The meaning of the word hyperbole in the literary encyclopedia. What is hyperbole, examples from literature and everyday life

Hyperbole, along with colloquial speech, is also used in literature. Litotes in literature is artistic device, which is used both in poetry and in works of art by a variety of authors. Hyperbole in literature has its opposite - litotes. Litotes can also be used as a “weapon” against hyperbole and gigantism. For example, the offer of Bread in the house - not a crumb!

When using hyperbole in colloquial speech, the speaker is trying to draw attention to some event or object. Moreover, exaggerating so much that in reality it turns out to be beyond the realm of possibility.

With this technique artistic expression we meet in ancient times, in works of oral folk art. This is hyperbole in its purest form. Everything that happens in our epics and fairy tales often takes on a hyperbolic form. The horse with the hero gallops “below a walking cloud, above a standing forest.”

Litotes in Russian

In simple terms, this is a beautiful expression, a turn of phrase, which at the same time softens words that have a “negative” connotation. With the help of litotes, you can express your disagreement with your interlocutor in a soft form.

Litotes are especially often used in poetry. Litotes are also often found in works of art. Basically, litotes is used by the author in an ironic context. Litotes is rare in Yesenin's poems. Increasingly, the poet uses luxurious metaphors. These litotes in Yesenin’s poems show the tragedy of the whole situation. Litotes in psychology is the underestimation, minimization or devaluation of the positive.

There is another feature of the use of litotes in English. literary text. If litotes is in English used in colloquial speech, it conveys restraint, good manners, and sometimes the irony of a person.

Hyperbole is a significant exaggeration of something for the sake of giving greater significance to an object or action. Imagine if such a stylistic figure as hyperbole did not exist, all the works of Russian writers and poets would lose their superiority and splendor.

Litotes in literature: the meaning of the word and examples of its use

We spent four years preparing our escape, we saved three tons of food...” - V. Vysotsky. Hyperbole is an exaggeration for special, artistic purposes. The poet resorts to it when he needs to make a particularly strong impression on the listener or reader. The people seem to admire their strength, and everything in their imagination grows to enormous proportions. Even in our everyday speech today, we often resort to this method of expression.

Hyperbole: what is it?

Yes! If all the tears, blood and sweat, shed for everything that is stored here, all suddenly emerged from the bowels of the earth, Then there would be a flood again - I would choke in my faithful basements. Litotes is an understatement of some object or phenomenon. The simplest litotes appear in the media. They represent the use of diminutive epithets.

Moreover, it can be either “mockery”, “sarcasm”, or “pity”, “tenderness”. Litotes are also used to significantly soften some harsh expression. So, for example, the American ambassador, reacting to the fact that the house of Trade Unions was burned in Odessa, said the following words: “The rebels are showing their discontent.”

Creating diminutive forms of words. For example, “pokemon”, “bun”, etc. Shifting the negation to the modal part of the sentence. So litotes is a deliberate understatement. It is important to place the emphasis correctly. Almost no poet has avoided this stylistic device. After all, litotes is a means of expression. There are even authors who base their works exclusively on litotes. Examples from the literature are very diverse.

Hyperbole usually occurs in a statement. In order to make a statement vivid and expressive, through deliberate exaggeration, there is such a concept in Russian as hyperbole. Many variants of litotes have already become idioms and phraseological units. In the Russian language today there are such expressions as “at a stone’s throw”, “the sky is as big as a sheepskin”, “the cat cried”, etc. Do not think that figurative expressions are an invention of the classics of the 16-17th centuries. Both hyperbole and other stylistic devices have been known since ancient times.

Literature is rich in means of artistic expression that help authors in the best possible way convey your idea to the reader. Thus, when studying the works of classics, students look for epithets, comparisons, personifications in them and try to figure out why the writer used this or that technique. The artistic means also include hyperbole, which we will consider.

Definition

Let's consider what a hyperbole is, examples of which will be given below. This is a special deliberate exaggeration that allows the author to achieve the desired effect. The term is very ancient; the technique began to be used in antiquity. To express hyperbole, linguistic means are used: words, combinations of words and sentences.

