Hyperbole in English - A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration 2010.pdf

Hyperbole in English
Non-literal language is ubiquitous in everyday life, and while hyperbole
is a major part of this, it has so far remained relatively unexplored. This
volume provides the fi rst investigation of hyperbole in English, drawing on
data from genres such as spoken conversation, TV, newspapers and literary
works from Chaucer to Monty Python. Combining quantitative and quali-
tative analyses, it uses approaches from semantics, pragmatics, discourse
analysis and classical rhetoric, to investigate in detail both speaker-centred
and emotive aspects of hyperbole, and also addressee-related aspects such
as interpretation and interactional uptake. Illustrated with a range of dia-
chronic case studies, hyperbole is also shown to be a main means of lin-
guistic creativity and an important contributor to language change. The
book concludes with an exploration of the role of hyperbole in political
speaking, humour and literature. Original and in-depth, it will be invalu-
able to all those working on meaning, discourse and historical linguistics.
CLAUDIA CLARIDGE is Chair in English Linguistics at the Universität
Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She is one of pilers of the Lampeter
Corpus of Early Modern English Tracts and is the author of Multi-word
Verbs in Early Modern English ( ), based on the above corpus. Her
main research interests lie in the fi elds of historical linguistics, pragmat-
ics, discourse studies and corpus linguistics. Within these fi elds, she has
published articles on such diverse topics as irony, parison,
superlatives, questions, conditionals and discourse deixis. She has also
contributed articles to various recent handbooks, such as the Handbook
of Corpus Linguistics ( ) and the Handbook of Historical Pragmatics
() .
STUDIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
General editor
Merja Kytö (Uppsala University)
Editorial Board
Bas Aarts (University College London), John Algeo (University of ia),
Susa