Figure of Personification – Who doesn’t know about figure of speech? Maybe the meaning of figure of speech and its various forms seems familiar among students. Because, they are the ones who still get learning material and also assignments to write poetry using figure of speech.
But, do you know, Sinaumed’s , actually without realizing it, in everyday life we also often use figure of speech in communicating with other people.
Generally, the use of figure of speech in our daily life is often used when communicating with people who are quite close to us. Even though we often use it everyday, many of us don’t realize it. What’s more, there are indeed a lot of figures of speech in Indonesian.
This figure of speech is included in the comparative figure of speech. Because personification figures of speech use figurative words to compare and enhance the impression of a sentence. In oral or written communication, personification and other figures of speech are often used to create an imaginative impression or to give a certain effect.
There are many figures of speech that can be used in writing a literary work, one of which is personification. This figure of speech describes inanimate objects or living things that other than humans, become living things or have human characteristics.
Sinaumed’s, before we discuss it further, we also need to understand the meaning of personification and its characteristics, as well as examples. Come on, see the following explanation!
Definition of Majas
Figure of speech is a form of figurative language that is usually used to make a sentence livelier. In other words, a figure of speech can be an expression that can liven up a sentence by creating an atmosphere.
According to KBBI, figure of speech is defined as a way to describe something by equating something or another word in the form of a figure of speech.
Figure of speech which is usually used in writing a literary work, is usually applied in poetry and prose. However, poetry usually uses more figures of speech than prose. Because, figure of speech is a figurative language that is able to animate a literary work and can give rise to certain connotations.
The use of appropriate and correct figure of speech can help readers understand the meaning of a literary work. So, figure of speech can also be called a beautiful language, which can beautify a sentence.
What is Personification Majas?
Personification figure of speech is a beautiful style of language, money is usually used to express a specific purpose in an article, literary work, or utterance to give human characteristics to an object in real life that does not have such a characteristic.
The word personification itself comes from the Greek word prosopopoeia which means to humanize. Personification is also taken from English, namely person , which means people.
Thus, this figurative expression uses human behavior that is given to something that is not human, such as objects in real life that do not have that characteristic. Objects that can be given human nature using this figure of speech include plants, inanimate objects, animals, clouds, the sky, and so on.
By using personification figure of speech, you can make objects other than humans be considered as if they were alive like humans. For example, inanimate objects are depicted as if they could walk, breathe, dance.
This figure of speech is also included in the category of comparative figure of speech which is commonly used to compare an object with other objects. for example, the wind on the beach caressing my beautiful hair.
In other words, various objects can be likened to being able to perform various human characteristics, such as thinking, doing things, and behaving like living things. An expression can be said to be a figure of speech personification if it meets several criteria such as comparing the dead as if they were alive, and involving the five senses.
Human traits that are transferred to non-human beings or inanimate objects include character traits, physical characteristics, behavior, thoughts, feelings, verbal, non-verbal, and so on. That is why, in the use of this figure of speech there is a similarity in nature between humans and inanimate objects.
However, these properties actually have a very contrasting comparison. Hence, personification figure of speech can be seen as a figure of speech based on the nature of similarities or comparisons.
Definition of Personification Majas According to Experts
1. Dance
According to Tarigan, it is a style of language that is inherent in human nature towards objects that are actually unreal, also having abstract ideas. Thus, the style of personification can make an inanimate object appear to have human characteristics.
2. Gorys Keraf
Gorys Keraf argues that figurative language is used to describe inanimate or inanimate objects or creatures other than humans, as if they have human-like characteristics and characteristics.
3. Pitwanto
In his book entitled Want to Be a Best Seller Writer, personification is a style of language used to humanize or seem to make inanimate objects come alive.
4. PUEBI book
In the book General Guidelines for Indonesian Spelling (Puebi) and Formation, it is a figure of speech that gives rise to human characteristics in inanimate objects, so that the objects seem to have lives like humans do.
Characteristics of Personification
The tendency to use personification figures of speech is due to a partition or boundary between humans and inanimate objects. Personification figure of speech works by removing these boundaries, so that humans can live or appreciate them better.
Basically humans are imitative creatures. Therefore, the first thing humans will do is appreciate everything around them. The sense of ownership can also be felt much more when this figure of speech is used. Everyday objects that so far only humans have benefited from, become more obvious than usual.
From the explanation above, the characteristics of personification are:
1. Using words that describe human nature
The first characteristic is to use a word that describes the human nature of an inanimate object. Personification figure of speech is a figure of speech that uses words that describe human nature in an inanimate object.
In this case, the word used may actually intersect with anthropomorphism related to human psychology.
Anthropomorphism is the depiction of human nature in animals, inanimate objects or plants. These non-human beings or inanimate objects are given the characteristics of a human being.
The purpose of describing human nature here is to give human characteristics to an inanimate object, starting from speaking, thinking, and acting like a human.
However, this personification figure of speech is different from fables, which give characteristics to humans only to specific animals. Now, while our personification figure of speech can imagine inanimate objects, such as wind, rain, or the smell of something.
