--- title: "Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy" description: "I want to show what I've learned about metaphor, simile, personification and metonomy. I hope you wi..." author: "MarinaKaunova" published: "2013-02-16T08:57:34+00:00" modified: "2013-02-16T08:58:27+00:00" locale: "ru" canonical_url: "https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-personification-metonymy-328251" markdown_url: "https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-personification-metonymy-328251/markdown" site_name: "Yvision.kz" --- # Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy > I want to show what I've learned about metaphor, simile, personification and metonomy. I hope you wi... I want to show what I've learned about metaphor, simile, personification and metonomy. I hope you will enjoy it. **METAPHOR** The term "metaphor" as the etymology of the word reveals, means **transference of some quality from one object to another.** The idea that metaphor is based on similarity or affirnity of two corresponding objects or notions. A metaphor states that A is B ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](http://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/0lfxon62D77057eHFM1O1d8fRL5zv0.png) Metaphors can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. are quite unpredictable, are called **genuine** metaphors. Those which are commonly used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are **trite **metaphors, or dead metaphors. Structurally can be: -Simple -Prolonged -Mixed ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/93fYV7ygaw5yaXGYB2SUgn0226NYox.jpg) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/8jq9lqqu3SmN9uWlz5hgCI94iniCFA.jpg) Metaphors are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in comparison with something we don't know to get a better understanding of the unknown. It makes speech, phrases more vivid. **SIMILE** Simile - the imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to different classes. A simile states that A is like/as B. Simile man shows us what we use in simile)) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](http://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/167gIIl7ydRYzS7D0mBmTHo7xEd9VA.png) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/9khdn6VEPYU6xg55oT7fc9xmrXFO1x.jpg) Sematically similies can be as a metaphor: - genuine, based on some fresh analogy between two things. - trite, the original figurative meaning of which has been forgotten due to the overuse ( blind as a bat, as sick as a dog) Structurally similes can be: - ordinary -disgiused ( to resemble, to seem, to look like, to appear) - prolonged ( A - B, B, B ) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/HAkSXnJZI29mBr4M9LD4bfW5g6o511.jpg) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/wzDNF0zGrHJOwabXAK19jejp4Sthhl.jpg) **Observations on the Differences Between Similes and Metaphors** - "Writers sometimes use **similes** and metaphors to help create a vivid image in the reader's mind. A simile compares two things using the word *like* or *as*. Simile: My father grumbles like a bear in the mornings. A metaphor also compares two things, but it does not use the word *like* or *as*. Metaphor: My father is a bear in the mornings. (*English Language Arts Skills & Strategies: Level 8*, Saddleback, 2005) - "The **simile** sets two ideas side by side; in the metaphor they become superimposed. It would seem natural to think that simile, being simpler, is older." (F.L. Lucas, *Style*. Macmillan, 1955) - "A **simile** is also a metaphor; for there is little difference: when the poet says, 'He rushed as a lion,' it is a simile, but 'The lion rushed' [with *lion* referring to a man] would be a metaphor; since both are brave, he used a metaphor [i.e., a simile] and spoke of Achilles as a lion. The simile is useful also in speech, but only occasionally, for it is poetic. [Similes] should be brought in like metaphors; for they *are* metaphors, differing in the form of expression." (Aristotle, *Rhetoric*, Book Three, Chapter 4. Translated by George A. Kennedy, *Aristotle, *On Rhetoric*: A Theory of Civic Discourse*. Oxford University Press, 1991) - "**Simile** and Metaphor differ only in degree of stylistic refinement. The Simile, in which a comparison is made directly between two objects, belongs to an earlier stage of literary expression: it is the deliberate elaboration of a correspondence, often pursued for its own sake. But a Metaphor is the swift illumination of an equivalence. Two images, or an idea and an image, stand equal and opposite; clash together and respond significantly, surprising the reader with a sudden light." (Herbert Read, *English Prose Style*. Beacon, 1955) - "The relationship between **simile** and metaphor is close, metaphor often being defined as a condensed simile, that is, someone who *runs like lightning* can be called *a lightning runner*. Sometimes, simile and metaphor blend so well that the join is hard to find . . .." (Tom McArthur, *The Oxford Companion to the English Language*. Oxford Univ. Press, 1992) - "Metaphor conveys a relationship between two things by using a word or words *figuratively*, not literally; that is, in a special sense which is different from the sense it has in the contexts noted by the dictionary. "By contrast, in **simile**, words are used literally, or 'normally.' This thing A is said to be 'like' that thing, B. The description given to A and to B is as accurate as literal words can make it, and the reader is confronted by a kind of *fait accompli*, where sense-impressions are often the final test of success. Thus 'my car is like a beetle' uses the words 'car' and 'beetle' literally, and the simile depends for its success on the literal--even visual--accuracy of the comparison." (Terence Hawkes, *Metaphor*. Methuen, 1972) ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/Ibuv9IbattHWk48fare0n0vTfzZ6y3.jpg) **Personification** Personification is another variety of metaphor. According to Skrebnev personification is attributing human properties to lifeless object - mostly to abstract notions, such as thoughts, actions, intensions, emotions, seasons of the year. ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/X2A6NW84mlVZ0yi2G53z4QaagKfYFE.jpg) I want to offer you personification from songs ( excuse me, but I can't paste the video, I can only give the reference((( [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTXEwfNxSgo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTXEwfNxSgo) ** ****Metonymy** Metonymies are frequently used in literature and in everyday speech. Metonymy - the substitution of one object by another on the basis of their **common existence **in reality. Examples: I am fond of *Dickens*. I collect old *China*. ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](http://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/RYzlPeGD5HAJIm0o5z58WuOii70pJt.png) **Antonomasia ** This trope is of the same nature as metonymy. Antonomasia - a proper name used for a common one or vice versa. Examples: Calling a lover *Casanova*, an office worker *Dilbert*, Elvis Presley *the King*, Bill Clinton *the Comeback Kid*, or Horace Rumpole's wife *She Who Must Be Obeyed.* "I'm a myth. I'm *Beowulf*. I'm *Grendel*." Semantically antonomasia can be **genuine and trite.** **Synecdoche** Synecdoche is often treated as a type of metonymy. Synecdoche - the use of a part to denote the whole of vice versa. Semantically can be **genuine and trite.** Examples: All *hands* on deck. *white-collar* criminals ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/6xMiKuR7m1XwNmc508Z0JrFkA3JVE4.jpg) **The Difference Between Metonymy and Synecdoche** **Metonymy** resembles and is sometimes confused with the trope of synecdoche. While likewise based on a principle of contiguity, synecdoche occurs when a part is used to represent a whole or a whole to represent a part, as when workers are referred to as 'hands' or when a national football team is signified by reference to the nation to which it belongs: 'England beat Sweden.' As way of example, the saying that 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world' illustrates the difference between metonymy and synecdoche. Here, 'the hand' is a synecdochic representation of the mother of whom it is a part, while 'the cradle' represents a child by close association. ![Metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/marinakaunova/E0icfiSV0BSh43HABUq0Cgsc13DbeY.jpg) All these stylistic devices are the good way to express your emotins and fantasy. We can see this vivid example in all literary works. That is all, I hope everything is clear, and if anybody didn't know it, they would remember) --- Source: [https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-personification-metonymy-328251](https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-personification-metonymy-328251)