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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread rhetorical devices #194933 12/13/2010 11:31 PM Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 1 catskill ny dickmate stranger dickmate stranger Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 1 catskill ny I wish you-all would shed light on the rhetorical advice which consists of treating various collectivities, objects, aggregations, and even streets (Wall) and buildings (Whitehall, the White House, the Kremlin) as if they were sentient, vocal beings. Thus: "China Resisted U.S. Pressure on Rights of Nobel Winner"; "China Moves to Block Foreign News on Nobel Ceremony" (N Y Times, 12/9/10); "...this city [of Kristianstad, Sweden] vowed a decade ago to wean itself from fossil fuels" (N Y T, 12/10). It's a very common journalistic practice. "Anthropomorphism" may be the philosophy, but is not the name of the device. Reification, maybe. I lean toward an old usage of the label Personation (whereas IMpersonation is one person pretending to be another person). Can you help? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices dickmate #194934 12/13/2010 11:51 PM Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 9,971 Likes: 3 Land of the Flat Water LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 9,971 Likes: 3 Land of the Flat Water WELCOME DICKMATE ----please, draw me a sheep---- Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices dickmate #194936 12/14/2010 12:14 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass from Silva Rhetoricae: personification the counterfait in personation Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities. The English term for prosopopeia or ethopoeia. Examples O beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on. —Iago in Shakespeare's Othello 3.3.165-67 The insatiable hunger for imagination preys upon human life —Samuel Johnson personification Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices dickmate #194944 12/14/2010 3:21 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Or either that or synechdoche, one. Or something like that. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices Faldage #195003 12/15/2010 9:28 AM Joined: Nov 2010 Posts: 677 Middle Earth bexter addict bexter addict Joined: Nov 2010 Posts: 677 Middle Earth I think it may be anthropomorphic personification. In which people ascribe human attributes to objects and they seem to turn into them (sorry thath explanation was a bit rubbish!). A good example is DEATH...you know the guy in the cloak with the scythe...kills people...he was given human attributes and now seems to have run off with them? ----The next sentence is true. The previous sentence is false---- Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices dickmate #195006 12/15/2010 11:44 AM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh rhetorical devices Isn't it plain old-fashioned metonymy (link)? Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: rhetorical devices dickmate #195056 12/16/2010 3:35 AM Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 1,706 down under Candy Pooh-Bah Candy Pooh-Bah Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 1,706 down under I like that word metonym Z (thanks for link) now I see how its different from a metaphor...not that I thought about it before! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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