To the question of what a comparison is in literature, one can briefly answer that it is a trope, that is, a special one. This technique is based on displaying certain properties of the described object or phenomenon by comparing these features with others, based on how others see or perceive them or the author himself.

Components of Comparisons

This path is characterized by the presence of three components: the described object or phenomenon, the object with which it is compared, and the basis for analogy, that is, a common feature. An interesting fact is that the name itself, an indication of this common feature, can be omitted in the text. But the reader or listener still perfectly understands and feels what the author of the statement wanted to convey to the interlocutor or reader.

However, the very understanding of the definition, which explains what a comparison is in the literature, does not yet give a complete picture without examples. And here a clarification immediately arises: with the help of what parts of speech and in what forms do the authors form these tropes?

Types of comparisons in the literature for nouns

Several types of comparisons can be distinguished.

Mode of action comparisons in the literature

Typically, such constructions involve verbs and adverbs, nouns or whole phrases and

Why are comparisons needed in literature?

Having dealt with the question of what a comparison is in literature, it is necessary to understand: are they needed? To do this, you need to do a little research.

Here is one that uses comparisons: “The dark forest stood as if after a fire. The moon was hiding behind the clouds, as it covers her face with a black scarf. The wind seems to have fallen asleep in the bushes.

And here is the same text, in which all comparisons were removed. “The dark forest stood. The moon was hiding behind the clouds. Wind". In principle, the meaning itself is conveyed in the text. But how much more figuratively the picture of the night forest is presented in the first version than in the second!

Are comparisons necessary in ordinary speech?

Some may think that comparisons are necessary only for writers and poets. But ordinary people in their ordinary lives do not need them at all. This statement is absolutely false!

At the doctor’s appointment, the patient, describing his feelings, will definitely resort to comparisons: “The heart hurts ... It’s like it’s cutting with a knife, otherwise it’s like someone is squeezing it into a fist ...” Grandmother, explaining to her granddaughter how to make dough for pancakes, is also forced to compare : "You add water until the dough becomes like thick sour cream." Mom tiredly pulls the excessively amused baby: “Stop jumping like a hare!”

Probably, many will object that the article is devoted to comparisons in the literature. What is our common speech? Be proud, the townsfolk: many people speak using literary speech. Therefore, even vernacular is one of the layers of literature.

Comparisons in the highly specialized literature

Even technical texts cannot do without comparisons. For example, in order not to repeat the process already described above in the recipe for cooking fried fish, for short, the author often writes: "Fish should be fried in the same way as cutlets."

Or in a manual for people who master the basics of designing from plywood or wood, you can find the phrase: “The screws are screwed in with a drill in the same way as they are unscrewed. Just before work, you should set it to the desired mode.

Comparisons are a necessary technique in the literature of various directions. The ability to use them correctly distinguishes a cultured person.

The Russian language is rich and diverse, with the help of it we ask questions, share impressions, information, convey emotions, talk about what we remember.

Our language allows us to draw, show and create verbal pictures. Literary speech is like painting (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Painting

In verse and prose, bright, picturesque speech that stimulates the imagination, in such a speech figurative language is used.

Figurative means of language- these are ways and techniques of recreating reality, making it possible to make speech vivid and figurative.

Sergei Yesenin has the following lines (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Text of the poem

Epithets make it possible to look at the autumn nature. By means of juxtaposition, the author gives the reader the opportunity to see how the leaves fall, as if flock of butterflies(Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Mapping

as if is an indication of the comparison (Fig. 4). Such a comparison is called comparison.

Rice. 4. Mapping

Comparison - this is a comparison of the depicted object or phenomenon with another object according to a common feature for them. For comparison you need:

To find something in common between the two phenomena;
Special word with collation meaning - as if, exactly, as, as if, as if

Consider the line of a poem by Sergei Yesenin (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. A line of a poem

First, the reader is presented with a fire, and then a mountain ash. This is due to equalization, identification by the author of two phenomena. It is based on the similarity of rowan clusters with a fiery red fire. But the words as if, as if, exactly are not used because the author does not compare rowan with a fire, but calls it a fire, this metaphor.

