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17 - Irony and Its Overlap with Hyperbole and Understatement

from Part V - Irony, Affect, and Related Figures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2023

By
Laura Neuhaus
Edited by
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr  and
Herbert L. Colston
Herbert L. Colston
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
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Summary

This chapter examines the possibility that hyperbole and understatement are distinct notions and not necessarily under the superordinate concept of irony. Hyperbole relates to exaggeration or overstatement, while understatements are viewed as scalar shifts that are quite the opposite of hyperbole (i.e., presenting something as less significant than it is). She examines empirical evidence on the discourse goals associated with irony, hyperbole, and understatement to suggest that irony is frequently a part of hyperbole and understatement (e.g., to achieve the goals of contrast, expectations, and indeterminacy), but can exist on its own (e.g., to achieve the goal of an ironic attitude through evaluation accounts, negative-attitude accounts, and dissociative-attitude accounts). Both hyperbole and understatement are also evaluative, but not necessarily in an ironic way. Most generally, understatement and hyperbole may share common mechanisms with irony, yet are still important rhetorical figures in their own right.

Keywords

discourse goalshyperboleironic attitudesoverstatementunderstatementverbal irony
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Irony and Thought , pp. 310 - 324
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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