Hyperbole, along with colloquial speech, is also used in literature. Litota in literature is an artistic technique that is used both in poetry and in poetry. works of art a variety of authors. Hyperbole in literature has its opposite - litotes. Litota can also be used as a "weapon" against hyperbole and gigantism. For example, the offer of Bread in the house - not a crumb!

When used in colloquial speech hyperbole, the speaker is trying to pay attention to some event or object. And exaggerating so much that in reality it turns out to be beyond the bounds of the possible.

With this trick artistic expressiveness we meet again in ancient times, in works of oral folk art. This is hyperbole in its own right. pure form. Everything that happens in our epics and fairy tales often takes on a hyperbolic appearance. A horse with a hero gallops "below a walking cloud, above a standing forest."

Litota in Russian

In simple terms, this beautiful expression, speech turnover, which at the same time softens words that have a "negative" color. With the help of litotes, you can express in a mild form your disagreement with the interlocutor.

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

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

Hyperbole is a significant exaggeration of something for the sake of giving greater significance to any object or action. Imagine if there were no such stylistic figure as hyperbole, all the works of Russian writers and poets would lose their superiority and magnificence.

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

For four years we have been preparing an escape, we have saved three tons of grubs ... ”- V. Vysotsky. Hyperbole is an exaggeration for the sake of special, artistic purposes. The poet resorts to it when it is necessary 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 way of expression.

Hyperbole: what is it?

Yes! If all the tears, blood and sweat, Shed for everything that is stored here, From the depths of the earth all suddenly came out, That would be another flood - I would choke in my cellars of the faithful. Litota 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 both “mockery”, “sarcasm”, and “pity”, “tenderness”. The litote is also used to significantly soften some harsh expression. For example, american ambassador, reacting to the fact that the house of Trade Unions was burned in Odessa, he said the following words: "The rebels show their discontent."

Creation of diminutive forms of words. For example, "pokemon", "kolobok", etc. Shifting the negation into the modal part of the sentence. So the litote is a deliberate understatement. It is important to correctly emphasize it. Almost no poet has bypassed this stylistic device. After all, litotes are a means of expression. There are even authors who build their works exclusively on litotes. Examples from the literature are very diverse.

Hyperbole usually takes place in a statement. In order to make the statement vivid and expressive, by means of deliberate exaggeration, there is such a concept in the Russian language as hyperbole. Many variants of litots have already become idioms and phraseological units. It is in the Russian language today such expressions as “at hand”, “the sky is like a sheepskin”, “the cat cried”, etc. You should not think that figurative expressions are an invention of the classics of the 16-17th century. Both hyperbole and other stylistic devices have been known since ancient times.

Literary tropes are artistic devices, a word or an expression used by the author to enhance the expressiveness of the text and enhance the figurativeness of the language.

Tropes include , comparison , epithet , hyperbole, . This article will focus on hyperbole and its antonym - litote.

Wikipedia says that hyperbole is a word from the Greek language and means exaggeration. The first part of the word "hyper" is in many words with the meaning of exaggeration, excess: hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperthyroidism, hyperfunction.

Hyperbole in literature is artistic exaggeration. In addition, the concept of a hyperbola exists in geometry, and there it denotes the locus of points.

This article will focus on hyperbole with literary point vision. Its definition, how long it has been known, by whom and where it is used. It is found everywhere in literary works, in oratory speeches, in everyday conversations.

Hyperbole in fiction

She has been known since ancient times. In ancient Russian epics, exaggeration is often found when describing heroes-heroes and their exploits:

Hyperbole often occurs in fairy tales and folk songs: “that is mine, my heart is groaning, like autumn forest buzzing.”

The author of the Old Russian story About Prince Vsevolod often uses hyperbole, he writes: “You can scatter the Volga with oars, and scoop out the Don with helmets” to show what a large squad he has. Here exaggeration is used for the sublime poetic characterization of the prince.

For the same purpose N. V. Gogol uses hyperbole for a poetic description of the Dnieper River: "a road, without measure in width, without end in length." “A rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper.” “And there is no river. equal to him in the world.“

But more often Gogol uses it in his satirical works with irony and humor, ridiculing and exaggerating the shortcomings of his characters.

