Expressive means of vocabulary. Epithet. Comparison. Metaphor. Personification. Difference Between Metaphor and Epithet What are Metaphor Terms Comparison

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And especially those who supplemented them in the comments with their examples and findings.
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Often, for figurative purposes, we need to compare something with something. There are many expressive means for this in Russian.


Comparison- this is a comparison of one object with another, likening one to another according to some common feature. Its goals are to identify properties that are essential or new for an object, inherent in another object.

Main types of comparisons

1. In the form of a comparative turnover with the help of conjunctions (like, than, rather than, as if, as if, exactly, like, as if, etc.):

  • “Always modest, always obedient, always as cheerful as the morning, as the life of a poet is simple-hearted, as the kiss of love is sweet” (A.S. Pushkin);
  • "Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley" (M.A. Bulgakov);
  • “He was red, like stew from mushrooms, red, like oranges in the snow” (R.I. Rozhdestvensky).
2. Unionless comparisons:
  • "You are the rustle of a tender leaf, you are the wind whispering furtively" (K.D. Balmont);
  • "Night is a well without a bottom" (M.F. Rylsky);
  • "Your passengers are your sailors" (B. Sh. Okudzhava).

3. Using a comparative or superlatives different parts of speech:

  • “Well, how can he compare with you? You are a lady in front of him with only straightness ” (I.A. Krylov);
  • “Let the city people be beautiful - her eyes are blue” (L.I. Oshanin);
  • “May I live like this!” (from Odessa folklore).

4. Using the instrumental case in the meaning of comparison:burst like a nightingale, rush like an arrow, even howl like a wolf, stand like a pillar, lips like a tube.

5. Negative comparison:

  • "No, I'm not Byron, I'm another, still unknown chosen one" (M.Yu. Lermontov);
  • “It’s not the wind that rages over the forest, it’s not the streams that ran from the mountains - Frost-voivode patrols his possessions” (N.A. Nekrasov);
  • “There is not a single personal fate here - all fates are merged into a single one” (V.S. Vysotsky).

Metaphor(gr. metaphor- transfer) - a word or expression used in a figurative sense based on the similarity or contrast of objects. Unlike comparison, a metaphor does not give two different objects, but forms a single image. In other words, a metaphor is this hidden, folded comparison.

Three Principles of Metaphor Construction

1. Impersonation:

  • “The river runs, it melts in the fog, it runs, beckoning me "(E.A. Evtushenko);
  • "The beep sings along to the train of the weaving factory" (M.I. Tanich);
  • "Spiky firs eyelashes over blue eyes lakes" (K.I. Ryzhov).

2. Reification:

  • “Nails would be made of these people: there would be no stronger nails in the world” (N.S. Tikhonov).
  • "The mind gave us steel hands - wings, and instead of a heart - a fiery engine" (P.D. German).

3. Distraction: a wave of sadness swept over, work is in full swing, a field of activity, puzzle .

In recent decades, metaphors have often been used in science, politics, PR and advertising. At the same time, even types of metaphorical devices were formed: "architectural"(base, superstructure, foundation, restructuring, support, blocks), "dynamic"(movement for the better, steps towards excellence, the path to beauty), "magical", "aqua metaphors" etc.

"Erased" metaphors- words that have long been used not for expressiveness, but for the names of any objects and phenomena ( horse in gymnastics, neighing like loud unrestrained laughter, peephole like a hole in a door mouse like a computer device).

And in conclusion - a brilliant phrase by O.E. Mandelstam: “It is only through metaphor that matter is revealed, for there is no being without comparison.”

"Learning is light". "Knowledge is power"

House of Cards: Elite Option

"Field of work"

"Get up... The metaphor is like this

"I will tell the birch, as a girlfriend, that I have no good love ..."

"Am I sweeter than everyone in the world, all blush and whiter?"

"And you're as cold as an iceberg in the ocean..."

