In English, facts and events are usually expressed with clauses, finite or nonfinite. A finite clause is a clause whose verbal operator indicates either tense or modality. A nonfinite clause is one whose verb element is nonfinite. These clauses can be nominalized and embedded in other clauses via concretization. The nominal finite clauses are that-clauses and wh-clauses. The nominalized nonfinite clauses are to-infinitives and -ing participles. Personification is one
form of concretization. When facts and events are personified, they adopt human features and actions. This will be evidenced by the following examples:
(1) Thinking about her always gives me a lift.
(2) It pays to be honest.
(3) What you did helps enormously.
In (1) and (2), the events expressed by the nonfinite clauses of the -ing participle and the to-infinitive are experienced as humans, so the former can give somebody a lift and the latter can pay. In (3), the fact expressed by a what-clause is regarded as a person, which helps enormously. What should be noted is that the to-infinitive does not appear at the beginning of the sentence. Instead, the formal Subject "it" is put at the beginning. It is usually the same when a that-clause functions as the Subject of a sentence.
In English, facts and events can also be encoded in a nominalization. The nominalized nouns can be regarded as packed clauses because they have "a systematic correspondence with a clause structure". These noun phrases, abstract by nature, are always mentally understood as concrete objects. They are sometimes understood as human beings and thus encoded as such.
When they are expressed in the linguistic norms of human behaviour and action, a metaphorical sentence emerges. For example:
(4) The beauty of the Saxon women filled all England with a new delight and grace.
(5) His failure suggests his carelessness.
(6) Stylistic analysis of a text allows us to do a similar kind of thing—to examine the workings of a text.
In (4), the beauty of the Saxon women is modeled on a person, so it can fill all England with a new delight and grace. Similarly, his failure in (5) is personified, so that it can suggest. In (6) what is personified is stylistic analysis of a text, thus it allows us to do something.
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