Abstract
In real-world discourse, metaphor and hyperbole are often combined in terms of occurrence (Cano Mora, 2011 ). Although relevant studies have explored the cognitive mechanism and function of metaphoric hyperboles (i.e. Brdar-Szabo & Brdar, 2010), they are relatively few, and little attention has been paid to empirically investigate the combinatory use of metaphor and hyperbole in discourse.
With reference to the corpus, luxury hotel websites from Hong Kong and Singapore (N=61, approximately 186,000 words) are exploited as the contextual background for metaphoric hyperboles in the present study.
This decision is made because hotel websites are often associated with promotional purposes, and marketing practitioners may exaggerate reality in order to convince potential tourists to make a purchase decision, which could favour hyperbole and metaphor. Following this direction, two key research questions will be addressed: 1) What source domains of metaphorical hyperboles occur on luxury hotel websites in Hong Kong and Singapore, and 2) What are the functions of metaphorical hyperboles on luxury hotel websites in
Hong Kong and Singapore?
Figurative language is identified by using MIPVU (Steen et al., 2010) and the Hyperbole Identification Procedure (Burgers et al., 2016), respectively, and then classified in terms of source domains with the assistance of the Source Domain Verification Procedure (Ahrens & Jiang, 2020). The study finds 6,009 instances of hyperboles, 1,192 of which carry metaphoric reading. Source domains of SP ACE, OBJECT, CONTAINER, MAGIC and PERFORMANCE are found to be the most productive.
Drawing upon The Scalar Model of Polarity (Israel, 1996, 2001) and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980/2003), the study shows that cross-domain mappings can enforce scalar readings through which intensity and extremeness are expressed. The use of metaphoric hyperboles in the corpus is related to discourse functions of explanation, emphasis and persuasion.
With reference to the corpus, luxury hotel websites from Hong Kong and Singapore (N=61, approximately 186,000 words) are exploited as the contextual background for metaphoric hyperboles in the present study.
This decision is made because hotel websites are often associated with promotional purposes, and marketing practitioners may exaggerate reality in order to convince potential tourists to make a purchase decision, which could favour hyperbole and metaphor. Following this direction, two key research questions will be addressed: 1) What source domains of metaphorical hyperboles occur on luxury hotel websites in Hong Kong and Singapore, and 2) What are the functions of metaphorical hyperboles on luxury hotel websites in
Hong Kong and Singapore?
Figurative language is identified by using MIPVU (Steen et al., 2010) and the Hyperbole Identification Procedure (Burgers et al., 2016), respectively, and then classified in terms of source domains with the assistance of the Source Domain Verification Procedure (Ahrens & Jiang, 2020). The study finds 6,009 instances of hyperboles, 1,192 of which carry metaphoric reading. Source domains of SP ACE, OBJECT, CONTAINER, MAGIC and PERFORMANCE are found to be the most productive.
Drawing upon The Scalar Model of Polarity (Israel, 1996, 2001) and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980/2003), the study shows that cross-domain mappings can enforce scalar readings through which intensity and extremeness are expressed. The use of metaphoric hyperboles in the corpus is related to discourse functions of explanation, emphasis and persuasion.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Not published / presented only - Apr 2024 |
| Event | 2024 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference - Houston, United States Duration: 16 Apr 2024 → 19 Apr 2024 |
Conference
| Conference | 2024 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Houston |
| Period | 16/04/24 → 19/04/24 |