Imaginary is a part of our mind where we imagine things and people. It is also called the ‘image’. A child at an early age imagines and asks questions about different things, when he sees the stars in the sky he asks what they are? how far away from us they are? Why do some stars disappear? etc. All these questions are answered by the adults’ imagination. This is how most of our basic knowledge is stored in our brains. We imagine things to explain them to others or even to ourselves. This process of ‘imagining’ is called imaginary. There are various types of imaginary which we will look into in this article.
What do you mean by imaginary?
Imaginary is a part of our mind. It is the faculty in humans that allows us to create images in our minds. We can imagine things that are not present at the physical level, like ‘rainbow’. Rainbow is not visible to us after every rainfall but if you go out during rainfall, your brain will recreate an image of ‘rainbow’. This is called imaginary.
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What are the various types of imaginary?
There are various types of imaginary
Imaginary can be divided into the following types:
1. Natural imaginary: It is the type of imagination that allows us to understand things in our physical world.
2. Literal imaginary: It is the ability to imagine things that are not real.
3. Digital imaginary: It is the ability to imagine ‘imaginary things’.
4. Virtual imaginary: It is a type of imagination having digital imaginary as a part.
5. Personal imaginary: It is the type of imagination that allows us to create images in our minds about people around us.
6. Experiential imaginary: It is the type of imagination where we imagine things and events that we have experienced.
7. Social imaginary: It is the type of imagination that allows us to create images in our minds about social structures.
8. Ideological imaginary: It is the ability to imagine things that are related to our ideologies.
9. Cultural imaginary: It is the type of imagination that allows us to create images in our minds about various concepts like time, space, and justice.
10. Aesthetic imaginary: It is the type of imagination that allows us to create images in our minds about different concepts related to the arts.
11. Situational imaginary: It is the type of imagination where we imagine things in different situations.
12. Collective imaginary: It is the type of collective images that are shared.
13. Interpersonal imaginary: It is the ability to imagine things in relation to other people.
14. Personal imaginary: It is the ability to imagine things that are personal.
15. Imaginary conscious: It is the type of imaginary where we create images in
16. Spiritual imaginary: It is the ability to imagine things that are related to religion, rituals, and belief systems.
17. Collective imaginary: It is the type of collective imaginary that is shared by a group.
What is imaginative writing?
Imaginative writing is a term used to describe works of fiction that explore the possibilities of alternate worlds and/or universes, typically through some form of exploratory narrative.
Authors that write in this genre may include elements from existing alternate universes, as well as taking inspiration from other written works and sometimes real-life events, to create entirely new environments for their characters to explore. In some cases, authors may adapt or change established physical laws within the world they have created to suit the purpose of their story, while others may use alternate histories to explain the presence of an entirely different set of circumstances.
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What are the types of imaginative writing?
Imaginative writing is often broken down into several commonly accepted subdivisions, which include:
Alternate Universe Fiction – Works of fiction that involve a character or characters from the real world are somehow transported to an alternate universe.
Alternative History Fiction – Works of fiction where a point in time in history has been changed for whatever reason and a new timeline has been created because of it.
Fantasy Fiction – Works that are set in a world where magic, mythological creatures, or advanced technology exist in abundance.
What are some common themes in imaginative writing?
A number of common themes exist in this genre which covers topics such as:
Alternate History – Exploration of an alternate history of events leading up to the present day, e.g ‘what if the Nazis won World War Two’
Alternate Universe – Exploration of alternate universes and realities where things are different from what we know in the real world, e.g ‘what would happen if dragons were real’
Fantasy – Exploration of mythical creatures and magic in a world where the fantastic is commonplace, e.g ‘what would happen if a dragon was real’
Science Fiction – Exploration of technology and futuristic science in a world that is fantastical or alien to us, e.g ‘what would the future hold if we were visited by aliens’
What is the formula of the imaginary sentence?
See the following example: Bindu is a beautiful dancer. Here, ‘Bindu’ is the subject of the sentence and ‘beautiful dancer’ is the predicate of a sentence.
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Bindu + is + beautiful dancer = Bindu IS a beautiful dancer
What are the uses of the imaginary sentences?
An imaginary sentence, as the name suggests is a type of sentence that helps us to express our imagination. It helps us think about imaginary things which are not real. Some examples of imaginary sentences are “I am a rich man”, “She is the most beautiful woman in the world”.
Where has this word/phrase been used?
This phrase has been used in many works of literature including novels, poems, songs, etc., Many fairy tales rely on imagination to make children happy. “Alice in Wonderland” is a famous work that uses imaginary imaginaries to make the story more interesting for kids.
What are the examples of imaginary sentences?
Some common examples of imaginary sentences are:
- He was born with tiny wings on his back, but he couldn’t fly, Strangely enough, nobody seemed to mind.
- She was so beautiful that people stopped on the streets and stared after her with their mouths open, I have never seen anyone as beautiful, she said simply.
Other examples include:
- I am the richest man in this city!
- He is a great mathematician.
- Her hands are smooth like silk.
What are the rules to make an imaginary sentence?
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Here are some rules for making sentences using the concept of imagination:
1. The subject should be first person singular
2. The predicate can have any tense
3. No auxiliary verbs are required
4. Use past perfect tense when necessary
5. Imaginary sentences are not complete sentences but fragments.
6. Only one clause is needed here
7. No use of personal pronouns like I, he, she, etc.,
8 Personal pronoun cannot be used as a subject
9. Do not use alliteration
10 These types of sentences need commas and conjunctions and but very often Conjunctions must come after the imaginary part (predicate).
11. If the imaginary sentence starts with there is, there are, etc., then you need to follow it with an imaginary part. Conjunction must come after the subject and before the predicate.
12. Imaginary Sentences can have two clauses if the second clause is introduced by which or who.
13. Clauses should not be very long 5-8 words each.
14. If you want to include a person in the sentence then start with he, she, etc.,
15. There are some exceptions.
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Here are some common examples of sentences using imagination:
- He was born with tiny wings on his back, but he couldn’t fly- strangely enough, nobody seemed to mind.
- She was so beautiful that people stopped on the streets and stared after her with their mouths
- I have never seen anyone as beautiful, she said simply.
- It was a long journey and at the end of it, he had to bring out the royal key -which only the king possessed.
- There were sudden footsteps outside her door and before anything could be done about it someone knocked on it twice.
- They just sat there, staring into space even while we spoke to them
- It was as if they were in some kind of deep trance.
- He caught sight of her just then but pretended not to notice and turned his head away quickly so that she wouldn’t see him watching her walk by.
Final Thought
The concept of the imaginary has been recognized by different disciplines in different ways. The way imaginariness is understood says a lot about the discipline itself. For example, psychology makes it very personal and studies an individual’s self-image while anthropology considers its social dimension and looks at how people think others see them (social identities). In addition, religion doesn’t try to understand imaginaries but rather has a hand in producing them.
