What's the literary term?! :(

[OedipusReD]

i'm having a hard time putting my finger on the proper term for this technique, or literary device
"dreaming air" is one of the examples, you wouldnt expect air to dream right, so... dammit, i'm sure there's a term for it

[Basil]

pathetic fallacy:

In the arts, the presentation of natural events and objects as controlled by human emotions, so that in some way they express human sorrow or joy (‘a brave little snowdrop’; ‘the heavens smiled on our enterprise’). The phrase was coined by the English critic John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843–60), to describe the ascription of human feelings to the outside world.

[mono]

I think this example of "dreaming air" may fit under the category of a style called zeugma, which relates itself with an oxymoron, comparing two seemingly opposing things ('dreaming' and 'air,' in this case), but one, usually a verb, and another, usually a noun, often differ in that one seems material ('air'), and another immaterial ('dreaming').
This would seem an example as a fallacy also, as Basil suggested, though seeming a more general term, as zeugma, in my opinion, proves as a type of fallacy.

[OedipusReD]

k thanks
tho, i thought zeugma was something else altogether
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=zeugma
tho your definitions help :nod:

[mono]

Oops! My mistake! Instead of committing all of these terms to an inefficient memory, I suppose I should research the term before helping anyone. :p

[Jay]

personification? unanimate objects 'acting' animately?

"to treat something as if it were in the form of a human being"

[amuse]

is it air dreaming or dreaming air - personification could work for the first, and for the second it's a matter of how much does one want to argue for something. :p

[smilingtearz]

i agree with Basil and...this has to be fallacy...
Personification would be for something unanimate..ur right...considering the way Oedipus puts it "you wouldnt expect air to dream right?"...i think it does some up to being personification of the "air"

[smilingtearz]

i agree with Basil and mono...this has to be fallacy...
Personification would be for something unanimate..ur right...considering the way Oedipus puts it "you wouldnt expect air to dream right?"...i think it does some up to being the personification of the "air"

[Bluraven]

Perhaps the term ANTHROPOMORPHISM would be accurate? I believe it is an ascribing human traits or emotions to non-human things..."a crying rock", "the thunder raged"...etc.

[Countess]

Personification.