The simplest examples

Hyperbole is widely used in Russian. Examples will show that we often use this technique without even paying attention. For example, the words “I’ve already told you a thousand times!” In this case, “a thousand times” is an exaggeration, because the author of the statement, firstly, is unlikely to have said anything so many times. Secondly, she did not count the number of her repetitions. Another example of hyperbole in Russian: “We haven’t seen each other for a hundred years.” Here we are talking about the fact that people have not met for a long period of time, but certainly not for a hundred years.

By saying that he has a million problems, a person will emphasize that he now has a bad streak in his life, and there is no talk of a clear quantitative description of the problems. There are many similar examples:

• “There are a hundred reasons why I still strive to get an education.”
• “Grandfather has a thousand ailments, but he still works in the garden.”
• “You won’t believe it, yesterday I saw such a big man. Not a man, but an elephant." Here the hyperbole is combined with an element of comparison. A person is like an elephant in terms of weight.
• “Sit, work, you’ll earn a million!” There is clearly irony in this example. The speaker greatly exaggerates the earning potential of his opponent and mockingly makes fun of him.
• “Are you saying Masha didn’t go to college? Yes, everyone knows this!” The example presents a lexical hyperbole; exaggeration is achieved through the phrase “known to everyone.” It is clear that this is not so, because residents of another city may not know about Masha’s problems, and they are not interested in them.

Often, without paying attention, we use hyperbole. The examples in Russian given above illustrate this idea.

Varieties

There are several types of hyperboles in Russian:

• Lexical. Exaggeration is achieved by using the words “completely”, “all”, “absolutely”. For example, a completely useless person, everyone has known this for a long time.
• Metaphorical. This is a memorable comparison. For example, the forest of hands, golden mountains.
• Phraseological. Use For example, a goat understands.
• Quantitative. Using numerals: a million things to do, thousands of ideas.

All these types of exaggerations can be used by native speakers unconsciously, without being perceived as an artistic and stylistic device.

Modern options

Young people often use hyperbole in their speech. There are many examples in Russian:

• “We’ve already gone through this 100,500 times! Is it really difficult to remember?
• “We still have a carriage and a small cart of time, we’ll do everything.”

Such statements allow you to make speech more figurative and expressive.

From works of art

Writers often use hyperbole. Examples from the literature are quite varied. So, Pushkin very often turned to this technique: “All the flags will come to visit us.”

Yesenin, when creating the image of Rus', used exaggeration: “There is no end in sight, only the blue is sucking the eyes.”

There are hyperboles in Mayakovsky's lyrics:

• “In battle I glorify millions, I see millions, I sing millions.”
• The poem "Cloud in Pants" ends very in an interesting way, based on the technique of exaggeration: “Hey, you! Sky! Hats off! I'm coming! This helps the poet express the strength and power of the human personality.
• Often the poet exaggerates the size of the human body, creating a capacious and sharp satirical image: “Two arshins of a faceless pink dough, head in Kazbek, stomach in the ditch.”

We can give several interesting examples of hyperbole in the Russian language, when the exaggeration concerns inanimate objects: baobabs to the skies, a kilometer-long sting.

Often, for the effect of exaggeration, the poet uses words in a figurative sense: lump, carcass. Or combinations of words that individually do not have a similar property, but put together create hyperbolization: glasses are bicycles, eyes are two meadows.

An example of hyperbole from literature can be found in the works of other writers: “harem pants, the width of the Black Sea” (Gogol), “we spent four years preparing our escape, we saved three tons of grub” (Vysotsky).

We looked at what hyperbole is and examples of its use by wordsmiths. This technique makes it possible to make the writers’ speech figurative and more expressive, to draw the reader’s attention to any property or feature of the described object or person. Also, it was deliberate exaggeration that often helped the author express his attitude to what was happening.

Statements framed as hyperbole in Russian are based on evaluation, as evidenced by the definition given below. To the question “What is hyperbole in Russian”?

Hyperbole - what is it? Definition, meaning, translation

1) Hyperbole in literature is an artistic technique that consists of deliberately exaggerating the scale of a phenomenon in order to give the phrase greater expressiveness and emotional intensity. A hyperbola is similar to a parabola, but differs from it in its formal definition.

The artistic persuasiveness and ambiguity of hyperbole are all the more significant the more clearly the reader imagines the specific essence of the image or situation. By the way, the same goal can be pursued by understatement, litotes, which can be considered as a type of hyperbole, like hyperbole in literature “with a minus sign.” Here, hyperbole in literature takes on a symbolic meaning, suggesting an individual in captivity under many insignificant passions and circumstances... It is in a satirical work that hyperbole is most often appropriate and artistically justified. However, hyperbole in literature, even “mocking”, may not be clearly satirical.

