Hyperbole as a figure of quantity

Hyperbole (Greek- "excess, exaggeration") is a deliberate overstatement or ex­aggeration, the aim of which is to intensify qualitive or quantitative aspects of the ob­ject to such a degree as to show its utter absurdity.

There was a Young Lady whose chin

 Re­sembled the point of a pin;

So she had it made sharp, 

And purchased a harp, 

And played several tunes with her chin.

There was a Young Lady whose eyes 

Were unique as to colour and size; 

When she opened them wide, 

People all turned aside, 

And started away in surprise.

There was an Old Person of Buda, 

Whose conduct grew ruder and ruder, 

Till at last, with a hammer

They silenced his clamour,

By smashing that Person of Buda.

Hyperbole is one of The most common expressive means of our everyday speech. The feelings and emotions of the speaker are so ruffled that s/lie resorts in his/her speech to intensifying.

Skrebnev points out that linguistic means of expressing exaggeration are varied. He considers certain tautologies (pleonastic, overburdened structures using more words than are necessary to express the meaning conveyed) to be examples of hyperbole, as in the following instance:

There was an old person of Dutton,

Whose head was so small as a button;

So to make it look big,

He purchased a wig, 

And rapidly rushed about Dutton.

Note that the redundancy of expression of the kind can be merely a fault of style-Hyperbole should not be confused with grotesque. Though the both are based on overstatement there is a clear line of demarcation between them. It lies in the speaker's / writer's attitude to the thing described. Grotesque is necessarily nega­tively charged. Its object is a certain negative feature inherent in the object, whereas hyperbole is used to exaggerate both - the positive and the negative, with no criticism leveled in the latter case. The only aim it strives to gain is provoking laughter and amusing the audience.