"Self-schemas are to an individual’s total self–concept as a hypothesis is to a theory, or a book is to a library." (source: Social Psychology by Steven Fein)
Subject is/are to Noun. I could not figure out the meaning of "be to noun" so I looked it up but could not find the meaning. What does the preposition "to" here mean? It cannot be "about or applied to".
In other words, analogy or another example to say the same thing etc, that I understood already. What I meant was I did not understand that "Self-schemas {are to} an individual’s total self–concept." Be to a verb is the idiom I understand but not this idiom in the bracket { }. (e.g. I understand that my hobbies are to read books, and to watch educational documentaries.)
Could you help me clarify it?
Best Answer
Your question is worded in a confusing way, but I think what you're referring to is an analogy. (At least, the example you provided is an analogy.)
From Wikipedia:
I think you changed "is" to "be" in your question, and when you were looking it up. You can't really conjugate "is" to "be" in the case of analogies. They are a particular idiomatic use of "is to" and "as to".
Here's a list of simple analogies, if you want to see how they're used to relate different concepts: http://www.home-speech-home.com/word-analogies.html