Metaphor - transferring the properties of one object or phenomenon to another according to the principle of their similarity.

Metaphor, like comparison, is based on similarity, but difference from comparison in that it happens without the use of special words (as if, as if).

When studying the world, one can see something in common between phenomena, and this is reflected in the language. The visual means of language are based on the similarity of objects and phenomena. Thanks to comparison and metaphor, speech becomes brighter, more expressive, you can see the verbal pictures that poets and writers create.

Sometimes the comparison is created without a special word, in a different way. For example, as in the lines of S. Yesenin's poem "The fields are compressed, the groves are bare ..." (Fig. 6):

Rice. 6. Lines from S. Yesenin's poem "The fields are compressed, the groves are bare ..."

Month compared to colt that is growing before our eyes. But there are no words indicating a comparison; a creative comparison is used (Fig. 7). Word colt stands in the Instrumental case.

Rice. 7. Using the Instrumental for Comparison

Consider the lines of S. Yesenin's poem "The golden grove dissuaded ..." (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8. "The golden grove dissuaded ..."

In addition to metaphor (Fig. 9), personification is used, for example, in the phrase dissuaded the grove(Fig. 10).

Rice. 9. Metaphor in a poem

Rice. 10. Personification in a poem

Personification is a kind of metaphor, when an inanimate object is described as living. This is one of the most ancient speech techniques, because our ancestors animated the inanimate in myths, fairy tales and folk poetry.

Exercise

Find comparisons and metaphors in Sergei Yesenin's poem "Birch" (Fig. 11).

Rice. 11. The poem "Birch"

Answer

Snow compared with silver because it looks like him. Used word exactly(Fig. 12).

Rice. 13. Creative comparison

The metaphor is used in the phrase snowflakes are burning(Fig. 14).

Rice. 15. Personification

Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Klimanova L.F., Babushkina T.V. M.: Education, 2014.
Russian language. 4th grade. Part 1. Kanakina V.P., Goretsky V.G. M.: Education, 2013.
Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V. 5th ed., revised. M., 2013.
Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Ramzaeva T.G. M., 2013.
Russian language. 4th grade. Tutorial in 2 parts. Zelenina L.M., Khokhlova T.E. M., 2013.

Internet portal "Festival of Pedagogical Ideas "Open Lesson"" ()
Internet portal "literatura5.narod.ru" ()

Homework

What are the visual aids used for?
What is needed for comparison?
How is comparison different from metaphor?

Literature (real) is the true art of creating texts, the creation of a new object through words. As in any complex craft, literature has its own special techniques. One of them is "comparison". With its help, for greater expressiveness or ironic contrast, certain objects, their qualities, people, and traits of their character are compared.

In contact with

The kettle, with its upturned trunk, puffed on the stove like a young elephant rushing to a watering place..

─ Ironic assimilation of a small inanimate object to a large animal by comparing the long spout of a teapot and an elephant's trunk.

Comparison: definition

There are at least three definitions of comparison in the literature.

For a literary text, the first definition will be more correct. But the most talented authors of fiction successfully work with the second and third definitions, the role of comparison in the text is so great. Examples of comparisons in literature and folklore of the last two types:

He is stupid as an oak, but cunning as a fox.

Unlike Afanasy Petrovich, Igor Dmitrievich was thin in physique, like a mop handle, just as straight and elongated.

In growth, the pygmies of the Congo Delta are like children, their skin is not black like that of Negroes, but yellowish, like fallen leaves.
In the latter case, along with the use of "negative comparison" ("not"), direct similitude ("as if") is combined.

The Russian language is so rich that the authors of works of art use a huge number of types of comparisons. Philologists can only roughly classify them. Modern philology distinguishes the following two main types of comparison and four more comparisons in fiction.

