Convergence of metaphorization and hyperbolization (semantic space expansion): Tropeic and cognitive aspects

The aim of this article is to study the metaphorization and hyperbolization processes in a comparative aspect. The material of the study is 14 contexts of the use of metaphors, hyperbolic and hyperbolic metaphors, one of the verbalization elements of which is a lexeme with the spatial meaning “sea”. The study of these tropes with a spatial component is due to the importance of this category in the worldview in general and the linguistic worldview in particular. The material source is the Russian National Corpus. In the course of the research, methods of description, comparison, generalization, as well as the method of contextual analysis were applied. As a result of this study, it was revealed that hyperbole is an independent trope that implements an emotional and evaluative functions in language. The hyperboles with a spatial component considered in this paper implement the function of subjective evaluation. Hyperbole can function as an independent trope, as well as interact with other types of tropes (in this work, with a metaphor), forming a single trope system that verbalizes a certain image, form a hyperbolic metaphor, preserving the function of subjective assessment and acquiring new characteristics. The imagery of hyperbole, the conceptualization of an individual’s experience or a fragment of experience in this type of trope, as well as the existence of a hyperbolic metaphor combining the properties of metaphor and hyperbole, allow us to speak about the cognitive and perceptual nature of hyperbole, as well as the general formation mechanisms of these tropes. The paper concludes that hyperbolization is a special case of the metaphorization process, the result of which is a trope (hyperbole).