For example, it is contained in the lyrics of the song Berita Untuk Kawan sung by Ebiet G Ade. In the song there are lyrics “Or nature is starting to be reluctant to be friends with us, let’s try asking the swaying grass.”
Well, the lyrics contain a personification figure of speech, because the grass is described as a human who can be asked.
2. Comparing inanimate objects like living things
This personification figure of speech sometimes has similarities with fables and is included in the category of comparative figure of speech. This personification figure of speech has the characteristic of comparing an eye object to a living object. The point is that inanimate objects are given characteristics or described as living things.
3. Involve the five senses
The five senses here are five specific human sensory organs. These five sensory organs function as inhaling or smelling, tasting, seeing, touching, and hearing. The involvement of the five senses can create an element of proximity or closeness, even though sentences with personification figures of speech are imaginative in nature.
What Are the Functions of Personification Majas?
In writing literary works, personification figure of speech has several functions, namely:
1. Creating an imaginative impression
The use of personification figure of speech in a literary work sentence serves to build the imagination of the readers while reading it. Readers can imagine the atmosphere to the feelings of the subject in the literary work.
2. Beautify the arrangement of sentences
The use of personification in a literary work serves to beautify the sentence structure, so that it doesn’t seem too stiff.
3. Give effect and describe the atmosphere
Personification figure of speech can give effects and also describe a certain atmosphere based on beautiful wordings according to the wishes of the writer to his readers.
4. Strengthen relationships
The use of personification in a work can also help strengthen a sense of connectedness or connection between readers as humans and an inanimate object in the work.
5. Facilitate the reader in understanding the atmosphere
The use of this personification figure of speech can also help readers to more easily understand the atmosphere and also the emotions felt by the characters or subjects in a literary work. This is usually very necessary when writing short stories and novels.
Advantages of Using Personification Figures
In fact, literary writers may use a non-figurative language style in each of their writings. However, the application of figurative language using personification figures of speech is considered capable of providing more advantages to literary works than when using only common language styles. Then some of the advantages when using personification figure of speech are:
- Gives a greater sense of ownership of inanimate objects or when we see living things other than humans around us. Inanimate objects as well as living things other than humans will be more visible than just providing benefits.
- The use of this figurative language style can further open the eyes of the readers and also immerse the reader in the various things presented in literature, for example its beauty.
- For those who are less sensitive to their surroundings, the use of this figurative language can make it easier for them to appreciate the objects around them because these objects will be likened to humans.
Examples of Personification Majas
As explained earlier, the use of figurative language with personification tends to be easy and simple. That way, anyone can actually do it. You only need to give “typically human” characteristics to an inanimate object or creature other than humans.
The following is an example of the personification figure of speech in the Top Book SMP Class IX book published by the Sigma team along with its explanation when applied to a sentence.
- The grain of rice bowed and said good morning to the pedestrians.
In the sentence above, this figure of speech is found in the word “grains of rice bow”. This language style gives behavior or traits that are usually carried out by humans to grains of rice that actually have no life. - That night, the moon peeked behind the clouds along with the leaves dancing to the music of the night.
The words “moon peeps” and “leaves dance” are forms of personification. It is in this word that human nature is described in an inanimate form. - The firefighters have been battling the flames for more than two hours at the blaze.
We all know that fire is an inanimate object. However, how can a firefighter appear to be fighting a fire? Of course, this is just a figure of speech to make the sentence more alive. - The moon and stars will continue to accompany the journey tonight.
The moon and stars are inanimate objects. In personification figure of speech, the moon and stars are given a touch of human nature that can accompany them. - The dance of the falling leaves is so beautiful to see at dusk like this.
How can a leaf dance? It is only a personification figure of speech, which serves to describe the beauty of the atmosphere at dusk. - I like walking past the cake shop across the street the most, because every day there is the smell of the chef’s baking that seduces my nostrils .
In this sentence, the smell of baking a cake is given human-like characteristics, namely seductive. Even though the meaning of the sentence is the aroma of the cake smells very good and very delicious. - I will no longer dissolve in sorrow. I’m sure that tomorrow will be brighter with the sunshine smiling cheerfully greeting me in the morning.
Impossible sunlight can give a cheerful smile and greet humans. This is a personification figure of speech that wants to describe that a person’s optimistic mind is so that he is no longer too wrapped up in sadness, by means of which he must believe that tomorrow is a new, better day. - I kept walking alone in the darkness of the night until I didn’t realize that the sun had woken up from its bed to replace the moon’s residence.
The sun that has awakened from its bed is an inanimate object given by human nature. This sentence wants to tell that there is someone who is walking alone at night, until he doesn’t realize that the night has turned into morning.
The use of personification figure of speech in a literary work is carried out because of a partition or boundary between humans and other living things or objects outside of humans. The use of this personification figurative language style is able to remove existing boundaries, so that humans can better appreciate and live up to the contents of a literary work.
That’s a complete explanation of the personification figure of speech, its characteristics, along with examples that are easy to understand #FriendsWithoutLimits, so you can implement them directly in a literary work. There are lots of figure of speech, not only personification figure of speech, to find out other types of figure of speech, you can #MoreWithReading books about figure of speech that you can get at sinaumedia.com.