Direct. In this case, comparative turns (conjunctions) “as if”, “like”, “exactly”, “as if” are used. He bared his soul in front of him, as a nudist exposes his body on the beach.
Indirect. With this assimilation, prepositions are not used. The hurricane swept all the garbage from the streets with a giant janitor.

In the second sentence, the compared noun (“hurricane”) is used in the nominative case, and the compared (“janitor”) is used in the instrumental. Other types:

As far back as the 19th century, the philologist and Slavist M. Petrovsky singled out “Homeric” or “epic” assimilation from detailed comparisons in literature. In this case, the author of the literary text, not caring about brevity, expands the comparison, digressing from the main storyline, from the compared subject as far as his imagination allows. Examples are easy to find in the Iliad or postmodernists.

Ajax rushed at the enemies, like a starving lion at the frightened huddled sheep, who had lost their shepherd, who were left without protection, defenseless, like children without supervision, and can only timidly moan and back away in fear of the lion's thirst for blood and murder, which seizes the predator like madness, intensifying when he senses the horror of the doomed...
It is better not to resort to the epic type of comparisons for a novice writer of literary texts. The young writer must wait until his literary prowess and sense of artistic harmony have grown. Otherwise, an inexperienced beginner himself will not notice how, winding one on top of the other, like threads from different balls, such “free associations” will carry him away from the plot of his main narrative, creating semantic confusion. So comparisons in a literary text can not only simplify the understanding of the described subject (a tiger is a huge predatory cat), but also confuse the narration.

Comparison in verse

The role of literary comparison in poetry is especially important. The poet uses the richness of the language to create a unique and aesthetically valuable work of art, or rather to convey his idea to the reader.

We are often hard and bad

From the tricks of a tricky fate,

But we, with the obedience of camels

We carry our humps.

With these lines, the poet explains to the reader his own idea that most of the troubles that happen in life are natural, like camels’ humps, that sometimes you just can’t get rid of them, but you just need to “carry” them for some time.

Without you, no work, no rest:

are you a woman or a bird?

After all, you are like a creature of air,

"Vozdushnitsa" - darling!

In most poems, the authors use comparisons to create a bright, beautiful, easy-to-remember image. Most of these colorful comparisons are in the texts of N. Gumilyov, Mayakovsky. But I. Brodsky remains an unsurpassed master of the use of detailed comparisons in artistic literary versification.

Comparisons are also used in spoken language. When writing any text, even a school essay, one cannot do without comparisons. So you need to firmly remember a few rules of punctuation of the literary Russian language. Commas are placed before comparative phrases with the words:

as if
as if
as if,
like,
exactly

So when you write:

He was taller than the teenager she remembered.
The day flared up quickly and hot, like a fire into which gasoline was suddenly splashed.

─ in these situations, do not hesitate, commas are necessary. Much more problems await you with the "how" union. The fact is that, even if the “how” particle is part of a comparative turnover, a comma before it is not needed if:

It can be replaced with a dash. Steppe like a sea of grass.

This union is part of a stable phraseological unit. Faithful like a dog.

The particle is included in the predicate. For me the past is like a dream.

The conjunction, within the meaning of the sentence, is replaced by an adverb or a noun. He looked like a wolf possible substitutions: looked like a wolf , looked like a wolf .

Where else do you need commas

According to the rules of punctuation, commas are not needed before “how” and when it is preceded by adverbs or particles in a sentence:

It's time to end, midnight seems to have struck.

Not separated by commas "as" if it is preceded by a negative particle.

He looked at the new gate not like a ram.
So when you use similes to spruce up or make your text clearer, remember the tricky "how" particle and punctuation rules, and you'll be fine!

Dyakova K.V.,
student of the 4th year of the Institute of Philology of the TSU. G.R. Derzhavin.

