Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-pkt8n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-18T07:22:39.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The characteristics of hyperbole

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Claudia Claridge
Affiliation:
Universität Duisburg–Essen
Get access

Summary

A preliminary definition

Let me start outlining some typical elements of hyperbole by way of an example. The following dialogue is taken from a broadcast exchange between the Beatle George Harrison and BBC journalist Alan Freeman in 1964, marked by a deadpan delivery:

  1. (1) Alan: George, is it true that you are a connoisseur of the classics?

  2. George: No, it's just a rumour.

  3. Alan: It's just a rumour. Do you enjoy singing ‘Beethoven’?

  4. George: No. I've been singing it for 28 years now, you know.

  5. Alan: For how long?

  6. George: 28 years.

  7. Alan: That's incredible. Could you manage one more performance?

  8. George: Possibly.

  9. Alan: Oh, go on, say yes.

  10. George: Yes.1

George's claim to have been performing the song Roll Over, Beethoven for 28 years is an exaggerated statement in so far as the time span expressed is much longer than can be factually true and than can consequently be literally meant by him. In order to establish this, however, one needs some background knowledge, most crucially that George himself is no more than 21 years old at the time of speaking, or that the song itself originates only in the mid 1950s – both making the twenty-eight years factually impossible. Alan Freeman was, of course, aware of both these points, so the hyperbole should have been easy to identify for him; the same goes for the audience of the radio show.

Type
Chapter
Information
Hyperbole in English
A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration
, pp. 4 - 39
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×