“Not what you think, nature:
Not a cast, not a soulless face -
It has a soul, it has freedom,
It has love, it has a language. ”(F.I. Tyutchev)

Comparison

Comparison is a trope in which one object or phenomenon is likened to another according to some common feature for them. It underlies the visual system of the language. In comparison, they distinguish: the compared object ( comparison object), the object to be matched with ( comparator), and their common feature ( base of comparison, comparison). One of distinguishing features comparison is the mention of both compared objects, while the common feature is not always mentioned. Main types:

Direct (with unions "as if", "like", "as if" etc.) and

Indirect (non-prepositional with instrumental case).

There are also

Non-union (comparative turnover is expressed in the form of a sentence with a compound nominal predicate; "My house is my fortress"),

Negative (the sign of the difference of objects is emphasized),

- "Homeric" (expanded) comparison, when the author expands the comparison, as if forgetting about the actual objects. Often with Gogol. In the era of sentimentalism, it often became the subject of ridicule of contemporaries.

Comparisons are also divided into: according to the manner of action, according to time and place of the action. Sometimes the action itself is omitted, only comparison is used in the expression, the action must be guessed.

Metaphor

Metaphor - a word or expression used in a figurative sense, which is based on an unnamed comparison of an object with some other on the basis of their common feature, a hidden comparison. D.N. Ushakov highlights two main models by which metaphors are formed: personification and reification. personifying metaphors, according to the linguist, are the most ancient in the language, and they are often distinguished into a separate type - personification: “snow lies”, “frost bound the rivers”, “stream runs”.reifying metaphors: " iron will”,“ deep sadness ”,“ flames ”,“ door handle ”(epithets). The close relationship between these concepts makes it possible to speak of syncretism of expressive means of language.

Metaphors are original, or diaphors, and banal; erased, or epiphora (a forest of hands, go like clockwork, take root), simple and deployed; sometimes an extended metaphor becomes a symbol, as in Lermontov's "Sail". Each metaphor contains four elements: a category, an object within a category, the process of the object realizing its function, the intersection of this process with the real situation. Poetic metaphor is usually sharper than linguistic metaphor.

Metaphor often becomes an aesthetic end in itself and displaces the original original meaning of the word. In Shakespeare, for example, what is often important is not the original everyday meaning of the statement, but its unexpected metaphorical meaning - a new meaning. This perplexed Leo Tolstoy, who had been brought up on the principles of Aristotelian realism. Simply put, metaphor not only reflects life, but also creates it. For example, the Nose of Major Kovalev in Gogol's general uniform is not only a personification, hyperbole or comparison, but also a new meaning that did not exist before. Futurists did not strive for the plausibility of the metaphor, but for its maximum removal from the original meaning. For example, "a cloud in your pants."

There is also another classification of metaphors:

  1. nominative, consisting in replacing one descriptive meaning with another and serving as a source of homonymy;
  2. figurative metaphors that serve the development of figurative meanings and synonymous means of language;
  3. cognitive metaphors resulting from a shift in the combination of predicate words (meaning transfer) and creating polysemy;
  4. generalizing metaphors (as the end result of a cognitive metaphor), erasing the boundaries between logical orders in the lexical meaning of the word and stimulating the emergence of logical polysemy.

In order to make the written text or speech bright, memorable and expressive, the authors use certain artistic techniques, traditionally called tropes and figures of speech. These include: metaphor, epithet, personification, hyperbole, comparison, allegory, paraphrase and other turns of speech, where words or expressions are used in a figurative sense to give more expressiveness to what was said.

What are epithets and metaphors

The most common in literary speech are epithets and metaphors.

The word "epithet" Greek means "attached". That is, in the name itself there is already an explanation of the essence - this is a definition that figuratively characterizes an object or phenomenon. The sign, which is expressed by the epithet, is thus, as it were, attached to the object being described, it complements it in an emotional and even semantic sense.

In linguistics and lexicology, there is still no generally accepted theory that accurately explains what epithets and metaphors are. There are usually three types of epithets:

  • general language - those that have stable, often used in literary speech connections (silver dew, bitter frost, etc.);
  • folk poetic - used in folklore works (beautiful girl, sweet speech, good fellow, etc.);
  • individually-author's - created by the authors (case considerations (A.P. Chekhov), scratching look (M. Gorky)).

