Junsu Kim
Anthropomorphism vs personification? I know Anthropomorphism and personification are used to render the attribution of human traits or emotions inside non-human objects such as this sentence, 'the leaves waved in the wind'. But, I can't tell the real difference correctly between both words. So I tried hard to search multiple websites in order to figure out the subtle shades of meaning of the two. But I couldn't since the two words can be expressed in a single Korean word; '의인화'. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks in advance.
Feb 8, 2016 3:34 PM
Answers · 6
1
Anthropomorphism means attributing human emotions and motives to animals (especially) and to objects. It is generally used with a slightly negative connotation to show the user finds some remark or behaviour inappropriate: you might describe the remarks "that turtle looks so sad" or "this computer is just trying to frustrate me" as anthropomorphic. (The word also has some religious applications that I won't go into.) "Personification" in contrast usually applies to abstract concepts taking some human form: e.g. Hitler as the personification of evil, Marianne as the personification of France, etc.
February 8, 2016
1
The definition you gave also applies to "personification" and so the two words are synonyms. However, "personification" has a second meaning of "embodiment" which refers to when an abstract concept takes or assumes a bodily form e.g. "The receptionist at the Dorchester Hotel is the personification / embodiment of charm when greeting guests." This means that he is so charming that if charm had a human form, he would be that form, he would be charm itself. It's obviously a literary way of speaking.
February 8, 2016
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