Final answer:
Representing a thing or idea as a person is known as personification, a literary device that gives human qualities to non-human entities. It is used to create vivid imagery and make abstract concepts more relatable.
Step-by-step explanation:
Representing a thing or idea as a person is known as personification. This literary device involves giving human qualities to animals, objects, or abstract concepts for the sake of imagery and expression. An example could be a sentence like "The wind whispered secrets through the trees," where the wind is given the human attribute of whispering, as if it were capable of communication. The use of personification helps to create more vivid and relatable images or ideas in the reader's mind.
The concept of representation has philosophical underpinnings, relating to how we perceive, imagine, or remember things and ideas. In cognitive science, representations are the basic units of thought, encompassing both present realities and fictional or abstract concepts. Personification is a specific type of representation that uses human attributes to describe non-human entities, thus making them more familiar and comprehensible to us. This method of representation can be found in various literary works and is a powerful tool for poets and writers to express complex ideas through simple, humanized imagery.