Medieval comparison in the system of sound images of E.I. Zamyatin
(Based on the book by D.S. Likhachev “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature”)

The contribution of D. S. Likhachev to the development of literary criticism is largely determined by the fact that he approached the annals not only as a historian, but also as a literary critic proper. He studied the growth and change of the very methods of chronicle writing, their conditionality due to the uniqueness of the Russian historical process. This manifested a deep interest in the problem of the artistic mastery of ancient Russian literature, characteristic of all Likhachev's work, and he considers the style of literature as a manifestation of the artistic consciousness of the nation.

A generalization of D. S. Likhachev’s observations on the artistic specificity of Old Russian literature was his article “On the Study of the Artistic Methods of Russian Literature in the 11th-17th Centuries.” (1964), and, of course, the book "Poetics of Old Russian Literature" (1967), awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1969). The monograph by D. S. Likhachev is distinguished by the breadth of the range of phenomena under consideration and the harmony of the composition, which makes it possible to connect, it would seem, the most distant phenomena of artistic life - from the peculiarities of stylistic symmetry in the monuments of translated literature of Kievan Rus to the problems of the poetics of time in the works of Goncharov or Dostoevsky. This complex composition of the book is due to the concept of the unity of Russian literature constantly developed by D. S. Likhachev; the principle of analysis of the phenomena of poetics in their development determines the construction of all sections of the monograph. Therefore, an attempt to analyze the modern artistic trope from the standpoint of the Russian medieval poetic system is quite reasonable and easily fits into the context of Likhachev's entire scientific work.

Developing the poetics of ancient Russian literature, D.S. Likhachev refers to comparison as one of the literary means, especially significant for the Old Russian text. In the section “From the Author”, which precedes the study, Likhachev defines the central task of the book: “to deepen information about the variability of literary phenomena.” It indicates a kind of research path: “in this book, the main attention is paid to those aspects of Russian literature that distinguish it from the new one. Differences make it possible to reveal the individuality of ancient literature. Turning to the system of ancient Russian comparisons described by Likhachev in his monograph, and “passing” through this system the literary text of the writer of the “modern” time (XX century), we can draw conclusions about the individuality of his author’s writing and, at the same time, about the strength of continuity, indicated in these texts, about the artist's attraction to the roots of Russian culture.

Consideration of E.I. Zamyatin through the prism of ancient Russian literature, and in our case, the analysis of the typical features of comparisons (Russian medieval and modern literature) used to build sound images in a work, becomes possible, first of all, thanks to the writer’s repeated appeal to the stylistic manner works of ancient Russian literature (“On the Holy Sin of Zenitsa the Virgin” (1916), “On How the Monk Erasmus Was Healed” (1920)); secondly, due to the peculiarities of the character, or rather the “inner essence” (Likhachev’s term) of the old Russian comparison and the way of sounding based on comparison.

In the modern "Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts" comparison is defined as "a type of path based on the likening of correlated phenomena." Such is the nature of comparisons in a generalized form, and this is indisputable. However, there is a centuries-old barrier between the ancient Russian comparison and the comparison of the "new" time, which allows us to speak about different types of comparison developed by that time and the historical situation when these paths functioned. Likhachev emphasizes that "comparisons in ancient Russian literature differ sharply in their character and inner essence from comparisons in modern literature."

It is important that the scientist does not try to create a clear, complete system of differences, but gives a number of remarks that characterize the Old Russian comparison precisely from the point of view of its individuality and originality.

Let's try to define clear boundaries between ancient Russian and modern types of comparisons, thus summing up Likhachev's research. The fundamental difference, according to the scientist, lies in the multidirectional orientation of comparisons of ancient Russian and modern ones. Thus, the comparison in the literature of modern times is maximally visualized, aimed at conveying visual similarities between objects, entities. It is thanks to this feature that the “joy of recognition” and the joy of direct visibility “that arise during reading become possible. This is the so-called impressionistic type of comparison, which is characteristic of the "new" literature. The Old Russian comparison concerns mainly "the inner essence of the compared objects". Likhachev explains: “It seems strange to us to compare the Mother of God with a “delighted chamber.” The strangeness of this comparison is not only that the Mother of God is compared with an architectural structure - a stone house, but also in the very epithet of this "chamber" - "rejoiced." This epithet clearly shows that the writer perceives the "chamber" not in a material sense, but as a pure symbol. The writer does not seek to concretely imagine the objects of comparison. He compares "essences" and therefore considers it possible to give a "spiritual" epithet to a material object, and vice versa.

