Hyperbole as one of the means of expression of linguistic impoliteness in the American late-night talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher”

Abstract

Background. In recent decades, the problem of figurativeness in modern Linguistics has received a new development and is investigated from the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics, namely within the confines of figurative language (R. Gibbs, H. Colston, E. Sweetser, B. Dancygier, G. Lakoff, M. Johnson, E. Semino, G. Leech and others). The topicality of this study is due to the lack of studies on the interpretation of linguistic impoliteness with the help of figurative language, in particular hyperbole, from the perspective of Linguistic Pragmatics and Cognitive Linguistics in the study of Linguistics in Ukraine.The purpose of this study is to examine hyperbole in more detail in the context of linguistic impoliteness. Research methods comprise the methods of communicative-pragmatic analysis and analytical descriptive analysis.Results. The analysis of the monologues of Bill Maher shows that hyperbole is one of the widely used figures of speech in the host’s speech. Accordingly, one can argue about the “hyperbolization” of Bill Maher’s speech with an explicit and deliberate expression of exaggeration. Often, the deliberate use of hyperbole by Bill Maher is explained by his worldview and the pursuit of specific communicative goals, in particular to achieve discourse intensity, create a comic effect, create more informal communicative circumstances of communication, and also provide negative evaluation of the discourse, which collectively create impolite senses that Bill Maher pursues.Discussion. As Linguistic Pragmatics is concerned, Bill Maher’s speech is constructed using various means of language resources. One of these tools is hyperbole in its many embodiments. The host makes extensive use of the hyperbole, which is explained by the deep imagery and communication functions that it performs in speech. This study does not exhaust all aspects of the problem under consideration. Further direction of the study of this issue can be seen in a broader analysis of the realization of linguistic impoliteness by means of figurative language.