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Identification of language features.?
I require some help on English (usage of language). I am unsure about a certain language feature: when an entity is referred to by a glorified noun phrase, what is this language feature called?
For example, "Almighty Being", "Great Author", "Invisible Hand" and "Parent of the Human Race" are noun phrases used to refer to God, and these noun phrases are sound dignified. Is this language feature third-person, allusion or labeling? Or is it simply not a language feature?
Thanks for the help in advance.
1 Answer
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I don't think it is a language feature apart from being a metaphor. Perhaps that is what you mean. Calling God an Almighty Being is a metaphor--partly because obviously God is not a being, and yet he is all powerful (almighty). Calling him a Great Author is clearly a metaphor of a rather pedestrian sort: it is as if human life is a book and God is its author. So, too with Parent of the Human Race.
However, you are mistaken about the "invisible Hand." That has nothing to do with god. It is a term from economics and refers to the free market. Right-wing conservative economists believe that the market has, in a way, its own intelligence, and always determines the correct value for everything in the market. The prices are set by the "Invisible Hand" of economics. But it has nothing to do with God. It is a way of saying that the market has its own logic that is impenetrable by the human mind but is more correct than a human could ever be.