Simile is of the same nature

Simile is of the same nature as metaphor, it shows likeness in dissimilar objects. The difference is between implicit imagery and explicit imagery, between image by analogy and image by identification in case of metaphor.

Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference.

Examples:
The boy seems to be as clever as his mother. (Ordinary comparison).
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare. (Byron) (Simile).

The two components of simile are joined by conjunctions “like, as if, as though, as… as”; sometimes the comparison is expressed by verbs: to seem, to remind of, to resemble; by degrees of comparison (-er).

The Structure of an Image

Both Simile and Metaphor present structure and may be analyzed into their component parts:
The tenor – the theme we are talking about
The vehicle – that to which the tenor is compared
The ground – the common feature of the two

Example:
Darkness when once it fell, fell it like a stone. (G (the ground) - heaviness, weight)

The Semantics of an Image

Galperin: The image as a purely linguistic notion, is something that must be decided by the reader. So are the subtle inner relations between the parts of an utterance and between the utterances themselves.

Арнольд: Образ является основным средством художественного обобщения действительности. В широком смысле термин «образ» означает отражение внешнего мира в сознании. Специфика художественного образа состоит в том, что, давая человеку новое познание мира, он одновременно передает и определенное отношение к отражаемому.
Значение образа осуществляется в неразрывной связи со свойствами выражающего его слова или слов. В отличие от слова образ всегда отличается экспрессивностью, а часто эмоциональностью и оценочностью

1. Both Simile and Metaphor show likeness in dissimilar objects, there must be something striking, unexpected in every image; it must produce a surprise effect. British linguists call it disparity action (неравенство, несоответствие, несоразмерность).
e.g. A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

2. The genuine image has multiple meaning. The essential feature of a metaphor is a certain semantic distance between the tenor and the vehicle because if they are too close the perspective of double vision may be ruined. In metaphor we deal with a blending of two meanings into one as if two transparent planes are matched and one is seen through the other.
3. Ambiguity (двусмысленность, неопределенность). Metaphor must be capable of rendering more than one interpretation.

The Functions of an Image
To extend language in order to express the inexpressible.
To clear up the meaning, to make the narrative concrete and definite, visual.
To reveal certain, to convey certain feelings about what is being described.

Extended or Sustained Images
Images may be single, expressed in one word or phrase, and extended, developed in various ways. The writer may add new and new details to the vehicle discovering the analogy with the tenor in more than one point making all kinds of variations on the theme.
Simile and Metaphor may be realized on a supersentence level within a passage, sometimes within the whole book.
e.g. John Updike “Centaur” /’sento:/

The sustained image is elaborated in a series of images which are logically connected. There is a central image and contributory images.
e.g. He behaved like a lion, and roared and jumped and ate his rivals.
(a lion – central image; roared, jumped, ate – contributory images).

Tropes of Contiguity
Metonymy (метонимия) is a trope in which the name of some object or idea is substituted for another to which it has some permanent objectively existing relations. Metonymy may be based on different relations between the object implied and the object named.

In Metonymy the relations between the object named and the object implied may be different:
1. The relation between an object and the material of which it is made:
e.g. I am fond of glass (хрусталь).
I am fond of China (фарфор).
2. The relation between the instrument and the action it performs:
e.g. The pen (metonymy) is stronger than the sword (direct meaning).
3. The relation between the symbol and the phenomenon it symbolizes:
e.g. Grey hair should be respected.

4. The relation between the man and the thing he possesses:
e.g. “Blue suit grinned, might even have winked. But big nose in grey suit still stared – and he had small angry eyes and didn’t even smile.” (J.B. Priestly)
5. The relation between the whole and the part, between the individual and the class, between the container and the thing it contains:
e.g. The hall applauded. I want to have a word with you (the relation between the singular and the plural). He drank a cup.
6. The relation between the abstract and the concrete:
e.g. Where did this beauty come from?

Synecdoche (синекдоха)
Synecdoche (синекдоха) – from Greek synekdochẽ (соподразумевание). Перенос значения с одного явления на другое по признаку количественного отношения между ними: употребление названия целого вместо названия части, общего вместо частного и наоборот: Начальство осталось довольною (вместо начальник). Взыскательный покупатель (вместо покупатели).