Figures of replacement Figures of Quantity

Hyperbole is the use of a word, a word-group or a sentence which exaggerates the real degree of a quantity of the thing spoken about. It is a distortion of reality for the purpose of visualization or strengthening the emotional effect. It is also an important expressive literary device, often employed for humouristic purposes. E.g.:

«One after another those people lay down on the grass to laugh - and two of them died» (Twain).

Understatement consists in lessening, reducing the real quantity of the object of speech. The psychological essence of understatement is more complicated than that of hyperbole. The hearer is expected to understand the intentional discrepancy between what the speaker says about the object and what he really thinks about it. E.g.:

«I was half afraid you had forgotten me».

Litotes is a specific variety of understatement consisting in expressing the lessened degree of quantity of a thing by means of negation of the antonym. The negation of the antonym expresses the positive idea but in a somewhat lessened degree. E.g., «not bad» in the meaning of «good», or «little harm will be done by that».