Metaphors, unlike epithets, are not only one word, but also an expression that is used in a figurative sense. Metaphors are selected on the basis of the similarity or, conversely, the contrast of any phenomena or objects.

How and when to use metaphor

You can understand in more detail what epithets and metaphors are, as well as what is their difference, if you understand that the main requirement for using the latter is their originality, unusualness, ability to evoke emotional associations and help present some event or phenomenon.

Here is an example of a metaphorical description of the night sky in the story “Three” by M. Gorky: “The Milky Way spread like a silvery cloth across the sky from edge to edge, it was pleasant and sad to look at it through the branches of a tree.”

The use of template metaphors that have lost their originality and emotional richness from frequent use can reduce the quality of a work or spoken speech.

No less dangerous can be an excess, an abundance of metaphors. Speech in such cases becomes unnecessarily flowery and ornate, which can also disrupt its perception.

How to distinguish between metaphor and epithet

In works, it is sometimes quite difficult to distinguish exactly which tropes the author uses. To do this, you need to understand again in comparison what epithets and metaphors are.

Metaphor is a pictorial technique based on analogy, the transfer of meaning by similarity, similarity: “The morning laughed at the windows. Her eyes are dark agates."

The epithet is one of the cases of a metaphor, to put it more simply, an artistic definition (“Warm milky twilight, icy cold stars”).

Based on the foregoing, it is already possible to understand what a metaphor, epithet, personification is and find them in the above example: “It was seen how long needles were rushing from a cheerful blue sky, from a high smoky cloud, drops ...” (I. Bunin, “Little novel").

It is clear that metaphors were used in it (drops were carried by long needles), and epithets (from a smoky cloud) and personification (a cheerful blue sky).

Personification - a special metaphor-allegory

So what is a metaphor, epithet, personification? This, as you already understood, is a means of conveying the author's attitude to a phenomenon or object, a kind of peculiar colors that make it possible to make what is written or spoken vivid and memorable.

And from this series, one can single out the personification - a special trope that has long history rooted in folk art. Personification is the same as allegory, the transfer of the properties of a living being to phenomena or objects.

One of the genres closest to folklore, the fable, is also built on the use of personification.

Unlike such tropes as metaphor, epithet, comparison, personification, this is also a very economical device. When applying it, one does not need to describe the subject in detail, it is enough to compare it with something already familiar to evoke the necessary associations: “And how pitiful are the huts of rural landless poor peasants, rooted in the ground, belly-deep in shabby straw!” (I. S. Sokolov-Mikitov, "Childhood").

What is comparison

It is impossible to imagine a work devoid of comparisons, comparisons of something with something, likening of one phenomenon to another, allowing to describe them more accurately, more figuratively and at the same time convey one's attitude towards them.

They masterfully mastered the art of applying epithets, metaphors, comparisons: “On the blue velvet of heaven, dotted with bright stars, the black patterns of foliage looked like someone’s arms outstretched to the sky in an attempt to reach its heights” (M. Gorky, “Three”).

Difficult Cases in Determining Comparison

Sometimes the expressive device described above - comparison - can be quite difficult to distinguish from cases where the sentence simply uses words with the conjunctions "like", "as if" and "as if", but with other purposes.

We repeat once again - epithets, metaphors, comparisons are paths that help to enrich, "color" what was said. This means that in the sentence “We saw how he slowly walked towards the forest” there is no comparison, there is only a union connecting the parts. In the sentence “We went out into the corridor, where it was dark and cold, like in a cellar” (I. Bunin) the comparison is explicit (cold, as in a cellar).

Ways of Expressing Comparison

And so that in a series of metaphor, epithet, comparison, personification, you can finally deal with each trope, let's linger a little more on the comparison.

It is expressed in different ways:

  • with the help of turns with the words “like”, “exactly”, “as if”, etc. (“Her hair curled like a pea mustache”);
  • or adverbs ("tongue sharper than a razor");
  • the instrumental case of a noun (“love sang like a nightingale in the heart”);
  • and also lexically (using the words “similar to”, “similar”, etc.).