Thus, the existence of two different types of comparison is due, first of all, to the antithesis appearance - visual similarity based on momentary sensations or the play of the author's fantasy - essence - the main feature that characterizes a certain inner essence of the compared.

With regard to Zamyatin's prose, two central questions arise: 1) does the writer use comparisons built according to medieval models with formal observance of literary etiquette in works stylized as an Old Russian text? 2) can formally modern comparison, i.e. which is stylistically neutral at the present time, be based on the principles that served as the basis for Russian medieval comparison, namely, on the commonality of being, despite the destruction of external similarity?

We also recall that the material of our study is not any artistic image, but the image of sound. The sound image (sound image) in the article is understood as artistic images that capture the sound manifestations of human and natural existence, which are organic elements of a single artistic whole.

The question arises: what is considered a comparison of the modern type, and what is a comparison of the Old Russian type in relation to the image of sound? In its own way, the modern, impressionistic type of comparison in this case will correspond to such a sound image, where the sound is both the object of comparison and the (subject) of comparison. Comparison of the new time, as a rule, consists of two elements, conditionally located in the same plane - they are essentially equivalent to each other. So, the image is likened to the image - the object is described through the object. According to the same scheme and as a sound image based on a comparison of the modern type, we will consider a sound image based on the “sound-sound” model. For clarity, let's give a few examples from Zamyatin's works: “The whooping girl called wildly, and her mouth was closed and it was as if someone's inhuman voice was calling under the arches” (“Surveyor”); “an old English clock in a tavern - they beat slowly, in a bass voice - exactly the Kostroma cathedral bell” (“Unlucky”); “... she howled not with her own, a woman’s, but with an animal voice” (“Womb”). Let's comment on the last example. It is a classic negative comparison. At the heart of the image is a common essence - the voice. Therefore, the writer does not even repeat twice - “voice”, but only changes epithets. The sound is recreated in the reader's imagination through another sound - this corresponds to a modern, somewhat simplified type of comparison.

Another example: “It was quiet, only somewhere far away, like sentries, roosters called to each other in the dark” (“Scourge of God”) - roosters are compared with sentries again by the nature of the sound they make. “Roll call” is the single essence that holds the image together. “Scream in the same voice as then the shoemaker about the Last Judgment” (“Flood”); “The water rustled all around like thousands of arshins of silk” (“Yola”); “Someone sang, slowly, hoarsely, howled like a dog at the dreary silver of the month” (“Alatyr”) - all these are sound images-comparisons built according to a single principle, they are based on the general “sound-sound” model. Therefore, we refer them to the modern type of comparison, based on the direct similarity between objects or phenomena of the same kind.

The specificity of the sound image, its difference from any other artistic image, lies in its initially intangible essence. Before us is not an object, not a character, but a sound that the writer often recreates precisely through comparison with another object or concept. The realism of the image depends here on the accuracy of the image found for comparison. So, if in medieval comparison the object of comparison is most often a symbol that destroys visual similarity, as in the above example with “the Mother of God - a delighted chamber”, then in the sound image the object of comparison is often a symbol precisely because of the specifics of the material itself.

