Why use constructional hyperboles? Exploring the communicative functions of constructional hyperboles in the sitcom Friends

Abstract

The present study emerges from the need to analyse hyperbole, a highly productive figure of speech, which has received scarce attention in comparison with metaphor and metonymy (Peña & Ruiz de Mendoza, 2017, 2022). Framed within the Lexical Constructional Model, this paper embraces the findings in Ruiz de Mendoza & Galera (2014), Peña & Ruiz de Mendoza (2017, 2022), who are concerned with understanding the cognitive processes involved in the production and interpretation of hyperbole. The aims of the current research are twofold: (i) to advance the existing knowledge on constructional hyperboles, and (ii) to explore the communicative functions of such constructions in the sitcom Friends. To examine hyperbolic functions, we followed Cano Mora’s (2011: 105-127) classification of communicative functions connected with the production of hyperbole.