What is hyperbole

From the use of such tropes as metaphor, epithet, comparison, hyperbole is distinguished by a special saturation, exaggeration of the essence. Many authors willingly use this technique: "He had a completely impassive, some kind of stone, rusty face."

The fairy-tale giants, and Thumbelina, and the Boy-with-a-finger, inhabiting fairy tales, can be attributed to hyperbolic techniques. And in epics, hyperbole is an indispensable attribute: the strength of the heroes is always exorbitant, and the enemy is fierce and countless.

Even in everyday speech one can find hyperbole: “We haven’t seen each other for a thousand years!” or "A sea of ​​tears has been shed."

Metaphor, epithet, comparison, hyperbole are often used in combination, giving rise to hyperbolic comparisons or personifications and metaphors (“it rained like a solid wall”).

The ability to use tropes will make your speech figurative and vivid.

At one time, V. G. Belinsky argued that speaking well and speaking correctly are not the same thing. After all, even impeccable, from the point of view of grammar, speech can be difficult to understand.

And from the above, you probably already understood what a metaphor, epithet, personification is, and that it is extremely important to be able to use these techniques. A thoughtful reading of the works of the classics will help you in this, since they can be considered the standard for applying all the stylistic richness of the Russian language.

Get a grasp of Gogol's lines: "Words... similar to flowers, just as gentle, bright and juicy...", in which the author was able to clearly convey his impression of the sound of the words in a small set. And remember that metaphor, hyperbole, epithet are the tools that will hone your speech, which means you need to learn how to use them!

Each word has its own meaning, often we use words not in their own, but in a figurative sense. This also happens in Everyday life and in literary works. Words used in a figurative sense are called tropes.

Trails are the creation of new words by enriching the meaning of existing words.

(The word "zeal" in the 17th-early 18th centuries means "envy, quarrel", in the 18th century - "argument, disagreement", from the 19th - "zeal, diligence")

The doctrine of tropes developed in ancient poetics and rhetoric. Aristotle divided words into common and rare, including "portable". The latter he called metaphors. Later in science, each type of tropes (a metaphor for Aristotle) ​​will receive its own name. There is no consensus among literary theorists about what refers to tropes. Everyone recognizes metaphor and metonymy as tropes, other types of tropes are questioned.

Why do words take on additional meaning? There is a point of view that the language seeks to save money.

A. A. Potebnya: when a word is born, three elements stand out in it:

  • 1. external form of the word (expression plan (graphic notation, phonetic sound)
  • 2. the internal form of the word (the feature that formed the basis of the nomination, the closest etymological meaning of the word)
  • 3. the meaning of the word (find in the explanatory dictionary)

Often an object is called by one of its qualities (a boa constrictor, a table from laying)

There is a narrowing of the meaning, when one of all the attributes of an object is selected, and its expansion: the language gradually forms the figurative meanings of words. Polysemy is the polysemy of a word. (tea, warm, lightning, etc.)

In the paths, the basic meaning of the word is destroyed; usually, due to the destruction of the direct meaning, its secondary signs enter into perception. Tropes tend to evoke an emotional relationship to the topic.

Tropes have been occupied by rhetoric for a thousand years.

1. comparison - a comparison of the depicted object, or phenomenon, with another object according to a common feature for both of them.

Always consists of three things:

  • 1. subject
  • 2. image
  • 3. a sign common to them

Hand(1) cold(3) as ice(2)

There may be a reduction in comparison when the common feature is omitted.

hand like ice

Sometimes it is not easy to guess a common sign.

Ancient rhetoricians advised not to correlate distant objects.

The comparison can be formed:

1. unions: like, as if, as if, exactly, like, etc.

And she is majestic

Acts like a pava;

And as the speech says,

Like a river murmurs.

“Nature amuses itself jokingly, like a carefree child” (Lermontov, Demon)

2. noun in instrumental case:

Under blue skies

splendid carpets,

Shining in the sun, the snow lies

comparative degree of an adjective or adverb

... and lighter shadows

Tatyana jumped into another passage...

