Russian language today is one of the ten most beautiful and, according to linguists, it has about half a million words, not including professionalism and dialects. The great Russian writers contributed to the development of the Russian literary language, thanks to which the language was replenished with artistic and expressive means that are used in writing and in speech today.
The development of the Russian literary language and the first paths
Literary Russian language began to form in the XI century, during the existence of the state of Kievan Rus. Then the first chronicles and masterpieces of ancient Russian literature were created. A thousand years ago, the authors used the artistic and expressive means of the language (paths): personification, epithet, metaphor, hyperbole and litota. Examples of these terms are still prevalent in fiction and everyday speech.
The concepts of "hyperbole" and "litota"
Hearing for the first time the term "hyperbole", history experts will surely relate it to the legendary country of Hyperborea, and mathematicians will recall the line consisting of two branches, which is called hyperbole. But how does this term refer to literature? Hyperbola is a stylistic figure that is used to enhance the expressiveness of a statement and deliberate exaggeration. It is easy to guess that the term has an antonym, because if the language has means for exaggeration, there must certainly be a stylistic figure that serves to understate. Such an artistic expressive means is litota. The following examples will clearly show what a litota is and how often it is used in speech.
The millennial history of hyperbole
Hyperbole is very often found in ancient Russian literature, for example, in the “Word on Igor's Regiment”: “You call the morning in Polotsk, early at the holy Sophia's bells, but he heard the ringing in Kiev”. Analyzing the proposal, we can clarify the meaning: the sound of a bell ringing in Polotsk came to Kiev! Of course, in reality this cannot be, otherwise the inhabitants of nearby settlements would have lost their hearing. The term is of Latin origin: hyperbole in translation means "exaggeration." Almost all poets and writers used the hyperbola, but Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin stood out especially for its frequent use in their works. So, in Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” on the table stood “a watermelon of seven hundred rubles” - another exaggeration, because a watermelon cannot be so expensive if it is, of course, not gold. Mayakovsky’s sunset in his "Extraordinary Adventure" glowed "one hundred and forty suns", that is, incredibly bright.
Literature in Literature
Having ascertained the importance of hyperbole, it will be completely easy to figure out what a litota is. Gogol also often referred to this term. In the novel "Nevsky Prospect" he described the mouth of one person so small that he could not miss more than two pieces. In Nikolai Nekrasov, in the famous poem "Peasant Children", the hero is a peasant with a marigold, but this does not mean his growth by a centimeter: with a molten author, he only wanted to emphasize that an old short man carries a heavy armful of firewood. Suggestions with a cast can be found in other authors. By the way, this term came from the Greek word litotes, which means "simplicity, restraint."
Litota and hyperbole in everyday speech
A person, not noticing it himself, uses hyperbole and litota in everyday life very often. If you can still guess the meaning of hyperbole thanks to the well-known single-root verb “hyperbolize” what is litota - for many it remains a mystery. Having gone broke, the rich man will say: “I have money - the cat wept”, and when you see a tiny girl walking down the street, you can see what kind of “inch” she is, and if it’s a little guy - “boy with a finger”. These are the most common examples of litota. Each of us also uses hyperbole very often, for example, when we met with a friend by chance, the first remark would be “I have not seen each other for a hundred years”, and a mother who is tired of making the same remark to her fidget-son will say: “I told you a thousand times!”. So, we can once again conclude that not everyone knows what litota and hyperbole are, but even a three-year-old child uses these techniques.
