We explain what a comparison is and the types that exist. In addition, what are the rhetorical figures and some examples of this action.
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What is a comparison?
Comparison to the action of comparing two or more things is understood to give their possible similarities, differences or relationships of some kind, whether appealing to their physical aspect or to the symbolic or imaginary one. In that way, one can compare two individuals and highlight their physical similarities or, conversely, their personality differences, for example.
The comparison is also a subjective process, which says a lot about who compares, because it reveals the aspects that attract attention, or the particular way in which it links things. This use is very common in literary language, in which similes or metaphors are used , that is, poetic forms of comparison, to give the language a greater expressive force or achieve greater beauty in its contents.
Broadly speaking, it could be said that the comparisons can be of three types, taking into account the relationship established between the two objects compared:
- Of equality . It seeks to print to one of the referents the properties associated with the other, that is, establish a relationship of similarity or proportionality, among them. For example, when comparing the planet Earth with a baseball, we could refer to shared sphericity.
- Of inferiority . One of the terms compared turns out to be less than the other in some sense and the comparison seeks to reinforce that idea. It is typical of comparisons that use the formula “less than …” or “less than …”.
- Of superiority . On the contrary, here one of the terms is compared with the other to accentuate its superiority or greatness. He often uses the formula “greater than …” or “more than …”, for example.
The comparison enriches especially when it attributes characteristics of an object to another that could never have them, or that could only do so in the imagination.
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Literary figures
Literary figures are unusual forms of expression in everyday language , which syntactically, phonetically or semantically print a power to the message of the text or a beauty derived from its musicality, play or ingenuity.
Some can be extremely complex, such as those related to metrics or the displacement of phonemes within a sentence or verse . Others, on the other hand, point to the comparison of establishing logical meanings of meaning , which allow the writer to say things in a particular, different way.
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Comparison examples
Some examples of comparison may be the following:
- “He had iron ideals” (comparison between ideals and iron).
- “The jet of your face, my beloved” (comparison between black eyes and jet).
- “The sea, enraged as a wild animal …” (comparison between the sea and a beast).
- “We fly which birds on the dance floor” (comparison between the dance so fluid and the flight of the birds).
- “A house smaller than a matchbox” (comparison between the house and the matchbox).
- “A pride greater than the sun” (comparison between pride and the size of the Sun).
- “Faster than a blink” (comparison between the speed of something and the blink).
- “More unhappy than with the visiting mother-in-law” (comparison between someone’s unhappiness and an occasion that is popularly considered negative).
- “It is less refined than a vulture about to eat” (comparison between someone’s manners and the behavior of a vulture when eating).
- “Eat more than new lime” (comparison between someone’s appetite and the abrasive capacity of a new lime).
- “That joke is as funny as a kick in the back” (comparison between the grace of the joke and a painful situation).