Phraseologism similar as two drops of water

A special case is the widespread comparisons - comparisons, indicating several common features in the compared items. The image acquires an independent meaning, the comparison of two phenomena on one basis begins, then the rest are involved. Such are the notorious Homeric comparisons.

All rose up, submitted to Atris, the lord of nations,

All sceptron-bearers of the Achaeans; the peoples flew to the host.

Like bees flying out of mountain caves in swarms,

Dense ones rush, every hour for a compartment a new compartment;

In the form of clusters they curl over spring flowers

But they are like bees, or like motley, nimble wasps,

Having laid their nests on a rocky dusty road,

The poet deploys them, as if forgetting and not caring about the objects that they should depict. Comparison provides only a pretext, an impetus for distraction away from the main current of the story.

Such is the favorite manner of Gogol. For example, he portrays the barking of dogs in the yard near Korobochka, and one of the voices of this orchestra evokes a widespread comparison: “all this was finally done by the bass, maybe an old man endowed with a hefty canine nature, because he wheezed like a singing double bass wheezes, when the concert is in full swing, the tenors rise on tiptoe from a strong desire to strike a high note, and everything that is, rushes to the top, throwing its head, and he alone, thrusting his unshaven chin into his tie, crouching and dropping almost to the ground, lets the its note, from which glass shakes and rattles.

Another episode - a picture of the ball:

“Black tailcoats flickered and rushed apart and in heaps here and there, like flies rush on a white shining refined sugar during the hot July summer ... the children are all looking, gathered around.”

Metaphor, as it were, demonstrates identity, comparison-separation. Therefore, the image drawn for comparison easily unfolds into a completely independent picture, often associated in only one of some signs with the object that caused the comparison. The separation of similar objects in comparison is especially clearly manifested in the special form of negative comparison characteristic of Russian and Serbian poetry. For example: "Not two clouds in the sky converged, two daring knights converged." Wed Pushkin: "Not a flock of ravens flocked On a pile of smoldering bones, - Over the Volga at night, near the fires of the Remote, a gang gathered."

Comparison can also be framed as an independent sentence, starting with a union like this:

Water murmurs in marble

And dripping cold tears

Never silent.

This is how a mother cries in the days of sorrow

About a son who fell in the war.

Topoi are common places in traditional literature. there are many comparative revolutions that constantly occur. Familiarity is very relative, because everything new is well forgotten old.

Comparisons are not a trope in full meaning this word, because this is not a transfer of meaning, but its coincidence with a direct one. But from comparison to path is one step. Comparison is often considered as a special syntactic form of expressing a metaphor, when the latter is connected with the object it expresses through the grammatical link "like", "as if", "as if", "precisely", etc., and in Russian these conjunctions can be are omitted, and the subject of comparison is expressed in the instrumental case. “The streams of my poems run” (Blok) is a metaphor, according to “my poems run like streams” or “my poems run in streams” - there would be comparisons.

2. metaphor.

Aristotle wrote that making good metaphors means noticing similarities.

The object signified by the direct meaning of the word has some indirect resemblance to the object of a figurative meaning. Involuntarily asking ourselves the question of why this particular concept is designated by this word, we quickly search for these secondary features that play a connecting role. The peculiarity of the metaphor: it is a comparison, the members of which have merged so much that the first member (what was compared) is displaced and completely replaced by the second (what was compared), for example:

A bee from a wax cell

Flies for field tribute.

Cell-beehive, tribute - flower nectar. The psychology of the convergence of these concepts is clear, the negative point is important: the absence of direct links between the concept of cell and beehive and tribute and flower nectar. But in the idea of ​​a cell, secondary signs appear (crampedness, reclusive life), similar to the signs that accompany the idea of ​​a beehive. Also, tribute causes gathering signs present in the process of collecting nectar by the bee. the first terms are replaced by the second. Metaphor, like any trope, is based on the property of the word that in its meaning it relies not only on the essential and general qualities of objects (phenomena).