For example: We haven’t seen each other for a hundred years - “a hundred years” in this case is a hyperbole (exaggeration of quantity), since it gives emotionality to speech and is used, of course, in a figurative sense. Hyperbole is often confused with comparison and metaphor, because they also often compare two objects. The main difference: hyperbole is always an exaggeration. For example: His legs were huge, like a barge. The example looks like a comparison, but, remembering how much the barge weighs, you will see an exaggeration and, accordingly, a hyperbole in this case.

Any literary work contains a number of special stylistic devices, for example, metaphor, comparison, grotesque or hyperbole. Simile and metaphor, just like hyperbole, compare objects and phenomena, but hyperbole is always an exaggeration. Remember, hyperbole in literature is a figurative expression, so it should not be taken literally.

IN lately hyperbole / litotes is actively used in the language of advertising. It is generally accepted that hyperbole is an exaggeration. 6. In other words, they do not correspond to the definitions of hyperbole. One of the consequences is to recognize that hyperbole is not typical for colloquial speech, that it lives only in the sphere of literary and artistic creativity.

When is hyperbole used in the Bible?

Hyperboles are found quite often in Holy Scripture in connection with poetic style narratives. At the same time, there are also fragments in the Bible whose contents, although they resemble hyperbole, are only superficially understood.

Lexical hyperboles

Hyperbole is often combined with other stylistic devices, giving them an appropriate coloring: hyperbolic comparisons, metaphors, etc. (“the waves rose like mountains”). Hyperbole is also characteristic of the rhetorical and oratorical style, as a means of pathetic elation, as well as the romantic style, where pathos comes into contact with irony. Among Russian authors, Gogol is especially prone to hyperbole, and among poets, Mayakovsky. Hyperbole (rhetoric) - This term has other meanings, see Hyperbole.

To clearly understand what hyperboles are in literature, you need to know the methods of implementing amplification inherent in the text work of art. Phraseological hyperboles in literature are set expressions.

Language, as a phenomenon, often uses the same words to denote different concepts. Hyperbole is a figurative expression containing an exorbitant exaggeration of the size, strength, or significance of any object or phenomenon. Hyperbole can be idealizing and destructive.

To express hyperbole, linguistic means are used: words, combinations of words and sentences.

A hyperbola can be defined as a conic section with an eccentricity greater than one. Hyperbolas A series of curved lines is known by this name in analytical geometry. 1) G. of the second order, or the so-called Apollonian hyperbole. Hyperboles in the Bible HYPERBOLES (Greek ὑπερβολή - exaggeration) IN THE BIBLE, fiction.

Most often, hyperboles can be found in epics. As a result, hyperbolic comparisons, metaphors, and personifications are formed. To emphasize the expressed idea and enhance the effect of what is said in literature, hyperbole is used. Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration in literary work to enhance the effect of perception.

To make speech more vivid and expressive, people use figurative language and stylistic devices: metaphor, comparison, inversion and others.

Hyperbole is an exaggeration. We meet her both in colloquial speech and in literary speech.

Hyperbole is designed to enhance the expressiveness of a statement in order to show its special significance.

Mayakovsky greatly favored this technique.

Let's give another example:

Hyperbole is used to create brightness of the text and is mainly needed to give expressiveness to the text. Hyperbole deliberately greatly exaggerates an idea or subject that it looks almost beyond the reality. Hyperbole should be used appropriately and in the topic.

Hyperbole (in literature) is a certain literary device, the meaning of which is a figurative exaggeration of a particular action as a whole. For example: I have already said this a thousand and one times, that is, there is excessive exaggeration in this sentence, since a normal person will not repeat any word or expression a thousand times.

Hyperbole is a stylistic figure of obvious and deliberate exaggeration in order to enhance expressiveness and emphasize what is being said.

Hyperbole is an exaggeration in a text. With the help of hyperbole, the author enhances the necessary impression, emphasizes what he glorifies or ridicules.

I'll tell you a hundred times spoke!

Hyperbole, including in literature, is an exaggeration of any property or quality. For example, in literature there is such an expression as dark, even if you poke your eyes out. This is precisely hyperbole.