Let us turn to a specific example: “Andrey Ivanovich trembled with a thin, very sharp trembling and heard it like a string, somewhere at the very end of the keyboard to the right, everything rang and rang ...” (“In the middle of nowhere”). Trembling as a physical property of the human body in general, as you know, is not a sound and is not accompanied by sound. However, being "explained" by the described sound - "string, ... at the very end of the keyboard to the right", which is of secondary importance in relation to the trembling itself, brought precisely as an "auxiliary element" to explain the sound of the trembling - the trembling acquires the status of a sound image. The elements of this comparison are, therefore, absolutely different from each other: trembling is, in this case, a certain state, the ringing of a string is a sound. However, the author places them, as it were, on the same plane, finds something in common, crossing the “generic” boundaries. This common thing is the same “inner essence” that Likhachev spoke of in relation to comparison in ancient Russian literature. There is a destruction of the conditional external similarity, characteristic of the medieval type of comparison, in order to reveal the similarity of the internal, “spiritual” meaning.

It is worth noting that the "sounding tremor" is not a random, single image in Zamyatin's prose, but a recurring one. In another, much later written work - the novel "We" (1921), the following words are heard: "... listened to music: my barely audible trembling." Trembling as a sound becomes a symbolic, to a certain extent symbolic image in the writer's work.

Let us give another example of an image based on a comparison: "... almost not bent - like a wooden ruler - the voice of Yu" ("We"). Here the situation is in many respects the opposite: already the sound itself is “explained” by means of comparison with the object - the voice and the wooden ruler at a certain threshold of meaning are equated to each other. Just as the ancient Russian writer gives the image of the chamber the epithet “rejoiced”, Zamyatin is not afraid to define the initially non-material “instance” - the voice with the help of a physical property inherent in an exclusively material object - “not bent”, thereby ignoring and destroying any visual similarity.

The following use of the comparison is noteworthy: “In silence - a distinct buzzing of wheels, like the noise of inflamed blood” (“We”). On the one hand, the “sound-sound” model is on the face: buzzing is compared with noise. On the other hand, the "noise of inflamed blood", of course, is not a sound in the literal sense. It is rather a feeling caused by a certain psychological or physical condition. The “distinct hum of wheels” in silence in a certain situation is associated with the hero, causes the very sensation that he describes as “the noise of inflamed blood”. Consequently, this comparison is not self-evident; the unity of the inner essence again becomes the basis for it, which is characteristic of the Old Russian type of comparison.

Finding comparisons in modern literature, which are based on the principle that is decisive for Old Russian comparison, we are by no means trying to prove that the modern comparisons given are some kind of tracing paper from Old Russian comparisons, but we only state the fact that this principle, conditionally called the principle of inner essence and opposed to the principle of visual similarity, is not obsolete, but only in slightly different variations is perceived by the literature of modern times, revised by it and preserved.

Let us now turn to Zamyatin's work, which is directly stylistically oriented to ancient Russian church legends. This, for example, is the story “On how the monk Erasmus was healed” (1920) from the “Miracles” cycle. Due to the general stylization of the work under the Old Russian source, it is most logical to look for sound images based on a comparison of the medieval type, just here. Let us give a number of examples of sound images-comparisons that can be found in the story: “all night long, light, as if from tickling, laughter and a certain creaking were heard, and terrible, like black tar, dew dripped down”; “Blessed Pamva ... stopped in amazement, hearing heavy sighs and groans outside the window, as if of a huge beast”; “he heard a light, as if from a bursting vessel, ringing”; “Laughter was heard at the height of the roofs, as if from tickling and creaking and whispering.” All these sound images are created according to the same model: one sound is “explained” through another, connecting with the help of the union “as if”. Despite the stylistic predestination, there are no comparisons corresponding to the Old Russian type. In any of the above examples, only the outer shell is preserved from the Old Russian comparison: inversion turns, stringing of homogeneous members with a connecting connection between each other, stylistically marked words ... like this: “the young monk had a voice of purity, like a mountain cry ringing from the heights.” However, there is also no comparison based on the unity of the inner essence.