A metaphor can be called an abbreviated comparison: both the object and the image are combined in one word. A metaphor is defined only in a context, the meaning of which prevents the emergence of a distinct representation in the series of the primary meaning of the word.

Subjective associations that arise when focusing on the potential meaning of a metaphorical word lead to the "realization of the metaphor", i.e., to an attempt to comprehend and reconcile words in their primary meaning. This realization of the metaphor creates a comic effect. (imagine a girl with a swan neck and a pearl instead of a mouth?)

Metaphor is not only a phenomenon of poetic style, but also a general linguistic one. Many words in a language are formed metaphorically or are used metaphorically, and the figurative meaning of the word sooner or later displaces the meaning, the word is understood only in its figurative meaning, which is thereby no longer recognized as figurative, since its original direct meaning has already faded or even been completely lost. This kind of metaphorical origin is revealed in separate, independent words (skates, window, affection, captivating, formidable, advise), but even more often in phrases (mill wings, mountain range, pink dreams, hanging by a thread). On the contrary, a metaphor, as a phenomenon of style, should be spoken of in cases where a word or a combination of words is recognized or felt both direct and figurative meaning. Such poetic metaphors can be: firstly, the result of a new word usage, when the word used in ordinary speech in one meaning or another, a new figurative meaning is given to him (for example, “And a year after year will sink into a dark muzzle”; “.. a camp set in a magnet” - Tyutchev); secondly, the result of renewal, the revival of the faded metaphors of the language (for example, “You drink the magic poison of desires”; “Snakes of heart remorse” - Pushkin).

Linguistic metaphors are not metaphors in a stylistic sense, because in them the secondary meaning is recognized as a permanent meaning. Stylistic metaphors should be new and unexpected. But the metaphors are often repeated. There are traditional metaphors in poetry: eyes - stars, teeth - pearls - these metaphors are on the verge of becoming linguistic.

Such worn-out metaphors can be renewed. When updating metaphors, the following methods are used: the erased word is replaced with a single-valued synonym. Dostoevsky: these are only flowers, and real fruits are just ahead! (updating a proverb) another way to update a metaphor is to develop it, supplement it with an epithet or other words related to it in direct meaning. Darling - the erased word is renewed with the epithet grey-winged

The poetic metaphor is of the same nature with the linguistic metaphor and at the same time differs from it, mainly in its expressiveness, novelty. Cold heart (erased) - snow heart (in the use of the block). Poetic metaphor is rarely limited to a single word or phrase. Usually we meet a number of images, the totality of which gives the metaphor an emotional or visual tangibility. Such a combination of several images into one metaphorical system can be different types, which depends on the relationship between direct and figurative meaning and on the degree of visualization and emotionality of the metaphor. The normal form of such an extended metaphor is the case when the connection between the images is supported by both direct and figurative meaning (for example, “We drink from the cup of being with our eyes closed” - Lermontov; “Grieving, and crying, and laughing, streams are ringing my poems, etc. the whole poem is Blok). It is this kind of metaphor that easily develops into an allegory.

There are basically two types of metaphors:

1. personification - the image of inanimate objects, in which they are endowed with the properties of living beings.

Snow is still whitening in the fields,

And the waters are already rustling in the spring -

They run and wake up the sleepy shore,

They run, and shine, and say ...

Spring waters Tyutchev.

Often personifying metaphors create a chain. Such a metaphor is called expanded

July dragging in clothes

Dandelion fluff, burdock,

July, entering home through the windows,

All loudly speaking out loud.

Pastenak. July.

The identification of nature and man is called anthropomorphism.

2. reification - natural phenomena are transferred to man, to the phenomena of spiritual life.

So helplessly the chest grew cold ... (Akhmatova)

Transfers to a synonym for the soul-chest - a physical property

Almost any part of speech can become a metaphor.

metaphor adjectives:

gray stump, lead thought, pearly eyes

In the Russian language, words or expressions are widely used that make it possible to enhance the expressiveness of speech, to compare various objects and phenomena with each other. These include the concepts of metaphor and comparison. Understanding the difference between them helps to better use the richness of native speech.

