A Pragma-rhetorical Study of Hyperbole in American Press Discourse

This study tackles hyperbole in american press discourse from a pragma-rhetorical perspective. studying hyperbole pragma-rhetorically in american press discourse has not received enough attention. accordingly, this study attempts to develop a pragma-rhetorical model for the analysis of hyperbole. it is hypothesized that pathos is the most pragma-rhetorical strategy employed to persuade the audience through hyperbolic utterances. also, metaphor is the most common pragma-rhetorical device utilized in american press discourse. finally, hyperbole is used in american press discourse for different pragmatic functions and evaluation is the most frequent function. to test these hypotheses, qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted. 30 situations selected randomly from 4 american newspapers are analyzed. the results supports the first and second hypothesis but neglect the third one.