Other examples from our daily life: the sun is shining, the frost has struck, the dew has fallen, the wind is blowing, the outbuilding is rotating, the tree is waving its leaves, the aspen is trembling... Yes, there are many of them!

Where did this come from? It is believed that the progenitor of personification - animism. The ancient ancestors of man tended to endow inanimate objects with “living” properties - this is how they sought to explain the world around them. From the belief in mystical creatures and gods such a wonderful visual means as personification grew.

We are not particularly interested in the details of what personification is and what its varieties are. Let professional literary scholars sort this out. It’s much more interesting for poets how personification can be used in a work of fiction and, among other things, in poetry.

If you open any poem describing nature, you will find many personifications in it. For example, try to find all the personifications in S. Yesenin’s poem “Birch”:

White birch

Below my window

Covered with snow

Exactly silver.

On fluffy branches

Snow border

The brushes have blossomed

White fringe.

And the birch tree stands

In sleepy silence,

And the snowflakes are burning

In golden fire.

And the dawn is lazy

Walking around

sprinkles branches

New silver.

You see: there are no simple, philistine, primitive personifications here that we are accustomed to using in everyday life. Every personification is an image. This is the meaning of using personification. The poet does not use it as a “thing in itself”; in his poetry, personification rises above the “worldly level” and moves to the level of imagery. With the help of personifications, Yesenin creates a special picture. Nature in the poem is alive - but not just alive, but endowed with character and emotions. Nature is the main character of his poem.

How sad look against this background the attempts of many poets to create a beautiful poem about nature, where “the wind blows”, “the moon shines”, “the stars shine”, etc. forever. All these personifications are hackneyed and worn out, they do not generate any imagery and, therefore, are boring.

But this does not mean that they cannot be used. And the erased personification can be raised to the level of an image. For example, in the poem “It’s Snowing” by Boris Pasternak:

It's snowing, it's snowing.

To the white stars in a snowstorm

Geranium flowers stretch

For the window frame.

It's snowing and everything is in turmoil,

Everything starts to fly -

Black staircase steps,

Crossroads turn.

It's snowing, it's snowing,

It's like it's not flakes that are falling,

And in a patched coat

The firmament descends to the ground.

As if looking like an eccentric,

From the top landing,

Sneaking around, playing hide and seek,

The sky is coming down from the attic.

Because life doesn't wait.

Before you look back, it’s Christmas time.

Only a short period,

Look, there's a new year there.

The snow is falling, thick and thick.

In step with him, in those feet,

At the same pace, with that laziness

Or at the same speed

Maybe time is passing?

Maybe year after year

Follow as the snow falls

Or like the words in a poem?

It's snowing, it's snowing,

It's snowing and everything is in turmoil:

White pedestrian

Surprised plants

Crossroads turn.

Notice how many personifications there are here. “The sky is coming down from the attic,” steps and an intersection that take flight! The “surprised plants” alone are worth it! And the refrain (constant repetition) “it’s snowing” takes simple personification to the level of semantic repetition - and this is already a symbol. The personification “It’s snowing” is a symbol of the passing of time.

Therefore, in your poems you should try use personification not just on its own, but so that it plays a certain role. For example, there is an excellent example of personification. The prologue describes the wind circling over St. Petersburg, and the entire city is shown from the point of view of this wind. The wind is the main character of the prologue. No less remarkable is the image of the title character of Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Nose”. The nose is not only personified and personified (that is, endowed with human personality traits), but also becomes a symbol of the duality of the main character. Another excellent example of personification is in the lyrical poem by Mikhail Lermontov “A golden cloud spent the night...”.

But personification should not be confused with allegory or anthropomorphism. For example, endowing an animal with human traits, as in Krylov’s fables, will not be personification. Of course, allegory is impossible without personification, but this is a completely different means of representation.