What is a metaphor

The authorship of this term is attributed Aristotle. He understood it as expressions or words used in a figurative sense. With their help, certain objects can be compared on a common basis. The meaning contained in one word is transferred to another. It could be figurative expression A that uses comparison. Metaphorical turns are also used, in an allegorical sense, indicating similarity.

The peculiarity of metaphor is its impact on the development of culture as a whole, language and speech. Its formation takes place under the influence of many information sources, the achievements of science, technology and culture. As a result, it goes beyond the literary process and is increasingly used in modern scientific and technical descriptions. Sometimes it becomes not only a reflection of reality. Sometimes, with its help, an unexpected, previously unappeared meaning arises. However, it can go beyond the traditional framework of comparison or hyperbole.

The original meaning of a word can be repressed as a result of creating a metaphor as aesthetic end in itself. This was typical of the futurists, who thus moved as far as possible from the original meaning of the word. An example is the phrase "cloud in your pants". At the end of the twentieth century, some poets raised the metaphor to a power or called it a mega-metaphor. The creation of an unexpected metaphorical meaning with new content became the meaning of creativity.

There are metaphors sharp and erased, deployed and realized. The first is an expression in which concepts from completely different areas are summarized. For example, "crazy speed". The worn out metaphor uses a common term that has become commonplace, such as "table leg". The extended version involves metaphorical expressions that are used one after the other in a large passage of text. The implemented one uses a formally inadequate expression. For example, "he went crazy."

Among the many words or phrases used allegorically to enhance the figurativeness of speech, metaphor plays the main role. It is with its help, using unexpected, memorable associations, that relief literary images are created. Here, sometimes dissimilar shapes, colors, purposes and other qualities of objects can be combined. Sometimes there may be no similarity, but the metaphor provides the reader with a basis for reflection.

About comparison

When comparing a certain phenomenon or object is compared with another. This is an important tool that helps the author to present his vision of the world and events in it. Through comparative words and turnovers, a detailed description of things is made, their artistic disclosure in detail is created. To show the new qualities that are essential for the description, a feature common to the compared objects is used.

At the same time, the objects of comparison are distinguished, the objects with which these objects are compared, as well as the differences that are common to them. Comparison is characteristic in that both objects that are being compared must be mentioned here. Comparison signs can be ignored. The most widespread comparisons are in folklore.

They can be done using various methods:

  • Negatives: “To live life is not a field to cross.”
  • With a noun in the instrumental case: "she feels like a princess."
  • As a sentence with compound nominal predicates: "my years are my wealth."
  • Through such words as "similar", "similar", "reminiscent".
  • With the use of unions as if, exactly, as if to figuratively reflect various subject signs and actions: "they fly like seagulls."

There are comparisons representing sentences related in meaning and grammar. They can be expanded, where the original object is compared to others. For example: “It was getting dark, and hundreds of nimble fireflies sparkled in the dark. Curious stars scattered in the sky like diamonds. If extended parallelism is applied, some of these comparisons may begin with the word "so". For example: “There was a loud roar. This is what happens when an 82mm mine explodes.”

What are the differences

Metaphor and comparison represent different levels of comparison. The differences between them include the following.

  1. Metaphor involves a veiled, allegorical, figurative comparison. The object being compared is called the name of something similar to it. The comparison compares two objects. The person being compared is called by its name. It is indicated in what way it is similar to others.
  2. Metaphor does not directly compare distant objects and phenomena with common feature. Comparison usually refers to homogeneous or close objects.
  3. An assumption that contains a metaphor cannot be taken as true. The meaning of this expression is figurative. Comparison points to true objects.
  4. Metaphor usually broadly interprets reality. Comparison may be an element of such an interpretation.
  5. Metaphor, without indicating the presence of similarities, encourages us to look for the common qualities of objects. Comparison directly indicates the presence of such a similarity.
  6. Metaphor is often more voluminous in content than comparison and does not require introductory words. Comparative conjunctions are often used in comparison.