13 Hyperbole Litote Oxymoron

Hyperbola – exaggeration, which is meant to be understood as such. It can be trite and genius too. Trite – thousand pardons, for ages. G – literary – My God, it could reach up and grab the moon! (Bradbury).

In hyperbole a phenomenon is endowed with a particular attribute to a degree that it does not really possess (for example, N. V. Gogol’s “trousers as wide as the Black Sea”). Thus, hyperbole is an artistic convention and is employed with expressive intentions. It is characteristic of the poetics of epic folklore, romantic poetry, and satirical works (Gogol and V. V. Mayakovsky).

Hyperbole+dramatic irony:

• Mummy, I’ve just seen a dog run by as big as a horse!

• I told you a thousand times not to exaggerate!

How much do you think that Rolls Royce cost?....At least $50 – reversed hyperbole.

Litote -   is a figure of speech in which understatement is employed for rhetorical effect. It is most often used to describe the expression of an idea by a denial of its opposite, principally via double negatives.^[2][3][4] For example, rather than saying that something is attractive (or even very attractive), one might merely say it is "not unattractive."

The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail says all his limbs being cut off is "just a flesh wound", employing meiosis.

That [sword] was not useless / to the warrior now." (Beowulf)

Meiosis – using a seemingly weaker form of expression to gain a greater emphasis.

It is often structioned as litotes (as a kind of meiosis) – we use negation not or no or +un, in, il, ir +N\antonym far from, devoid of. (She was not a little upset. Such things are not uncommon).

"He was not unfamiliar with the works of Dickens."

"She is not so unkind."

"Not unlike..."

"You are not wrong."

Oxymoron – (stupid wicked) – a combination of two words, usually an adjective and a noun or an Adj and adv modifier (gracefully clumsy), which contrast in meaning, sharply opposed. (Живой труп, Eyes wide shut, Sweet pain). The 1^st word in this collocation is always foregrounded and has a metaphorical meaning, because it is used out of place. (Deafening silence, Горячий снег).

The most common form of oxymoron involves an adjective-noun combination of two words. For example, the following line from Tennyson's Idylls of the King contains two oxymorons:

"And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true."

Other oxymorons of this kind include the following:

• Failed success

• Dark sunshine

• Safe risks

• Happy depression

• Amazing dullness

• Cold sun

• Living dead

• Dark light

• Smart failure

• General specific

• Positive let down

• Almost exactly

• Less is more

• Noisy silence

• Burning cold

Every O is an unusual collocation. But not every unusual collocation is O.

She is so deliciously low, so horribly dirty! – Shaw

An interminable brief -Dickens

Though the words clash in meanings, they do not clash as antonyms.