دراسة تداولية للمبالغة في المسلسلات الهزلية البريطانية

A Pragmatic Study of Hyperbole in British Sitcoms

Hyperbole can be defined as a way of exaggeratedly depicting someone or something as bigger, better, worse, more, etc. than they are. It effects a meaning contrasting with reality but still conceived and reacted to spontaneously as natural – not as counterfactual or as a lie. This study is concerned with approaching hyperbole pragmatically. As it is traditionally pertained to figurative and formal language, hyperbole has not been addressed sufficiently in informal varieties despite its considerable appearance, use, and effect there. Hence, the researcher has chosen British sitcoms, series with amusing situations involving the same characters in each show—full of ordinary conversations and colloquialisms—to extract data for the analysis and scrutiny of hyperbole from a pragmatic angle, viz., the sitcom Not Going Out (2006-present). Remarkably, this situation comedy is a representative of the genre that has earned worldwide reputation and impact, being heralded as one of the greatest TV shows in Britain.
The aims of the study are: stating how hyperbole, albeit literally impossible, can be pragmatically recognised and accepted, figuring out the pragmatic aspects of hyperbole in British sitcoms, detecting the cooperative maxims that are flouted or violated by the participants in British sitcoms due to hyperbole, highlighting the ways that could indicate the non-observance of those maxims in addition to flouting and violating, and identifying the most frequent aspects of hyperbole used in the data under scrutiny.
Accordingly, the procedures followed are: surveying the related literature about both pragmatics and hyperbole; watching the sitcom episodes on YouTube or other accessible sites prior to collecting the data scripts (wherever available), and subsequently describing the data involved; designing an eclectic model for the analysis of the chosen data based on the framework adopted by Kreidler (1998) on speech act types, cooperative principle and maxims by Grice (1975), and Thomas’ (1995) forms of non-observance of the cooperative maxims; analysing the chosen data in accordance with the eclectic model by using mixed methods research: qualitative and quantitative; and, last, drawing conclusions to test the validity of the hypotheses. It is worth noting that the extracts undergoing analysis are ten ─ taken from three episodes for each of the seasons 2019, 2021, and 2022 as well as 2020 New Year Special.
Last but not least, the study is culminated with some conclusions inter alia:
1. Hyperbole occurs in British sitcoms by means of a number of aspects on top of which are pragmatic aspects like direct/indirect speech acts and cooperative maxims non-observance.
2. Not all types of speech acts are made to show and express something hyperbolically. Nor are indirect speech acts the most dominant ones when it comes to create hyperbolic meanings.
3. To identify some speech act(s) is not always clear-cut. Indirectness and subtle messages in communication make the matter rather complicated and consequently such classifications might require more subjectivity and intuition on the part of the judging reader than objectivity.