Hyperbole means exaggeration. This is the name of a literary device, the essence of which is the deliberate exaggeration of the qualities or properties of the described object or character in order to enhance the impression of the reader. For example, Gogol’s famous “rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper” is a hyperbole. It is clear that any bird can fly to the middle of the Dnieper, but Gogol’s technique emphasizes the greatness and power of the river.

I personally believe that the use of hyperbole in literature and especially literature for children is simply necessary. Otherwise it will be boring to read. And some works simply would not have been born. In many works this is simply necessary to emphasize the strength and scale of the actions.

Hyperbole is an exaggeration (to put it simply). Writers use this technique to better express emotions, to enhance the impression.

Example of hyperbole (exaggeration):

I've already said this a million times!

You can often find this technique in folk art(for example, in epics and fairy tales).

The concept of hyperbole in literature means exaggeration of various kinds. Many, if not all, works contain at least some exaggeration. An example of a hyperbole would be:

The dog was the size of a huge tower.

Hyperbole is an exaggeration. For example, Ilya Muromets, fighting with enemies, defeated the entire enemy army. One person cannot do this. This means the author used hyperbole. Hyperbole is used to interest the reader, enhance the expressiveness of the text, and to emphasize certain details.

Russian literature is replete with a variety of speech patterns. In order to make speech more vivid and expressive, people often use figurative language and stylistic devices: comparison, inversion and others. Everyone in his life, while reading this or that literature, has probably encountered such a concept as hyperbole, without even knowing the meaning of this term.

Use in literature

Hyperboles in literature All writers, without exception, love to use it. They do this in order to decorate their works, making them more emotional, bright, and full.

And this is not at all surprising, because without this stylistic figure and others like it, any work would be empty, boring and absolutely uninteresting. It is unlikely that such works would capture the reader’s attention, exciting his imagination, evoking in him numerous vivid emotions.

Hyperbole, in turn, helps to achieve such necessary effects. So what is a hyperbole in ? This artistic medium images, based on an excessive exaggeration of reality.

Advice! Another definition of hyperbole is exaggeration to the point of implausibility, so it is very important to remember and keep in mind that it does not need to be taken literally!

What is hyperbole used for?

They free the reader from the confines of reality and attribute supernatural characteristics to natural phenomena and people. Hyperbole in literature plays an important role, since it makes our speech more lively and allows us to feel the emotional and state of mind narrator or author of the text.

This allows them to clearly and correctly convey the verbal atmosphere of the story. The function of hyperbole as a technique is - add brightness, emotionality and persuasiveness to the text. It is also often used by humor writers to create comic images for characters in their works, allowing the reader’s imagination to revive them in his imagination. .

How to find a hyperbole in a text?

Completing the task “find hyperbolas in the text” is quite simple, since among all the others speech patterns they stand out because they contain obvious exaggerations. Examples of usage: “this girl had eyes the size of saucers in surprise” or “this dog was the size of an elephant.”

All these phrases are apparent exaggeration of reality, because you will not meet on the street a girl with such big eyes or a dog the size of an elephant, because such things simply do not exist and cannot exist in nature. These are the most simple examples the use of the stylistic device in question in the Russian literary language.

Attention! To find hyperbole in a text, it is enough to pay attention to an obvious significant exaggeration.

What is hyperbole in Russian?

Linguistics names any excessive exaggeration of properties, qualities, phenomena or actions to form a spectacular and attention-grabbing image created with a hyperbole . It is used not only in literary language.

In ordinary colloquial speech, she is also a frequent guest. The difference between the first application and the second is that in his speech a person uses already existing statements, and the writer strives to create his own, exclusive statement in order to distinguish his own work from many others.

Examples

Examples of hyperbole from literary and colloquial speech:

• "rivers of blood";
• “You’re always late”;
• "mountains of corpses";
• “haven’t seen each other for a hundred years”;
• "scare to death";
• “I told you a hundred times”;
• “a million apologies”;
• “a sea of ​​ripened wheat”;
• “I’ve been waiting forever”;
• “I stood there all day”;
• “at least get wet”;
• “a house a thousand kilometers away”;
• “always late.”

Examples in fiction

We can say that everything classical works rely on the transfer of the author’s emotions to the reader, who moves him into a situation created by himself. Hyperbole in literature and classical works was very actively used by many famous authors.