Hyperbole in the monologues of the heroes of Gogol's "Inspector":

• Osip - "as if a whole regiment blew the trumpets."
• Khlestakov - “... Thirty-five thousand one couriers”, “as I pass ... just an earthquake, everything is shaking and shaking”, “me myself state council fears".
• Mayor - "I would wipe you all into flour!"

Often Gogol uses artistic exaggerations on the pages of his work Dead Souls.

“Countless, like the sands of the sea, human passions…”

Emotional and loud hyperbole in poetry V. Mayakovsky:

• “In a hundred and forty suns, the sunset was blazing ...”
• ” Shine and no nails! Here is my slogan and the sun”

In verse A. Pushkin , S. Yesenina and many other poets use artistic exaggeration in describing events and scenery.

"No end in sight

Only blue sucks eyes.

S. Yesenin

In colloquial speech, exaggeration is used daily without hesitation. Especially often we resort to it in a state of passion, irritation, so that the interlocutor understands our feelings better.

"I've already called a hundred times, imagined a thousand troubles, almost died of anxiety,"

“I explain it to you twenty times, but you still do it wrong.”

"You're late again, again you've been waiting for an eternity."

Sometimes when declaring love:

“I love you like no one knows how to love, more than anyone in the world.”

Litota and its meaning

Antonym of hyperbole - litote, artistic understatement. In their colloquial speech, people constantly use both exaggeration and understatement.

You won't have time to blink an eye and life has flown by. When you wait, a second stretches for years. The waist is thin, thinner than a reed.

Hyperbole and litotes, together with other artistic devices, make Russian speech expressive, beautiful and emotional.

Do not miss: artistic technique in literature and Russian.

Zoom in and out in fiction

Writers creating artistic text of their work, can realistically describe life, without resorting to exaggeration or understatement of surrounding objects. But some authors underestimate or exaggerate not only words, but also objects of the surrounding world, creating a fantastic unreal world.

A prime example serves Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The heroine of the fairy tale finds herself in a world where she and all the heroes she meets change their sizes. Authors need such a technique to express their thoughts and views on some problems and suggest ways to eradicate them. You can remember Jonathan Swift's Gulliver in the Land of the Lilliputians.

Writers with a satirical, romantic and heroic orientation in their work often resort to fantasy. It is creative, original, invented by the author, but based on the real social and living conditions of the authors. Writer creates fantastic work, but his situations echo those of real events.

When the social reality that gave rise to the creation of this fantastic work passes, the new generation no longer understands where such fantastic fictions came from.

Hyperbole and litotes make a literary text more expressive, helping to convey emotions more accurately. Without them creative work it would be boring and faceless. Not only the authors, but also ordinary people in everyday conversations they cannot do without them, although they do not know their names, but simply emotionally express their feelings and thoughts.

Every person at least once encountered the concept of hyperbole in literature. But not everyone knows what this term means.

Hyperbole is a stylistic device used in literature.

• to exaggerate any action,
• to create an enhanced impression on readers.

This stylistic device is used by many contemporary writers and authors.

What is the difference between hyperbole and other literary devices?

Hyperbole has similarities with other stylistic devices, such as

• metaphor,
• grotesque,
• comparison.

Nevertheless, these language tools there are differences. So, for example, the grotesque is one of the types

• artistic imagery,
• contrast between reality and fantasy,
• ugliness and beauty,

which helps to create a comical image.

To compare objects or phenomena, the following techniques are used:

• metaphor,
• comparison.

Hyperbole in literature is also a means of comparison, but in a more exaggerated format. For example:

• ears like an elephant
• legs like a giraffe
• neck like an ostrich
• it was explained to him a million times, etc.

Hyperbole in the literature also has an opposite technique, which also compares phenomena, but in a diminutive way. It's called lithot. Example:

• give a hand,
• Tom Thumb.

Cause of hyperbole

It is difficult to imagine that the need for excessive exaggeration originated in ancient times. People's judgments modern society are strikingly different from the worldview of ancient people, who had completely fantastic ideas about the world. In those distant times, people could not have a clear idea of ​​what fiction and reality are. The oldest people endowed magic power those phenomena that could not be explained. They were afraid of such phenomena. As a result, they began to appear

• gratitude,
• astonishment,
• worship,
• exaggeration.

