Personification would be ascribing human characteristics to the leaf. This is ascribing leaf characteristics to the human. That what you're looking for, by?
Pour Bill: Cheers. Transmutation is pretty much on par with 'transformation' too. I actually think there is a word for a human turning into or described as an inanimate or abstract object though. Any ideas
Not to sound flippant, but it seems "depersonification" would fit fairly well. i suppose an argument could be made for "objectification", but that carries different undertones.
i'd tend to agree with it being some form of prosopopeia ~ can someone break "prosopopeia" down and exchange the part that means "human" to something meaning "inanimate"?
EDIT: i wouldn't agree with transfiguration, milo, based on the fact that it suggests a necessary component of glorification/exaltation, whereas in the passage BY cites the speaker is clearly attempting to remove himself from the glory of being human.
I’m not 100% sure of your question, BY, let alone the answer! This line seems fairly straightforward to me (though wrapped in Percy’s vile syntax, which is like straining porridge through an old sock) – it surely can be rendered as “If I were a dead leaf [the West Wind] could carry….”
Is there something more complicated going on that I have not caught?
I think, perhaps, two terms are required here, since there is a great difference between, say, a stone, an inanimate object, and a leaf, a living organism.
As caramia's agent, I should perhaps explain that this may be a confusion of accents (it being a well-none fact® that the angels of CA have elevated and superior diction to the rest of the world), since it would be unfortunate to raise expectations in the lovely A$P’s mind of substantial participation in the inevitable spin-off merchandising from the forthcoming smash-hit Oscara® winner…
What caramia's script (developed by a talented team of scriptwriters, at least one of whom has a name reminiscent of someone you think you may have heard of ~ or was that the cameraman's second assistant’s dog in the last Julia Roberts vehicle?) actually is can be more accurately rendered as My Life As Chopped Lover, a searing and passionate future-world indictment of the failures of Western Capitalism in the face of personal growth and an exploration of the tender workings of the human soul: think Terminator meets Love Story!
From M-W's Collegiate: Main Entry: ob·jec·ti·fy Pronunciation: &b-'jek-t&-"fI Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): -fied; -fy·ing Date: circa 1837 1 : to treat as an object or cause to have objective reality 2 : to give expression to (as an abstract notion, feeling, or ideal) in a form that can be experienced by others <it is the essence of the fairy tale to objectify differing facets of the child's emotional experience -- John Updike> - ob·jec·ti·fi·ca·tion /-"jek-t&-f&-'kA-sh&n/ noun
I think i like Poster: i like belligerentyouth's --'Objectification' is so simple, I guess that's right.
i think that is the psycological term for it.. psychotics tend to do it.. they are unable to see others as human, they objectify them..
societies do it too, if you make the other in your society an object-- not quite a real human, then, you don't feel guilty making them into slaves, or killing them, or starving them.. (pick a country-- US, Germany, England (viz Irish)) and with 10 seconds more time, i could think of a dozen other countries that have done it.
He said he wanted to opposite of personification. I gave it to him. Complaints? Bleedin' pedants. Never there when you want them, always around when you don't. What's wrong with alt-usage-English anyway? Any fool can pick a nit or zero nits or even a damned bushel of them if they want. Honestly, I mean, I just give up.
Oh, and what, precisely, is a pair of foetid (note the spelling you Yank nekulturny basket) dingo's kidneys worth on the market today, anyway, hmmm?
Any fool can pick a nit or zero nits or even a damned bushel of them if they want
Well, Harrumph®! and double Harrumph®! Used to was nit picking was the glue that held society together. Now it's thrown around like any common insult. And I, sirrah, am not just any fool; I am a very particular Fool!
but what is the proper word to describe the type of poetic, hypothetical abstraction that follows? - Bellyouth
"If I were a [dead leaf] thou mightest bear" - [Shelley]
It seems Mr. Bellyouth, there was no such narrow word. so let us objectively examine the words suggested in context... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The soul of Shelley inanimated into a dead leaf.
The soul of Shelley reificated into a dead leaf.
The soul of Shelley objectificated into a dead leaf.
The soul of Shelley deantipersonificated into a dead leaf.
The soul of Shelley deleafified into a dead leaf.
The [soul] of [Shelley] transfigurated into a [dead leaf].
I don't know about you folks, but I vote forgreen. - -
...or, uh. maybe blue.
Or maybe transmuted, or metamorphised, or maybe...
Reminds me of the time Nancy Reagan was named the most admired woman in the world. I think it was Jay Leno who responded: "Aren't you relieved she beat out that pushy Mother Teresa?" .
Bless us and save us! Ronald Reagan appearing on a list with the likes of Gutenberg, Lincoln, Marco Polo, Einstein? - eeeehhhhyyyaaa - yet another day ruined.
Shelley doesn't appear on the following list of one hundred influential people of the millennium, but Mary beat him out:
Really now, all she did was write one book about the dangers of playing God. How much influence did she actually have? The industrial revolution still took over. What about Mark Twain or Charles Dickens?
And, though I'm not defending Reagan's politics or nuclear defense plan, he did play a significant role in ending the Cold War. Even though he's a recent president, politics shouldn't enter into something like this. Gorbachev is on the list too.
And what about King George III? He certainly had a lot to do with provoking the American revolution.
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