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Figurative Meaning Construction in Thought and Language
Edited by Annalisa Baicchi
[Figurative Thought and Language 9] 2020
► pp. 91–106

Intensification via figurative language

| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Figurative language, generally speaking, involves intended meaning; it is employed in order to communicate something beyond the very meaning of the elements of a construction. This is largely accomplished by the incongruence of domains, scripts, frames or entities that participate in the conceptualization and the expression of figuration. Irony, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or metonymy are witnessed to come to the surface, depending on the degree of incongruity between sources and targets. Each figurative process highlights different degrees of intensification. Intensification seems also to be due not only to the type of figure but to two additional parameters as well: the evocation of more than one figure and the special constructional patterns of the usage involved.

Keywords: constructional patterns, figuration, figurative processes, incongruity, intensification, lexicogrammar, opposition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Interaction between figures in a construction
  • 3.Constructions
  • 4.Conceptual incongruity and intensification
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.9.04ath
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