Use of hyperbole in modern and classical literature

Without use literary devices the work will be insipid, boring and uninteresting. Therefore, all authors use them in their works. The basis of the use of hyperbole in literature is the interaction of expansive and naturally occurring meanings of the same phrases.

1. this news has already been told a million times (there is an exaggeration of the number);
2. they quarreled to the nines (quality is affected);
3. he left her alone, and the world was gone for her (emotions involved).

“Hyperbole is very easy to confuse with similar devices such as metaphor and simile. Their task is also to compare objects and phenomena. But one must always remember that if there is any exaggeration in the comparison, then this is hyperbole.

If you say that his ears are like those of an elephant, then it is clear that this is a comparison. But if you analyze it, you can understand that this is an exaggeration, that such a comparison was used in figuratively since human ears can't be that big. Therefore, this comparison is a hyperbole.

This approach is used for

• giving expression to the proposal,
• importance,
• to draw the reader's attention to it.

In Russian literature, Russian classics willingly used this technique.

• A.S. Griboedov,
• A.N. Ostrovsky,
• N.V. Gogol,
• L.N. Tolstoy.

Epics are also full of hyperbole. In poetry, hyperbole is most often used in conjunction with other techniques.

“Modern realities without the use of hyperbole will be absolutely meaningless. Therefore, their use can be found in almost all speech communications. If you remember television commercials, most of them use hyperbolic technique.

Video: Japanese advertisement

There are a number of words in Russian that, with the same spelling and pronunciation, carry a completely different semantic load. This statement boldly applies to the mathematical-linguistic concept of “hyperbole”, which is present in such unrelated areas as mathematics and literature. Let's consider it in more detail.

What is hyperbole in literature?

The term "hyperbole" in Greek is interpreted as "exaggeration". The modern definition of the concept says that hyperbole is a stylistic device of figurative expression, which is based on an exaggeration of a phenomenon, action or object.

• This stylistic figure has become widespread in works of art in order to enhance the impression of the description, including folk poetry, ditties.
• The object of exaggeration can be phenomena, events, objects, power, feelings.
• A spectacular form can both idealize an object and carry a derogatory message.
• Hyperbole is a figurative expression, so do not literally take the meaning of the phrase in which it is located.

Do not confuse hyperbole with another allegorical term - metaphor. characteristic feature the first is always the exaggeration.

Example

“His feet were as big as skis.”

At a cursory assessment of the phrase, it may seem that it is a metaphor, but it is not. After assessing the actual dimensions of the skis, it becomes clear that hyperbole is taking place.

What is hyperbole in mathematics?

The mathematical term "hyperbola" characterizes the set of points of the plane, the absolute value of the difference in distances from which to the foci is a constant value. These points form a curve related to the number of canonical sections. The concept of "hyperbola" was first introduced by the mathematician Ancient Greece Apollonius of Perga in the 200s BC

Moving to the Cartesian coordinate system, we take an arbitrary point of the curve - m. L (x, y) and define the foci of the hyperbola through m. A 1 (-c,0), etc. A 2(c,0). Then the definition of a hyperbola can be represented as an expression ∣ |A 1 L| – |A 2 l|∣ = 2a , where a is the real semiaxis of the hyperbola. In this case, condition 2a is obligatory.< 2c.

• Translating the record of this expression into the coordinate form and getting rid of irrationality, we get √ (x + c )² + y ² −√ (x − c )² + y ² = ± 2 a ⇒ k the anonic expression of such a figure as a hyperbola represents the equation x 2 / a 2 - y 2 / b 2 = 1, where the lines a and b are the lengths of the real and imaginary semiaxes.

• If a = b, you have an equilateral hyperbola.
• A characteristic feature of a hyperbola is the presence of two identical (symmetrical) curves.
• The tangents towards which the hyperbola rushes, but never reaches them, are called asymptotes.
• The optical property of a hyperbola is that a ray fired from one focus continues its movement as if it had come from another focus.

