Which of the following is an analogous statement ?

Concept: An analogy is a statement that asserts a likeness between two otherwise distinct things: it says that one thing resembles another in some respect, instead of saying what a thing is or what quality it has. Its logical form is "A is like B" (equivalently "A resembles B", "A is as B is"), joining two separate subjects with a comparative connective. Three other statement forms are routinely confused with it: an attributive proposition ("S is P", which ascribes a quality to one subject), a definition ("S is a K that is D", which places one subject inside a class marked off by a differentia), and a metaphorical identification ("S is N", which confers a title or name on one subject).

Application: Test each statement by two things: its connective, and how many distinct subjects it brings together.

1. "God is great" has one subject, God, joined by the bare copula "is" to the adjective "great". No second thing is introduced and a quality is ascribed to that single subject, so the form is attributive.

2. "Man is a rational being." has one subject, man, joined by the bare copula "is" to the class term "being", which is narrowed by the differentia "rational". This states what man essentially is, which is the classical genus-plus-differentia form of a definition.

3. "Gandhiji is the Father of the Nation" has one subject, Gandhiji, joined by the bare copula "is" to the honorific title "Father of the Nation". The title is conferred as a name for that individual; the form is a figurative identification, not an explicit likeness-claim.

4. "Man is like God" brings two distinct subjects together, man and God, and joins them with the comparative connective "is like", asserting that the first resembles the second in some respect. That is exactly the form of an analogy.

The analogous statement is therefore "Man is like God".

Cross-check: Two independent tests agree, and one near-miss deserves an explicit contrast.

• Connective test: only "Man is like God" uses a comparative connective ("is like"). "God is great", "Gandhiji is the Father of the Nation" and "Man is a rational being." all use the bare copula "is", which links a subject to a predicate that describes, names or classifies it.

• Two-term test: an analogy needs two distinct things set side by side. "Man is like God" supplies both terms, man and God; in each of the other three statements the predicate is a quality, a title or a class of the one subject rather than a second thing compared with it.

• Contrast with the near-miss: "Gandhiji is the Father of the Nation" is figurative, and a metaphor is often described as a compressed or implied comparison. In the sense used here, however, an analogous statement is the explicit likeness-claim marked by "like" or "as", which is why the figurative title does not qualify.