A Contrastive Study Of Hyperbole And Understatement In English And Cinese From A Pragmatic—Congnitive Perspective

Based on the analysis of the pragmatic force of hyperbole and understatement, the present thesis attempts to account for the workings of hyperbole and understatement from a pragmatic-cognitive perspective. By analyzing specific examples in communication, this thesis makes a contrastive study of hyperbole and understatement in English and Chinese.The thesis presents the general idea that hyperbole and understatement as pervasive linguistic phenomena are not simply rhetoric devices as many traditional theorists have claimed. They are so frequently used and easily understood that they may account for part of the figurative mode of thinking in our mind. The differences of hyperbole and understatement in Chinese and English may also reveal the impact of cultural background on people抯 cognition and the use of language.