The use of hyperbole in the english language

Hotman

Hey there,

Recently i've really started focusing on what people are saying to me. Like the words and phrases and expressions they're using when talking to me or others etc. What the thread is about is i get kind of annoyed with just the MASSIVE amount of hyperbole used in almost every single aspect of our conversations/presentations etc, does anyone know why this is? or know what it is that causes this?
I mean if you're always saying every game or movie is amazing how then would you ever let someone know when you're truely amazed with something? It'd be like the boy who cried wolf.

Just a quick example of what i mean, people throw around words that have deep specific meanings so nonchalantly in our language, it's hard for me to decipher when someone is truely feeling the way they're saying they are when something really affects them due to them always using such meaningful words in non meaningful ways.

Example. "i played this game for hours, theres some control problems and the graphics arn't great but overall it's an amazing game".. amazing? like the definition of that word if he meant what he said would literally mean the person was absolutely floor by this game.. like he couldn't believe his eyes and couldn't get enough of something for months maybe.

Then the very next game he talks about he says is amazing, incredible, fantastic, immense, colossal or whatever words they choose which all have very meaningful and specific descriptions, when they found something kind of fun or kind of cool.

Another one is the use of words like "i saw her her trying to apologise to her boss today, it was hilaaaaarious". When really they saw it and thought, thats funny and maybe smiled a bit. They certaintly didn't find it hilarious which would mean the person would nearly be going into convulsions on the floor because they can't breathe with the amount of laughing they'd be doing.

It may sounds a little pompus of me to analyse how people speak in general, im simply asking why we would use such strong words for such light conversation.

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated as it would be nice to know your thoughts on this.

T

Jammysticks

I think the main reason we do this (and pretty much everybody does--no hyperbole there) is that we want people to listen to us when we talk, and be entertained by what we have to say. It sounds a bit cynical alright, but most of us do this without even realising. Saying that something was 'hilaaaarious' when it wasn't really, is just a way of making the story more interesting, and by extension, making ourselves more interesting. People tend not to talk about things purely to inform others. We also want to entertain them, to make them laugh, and to get them on our side. This is hard to do without a bit of hyperbole. If people were newspapers, we'd find the tabloids more craic than the broadsheets.

I guess another reason people do this is out of laziness. It is easy to list off a few poor aspects of a playstation game, say, and to conclude that despite these, the game is great overall. It is much more difficult in normal conversation to diligently list the pros and cons of a particular game, and to conclude by giving a perfectly fitting adjective. Maybe some people bother to do this, but most don't.
I think you're right on the boy who cried wolf point. If everything is 'amazing' then how can we know when someone is truly blown away by something? I think that in most cases, you'll know by how much they talk about that particular thing, and maybe even by how many times they say the word 'amazing'. Maybe an amaze-ometer should be invented to count how many times somebody says the word in a conversation. That would be, like, literally the best thing ever.

Hotman

Jammysticks wrote: »

I think the main reason we do this (and pretty much everybody does--no hyperbole there) is that we want people to listen to us when we talk, and be entertained by what we have to say. It sounds a bit cynical alright, but most of us do this without even realising. Saying that something was 'hilaaaarious' when it wasn't really, is just a way of making the story more interesting, and by extension, making ourselves more interesting. People tend not to talk about things purely to inform others. We also want to entertain them, to make them laugh, and to get them on our side. This is hard to do without a bit of hyperbole. If people were newspapers, we'd find the tabloids more craic than the broadsheets.

I guess another reason people do this is out of laziness. It is easy to list off a few poor aspects of a playstation game, say, and to conclude that despite these, the game is great overall. It is much more difficult in normal conversation to diligently list the pros and cons of a particular game, and to conclude by giving a perfectly fitting adjective. Maybe some people bother to do this, but most don't.
I think you're right on the boy who cried wolf point. If everything is 'amazing' then how can we know when someone is truly blown away by something? I think that in most cases, you'll know by how much they talk about that particular thing, and maybe even by how many times they say the word 'amazing'. Maybe an amaze-ometer should be invented to count how many times somebody says the word in a conversation. That would be, like, literally the best thing ever.

Actually that's a very good point you've given there regarding the story or entertainment element of conversation from person to person, i suppose it adds another dynamic or dimension to storys. And like the PS1 game thing, apart from this and that, the game over all is still good and i enjoyed it. That would be perfectly acceptable, but nah, they give it "It was an amaaazing game overall" lol.
Here's an example (and the main reason i wrote this thread). now note im not at all pissed with the guy, i like his work and really find him interesting, but he's one of the biggest offenders when it comes to hyperbole and the word AMAZING. Here he has recently bought 40+ games, and he tells you about each one, from crappy NES and Master system games to really old pixely PC games from the 90's that are honestly only average.
Have a look and see if you notice what i mean dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxHjm37WgxQ

Jammysticks

Yeah ha, I get what you mean. Maybe this guy in particular just really loves games.

Hotman

Jammysticks wrote: »

Yeah ha, I get what you mean. Maybe this guy in particular just really loves games.

Yeah i understand he might, but he only played most of those for a few minutes just to capture the video's for his video, yet he's handing our amazing's like m n m's. The only couple of games i'd call great (not amazing, it's just WAY to strong a word, i've literally never been Amazed by anything) MGS3, MGS4, FF7, FF9 and a few others. This guy has like 3000 games he hasn't played or played only for a few mins of each, yet he calls them amazing "the controls are amazing in this game, the graphics are amazing in this game when talking about NES games etc) (he really does)

Hotman

And another guy im watching reviewing games just picked up Rayman for the Jaguar ,,, Rayman like... and he said "The graphics looked amazing and the colours were amazing".. lol RAYMAN...

Yakuza

Everything being "epic" these days annoys the bejaysus out of me.

Hotman

Yakuza wrote: »

Everything being "epic" these days annoys the bejaysus out of me.

indeed. everything no matter how bog or small commands the most thought provoking words to be associated with it