Abstract： Pathetic Fallacy， first put forward by Ruskin， is defined as a literary device that attributes human qualities and emotions to inanimate objects of nature （Ruskin， J.， 1856）. Pathetic Fallacy can be widely seen in the romanticists works of both China and England to express the writers individuality and unique emotions. As stated by Zhang Delu， pathetic fallacy belongs to the category of metaphor （Zhang Delu， 2005）. Personification is used to attribute features of human to inanimate objects or creatures ranging from plants and animals. These two are both applied to map the semantic meaning of one lexical set into another set， thus achieving desired effects. This thesis is designated to list Pathetic Fallacy as one of the Personification from three aspects： cognition， and effects of both.

Key words： Pathetic fallacy， Personification

I. The Cognitive Aspect：

Pathetic Fallacy and Personification both find their wide existence in literature especially in poems. In literature， inanimate objects are displayed in two ways： the way they are in real world and the way they are with human emotions in peoples imagination. Ruskin defines Pathetic Fallacy as a device authors use to create a fallacy that is acceptable to readers （Ruskin， J.， 1856）. As mentioned above， romanticists frequently immerse the inanimate objects in human passions. Take a Chinese romantic poem as an example：

一夕輕雷落萬絲，霽光浮瓦碧參差。

有情芍藥含春淚，無力薔薇臥曉枝

[ 秦觀，《春日》]

Here， Qin Guan vividly demonstrates his sentimentality through painting tranquil but melancholic spring scenery. Through the descriptions， readers are able to capture poets melancholy after suffering career predicaments. The application enables readers imagine the scenery described. This process is actually the cognitive acceptation. For personification， it is a cognitive phenomenon in nature and is grounded in our daily experience. It roots in the mapping from the source domain of human to the target domain of no-human entities. For example：

A host， of golden daffodils，

Besides the lake， beneath the trees，

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

[Williams Wordsworth， I Wondered lonely as a Cloud]

Here， the golden daffodils are personified as dancing and fluttering man. Based on our experience， we can portray the dancing and fluttering daffodils. Thus， Wordsworth is mapping the move and dance of man to the daffodils. Hence， from above analysis， we can see that Personification can map human feelings and other human features like dancing to the domain of no-human entities while Pathetic Fallacy can only map human feelings.

II. The Function

Through the willful fallacy of animating non-human entities with human emotions， Pathetic Fallacy facilitates the disclosure of the writers inner passions and add emotional effects to the whole work， while also creating a much vivid imagine.

上有六龍回日之高標(biāo)，下有沖波逆折之回川。

黃鶴之飛尚不得過，猿猱欲度愁攀援。

[ 李白，《蜀道難》]

Here， by equipping the monkeys with the feeling of worry， the author vividly describes how difficult it is to set our foot into the Shu areas and hereby praising the magnificent scenery of our country. Moreover， the express power of writers is enhanced when applying the Pathetic Fallacy. Briefly， Pathetic Fallacy is designed for the semantic transference of one lexical set to another lexical set， thus highlights some features of the later. As for Personification， it is to attribute features of human， not just emotions， to inanimate objects or creatures. Thus Personification also involves a fallacy but this range of fallacy is much wider. As Zhang Delu clarifies， Personification is a fallacy of human nature （Zhang Delu， 2005）. Compared with the willful fallacy of emotion， the fallacy of human nature creates more resonance from readers， thus achieving more intense emotional influences on them. See the following examples：

黃河遠(yuǎn)上白云間，一片孤城萬仞山。

羌笛何須怨楊柳，春風(fēng)不度玉門關(guān)。

[ 王之渙，《涼州詞·黃河遠(yuǎn)上白云間》]

In this example， Qiangdi is personified as a man who has resentments towards the unburgeoning willows. This poem actually uses this personification to express the bleak situations of soldiers protecting the country in the far remote frontier. Carrying more profound meaning， Personification therefore covers the function range of Pathetic Fallacy.

As a result， from the definition interpreted at the beginning， Personification possesses a broader concept than Pathetic Fallacy. In the field of cognitive aspect， human features including the feature of emotion can be mapped from the source domain of human to the target domain of no-human entities. Additionally， Personification can reach more profound field that is not accessible to Pathetic Fallacy from the view of function. Yet with the above two comparisons， Pathetic Fallacy is a one type of Personification especially applied to transfer emotions of human to non-human objects.

References：

[1] Ruskin， J.， "Of the Pathetic Fallacy"， Modern Painters III， 1856.

[2] Zhang Delu. 語言的功能與文體， Higher Education Press， P161-p162， 2005.

作者簡介：吳文婷（1994.05—），女，漢族，四川成都人，單位：西南財經(jīng)大學(xué)經(jīng)貿(mào)外語學(xué)院，碩士研究生，研究方向：跨文化交際。