A Cognitive Approach To Production Mechanism Of Hyperbole

Hyperbole, as an effective device, is widely employed in our daily life,which refers to intentionally enlarging or reducing the image of an objectin order to increase the expressing effects with the help of abundantimaginations. Hyperbole serves as outstanding the natures of an object,increasing the author’s certain feelings and arousing the reader’sassociations.Taking the cases of Li Bai’s poems as examples, based on the newconceptual blending-relevance model (CBR) proposed after integratingRelevance Theory (RT) and Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT), thispaper aims to study hyperbole under the framework of CBR model. Byusing the advanced CBR model, this paper tries to conduct a relativefull-round analysis of hyperbolic expressions with a view to probing intotheir production mechanisms of hyperbole.The analysis shows that conceptual integration network with seekingoptimal relevance can account for the interpretation of metaphoricalhyperbole in poems. In this model, the elements in two input spaces connect with counterparts by relevance, what the two inputs share isoptimal relevance which is put in generic space. Only relevant elementscan be projected to the blend space. Elements in the blend space areblended and then become the emergent structure, which hyperbole lies in.The thesis sets up this model and applies it on samples to prove itsfeasibility.So the newly built CBR model for hyperbole comprehension hasgreat explanation power for the internal cognitive mechanism ofhyperbole production process, which also develops a brand new way forhyperbole research.