The meaning of the word HYPERBOLE in the Literary Encyclopedia

HYPERBOLA

[Greek - ????????] - a stylistic figure of explicit and deliberate exaggeration, aimed at enhancing expressiveness, for example. "I've said it a thousand times." Hyperbole is often combined with other stylistic devices, giving them the appropriate coloring: hyperbolic comparisons, metaphors, etc. (“the waves rose like mountains”). The character or situation depicted can also be hyperbolic. G. is also characteristic of the rhetorical, oratorical style, as a means of pathetic rise, as well as

538 romantic style, where pathos comes into contact with irony. Of the Russian authors, Gogol is especially inclined to gogol, and of the latest poets, Mayakovsky (see Stylistics).

Literary encyclopedia. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is HYPERBOLE in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

• HYPERBOLA in the Dictionary of Fine Art Terms:
  - (from the Greek hyperbole - excess, exaggeration) a stylistic, artistic device based on the exaggeration of a real sign, to which the impossible in reality are attributed ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Dictionary of Literary Terms:
  - (from Greek hyperbole - exaggeration, excess) - type of trail: excessive exaggeration of feelings, values, size, beauty, etc. described ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  (from Greek hyperbole - exaggeration) a kind of trail based on exaggeration ("rivers of blood"). Wed …
• HYPERBOLA in encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
  - rhetorical figure exaggeration (or, on the contrary, humiliation) of the truth, as, for example, in the expressions "blood flowed in streams", "sweat rolled in hail". Intentional humiliation...
• HYPERBOLA in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  
• HYPERBOLA
  (from the Greek hyperbole - exaggeration), poetic device: a kind of trope based on exaggeration ("rivers of blood"). Compare...
• HYPERBOLA in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  I s, f. Stylistic figure, consisting of figurative exaggeration. Hyperbolic - characterized by hyperbole, characteristic of hyperbole. Hyperbolize - exaggerate. | Examples...
• HYPERBOLA in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  , -s, w. In poetics: a word or expression that contains an exaggeration to create artistic image; generally an exaggeration. II...
• HYPERBOLA
  HYPERBOLA (from Greek hyperbol; - exaggeration), a kind of trail, osn. on exaggeration ("rivers of blood"). Wed Litota ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
  HYPERBOLA (Greek hyperbol;), a plane curve (2nd order), consisting of two infinite branches. G. - a set of points M, the difference in distances ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
  ? a rhetorical figure of exaggeration (or, on the contrary, humiliation) of the truth, as, for example, in the expressions "blood flowed in streams", "sweat rolled in hail". Intentional humiliation...
• HYPERBOLA in the Full accentuated paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
  hype "rbola, hype" rbola, hype "rbola, hype" rbol, hype "rbole, hype" rbolam, hype "rbolu, hype" rbola, hype "rbola, hype" rbola, hype "rbolami, hype" rbole, ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Dictionary of Linguistic Terms:
  A figurative expression containing an exorbitant exaggeration of the size, strength, value, etc. of any object, phenomenon. In a hundred and forty suns the sunset was blazing...
• HYPERBOLA in the Popular Explanatory-Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language:
  -s, well. , lit. Figurative expression, excessive exaggeration of certain properties of the depicted object or phenomenon. Examples of hyperbole: wine poured ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Thesaurus of Russian business vocabulary:
  
• HYPERBOLA in the New Dictionary of Foreign Words:
  1) (gr. hyperbole) a stylistic figure consisting in figurative exaggeration, for example. : they swept a haystack above the clouds or the wine flowed like a river ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Russian Thesaurus:
  ‘literary device’ Syn: exaggeration, hyperbolization (book), exaggeration (book) Ant: understatement, ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Dictionary of synonyms of Abramov:
  cm. …
• HYPERBOLA in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language:
  curve, exaggeration, reception, ...
• HYPERBOLA in the New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language Efremova:
  1. g. 1) A stylistic device, consisting in the excessive exaggeration of some. qualities or properties of the depicted object, phenomenon, etc. with the aim of …
• HYPERBOLA in the Dictionary of the Russian Language Lopatin:
  hyperbole, ...
• HYPERBOLA in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language:
  hyperbole...
• HYPERBOLA in the Spelling Dictionary:
  hyperbole, ...