A Contrastive Study of Hyperbole in Czech and English: a Corpus-based Study

This study compares and contrasts the use of hyperbole or exaggeration in spoken Czech and English language. The research is based on comparative approach to two samples that are subject to analysis. The analysis focuses on formal realization of hyperbole, semantic classification and lexico-semantics. It tests the hypothesis of universal hyperbolic source domains by examining the situation in Czech and English. Finally, the occurrence of conventionalized instances of hyperbole as opposed to creative instances of hyperbolic nonce-usages is examined. Last but not least, it is the aim of this study to provide the overall frequency figures of hyperbole in both languages.