The only comparison in the work that looks like a truly ancient Russian, both formally and meaningfully, is found in the following sound image: "her voice pierced the heart of Erasmus, like a kind of sweet sword." By such a comparison, the author seeks to reveal, as it were, the “internal qualities” of the voice. The epithet "sweet", used in this case in a figurative sense, and attached to a material object, emphasizes that for the writer the sword is only a symbol. Likhachev in his monograph “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” writes about this: “In this kind of permutation of the epithet from one object of comparison to another, the specific meaning of words is destroyed, the figurative meaning comes to the fore.”

Zamyatin creates sound images in his works with the help of comparisons of different types, both modern, impressionistic, and Russian medieval. Moreover, the principle of the internal essence of the compared objects, which is decisive for the Old Russian comparison, is often used by the writer in formally modern comparisons that are not stylistically marked. In works stylistically oriented towards the Old Russian text, on the contrary, sound images-comparisons predominate, corresponding to Old Russian samples only in their external form, but by no means in their internal saturation.

Thus, the features of ancient Russian comparisons listed by Likhachev, in contrast to modern comparisons, often characterize the comparisons used by Zamyatin to create an image of sound, which gives reason to think about the deep, fundamental, sometimes, maybe even unconscious, but nevertheless strong connection of the prose of the writer of the "new" time with the traditions of Ancient Russia.

Literature
1. Zamyatin E.I. Sobr. cit.: in 5 volumes - M., 2004.
2. Zamyatin E.I. Selected works / foreword. V.B. Shklovsky, introductory article. V.A. Keldysh. - M., 1989.
3. Zamyatin E.I. Selected works. - M., 1990.
4. Likhachev D.S. Poetics of ancient Russian literature. - L., 1971.
5. Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts / ed. A.N. Nikolyukin. - M, 2003.

Materials of the regional conference of young researchers "Lessons of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev". Tambov, November 28, 2006

In life, we constantly resort to comparisons. This is how we do in the store, comparing products before making a choice. We compare the actions of people, their qualities, films, music, etc. And this is right, because everything is known in comparison. But what is a comparison?

Term meanings

The term comparison is used in a variety of fields. In everyday life, comparison is the identification of qualities according to the principle of assimilation, finding out whether objects are equal to each other, which one is better. Often "comparison" is defined as a way of revealing the unity and diversity of things. In mathematics, this is a comparison of numbers for equality and inequality (more-less). Thus, the main meaning of the word "comparison" is the process of comparing the various properties of two objects, both qualitative and quantitative.

The term "comparison" is used in psychology, sociology, philosophy. In psychology, there are special comparison tests to determine the degree of development of mental abilities. "Comparison" in philosophy is a cognitive operation, with the help of which the characteristics of processes and phenomena are revealed.

Comparison in literature

But the most emotionally we perceive literary comparisons. What is comparison in literature? This is an artistic technique (or tropes) based on comparing the qualities of phenomena, objects or people, as well as likening one object (phenomenon) to another. The purpose of literary comparison is to reveal the image more fully through common features. In comparison, both compared objects are always mentioned, although the common feature itself may be omitted.

Types of literary comparisons

Simple comparisons are turns expressed with the help of unions: as if, exactly, as if, as if, directly, etc. (“Fast, like a deer”).
Like a tiger, life tears the body with its claws,

And the sky took the mind and heart into fetters ...

(Baba Tahir).
Unionless - through a compound nominal predicate.
So thin is my summer robe -

Wings of a cicada!
Negative - one object is opposed to another. Often used in folk expressions (“It’s not the wind that bends the branch, It’s not the oak forest that makes noise”).
Comparisons "creative" - using a noun in the instrumental case.
Joy crawls like a snail

The mountain has a frantic run ...

(V. Mayakovsky).
Comparison using the adverb of the mode of action (“Screamed like an animal”).
Genitives - with the help of a noun in the genitive case ("Ran at the speed of the wind", in contrast to "Run at the speed of the wind").

So, you have learned what a comparison is, examples of literary comparisons. But comparative turns are widely used not only in literature, but also in scientific, colloquial speech. Without comparisons, our speech would be less figurative and vivid.