Characterising Irony

A Systematic Approach to Literary and Linguistic Texts
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-02355-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 390 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Rhetoric and Stylistics

This book offers a systematic, bottom-up account of irony across both everyday contexts and literary and linguistic texts, using an empirically rigorous approach in distinguishing between central irony, non-central ironies, and non-ironies and highlighting a new way forward for irony research.

The volume considers the current landscape of irony, in which the term is used with increasing frequency with the knock-on effect of a loosening of its meaning. Pattison addresses this challenge by applying a systematic form of analysis, rooted in frameworks from pragmatics and complementary disciplines, to a database of over 500 irony candidates from a wide range of sources. The book uses these examples to illustrate the features of central ironies as well as the attributes used to differentiate between central ironies, non-central ironies, and non-ironies. These attributes are mapped across four key domains, including: difference and opposition; the role of context; how ironies are signaled; and speaker attitude and intention. Taken together, the volume puts forth a credible account for more clearly characterizing examples of irony and equips researchers with a comprehensive step-by-step method for undertaking future research.

This book is key reading for scholars in stylistics, pragmatics, literary studies, and psycholinguistics.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pattison, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents



List of figures

List of tables

1 Defining irony

Some important considerations in differentiating verbal irony from its derivatives

Differentiating ironies

Summary and overview of the book

2 What is irony?

Defining irony

The traditional rhetoric view of irony

Literary works on irony

Pragmatics accounts of irony

Other notable accounts of irony

Summary

3 Characterising ironies

Selection of irony candidates for the database

Prototypes

Methods for establishing prototypical irony

Applying the prototypical attributes of irony

Initial selection of central ironies for testing

Summary

4 Pilot database analysis of central ironies

Overview of database analysis of central irony attributes

Analysis of opposition

Results from the analysis of opposition

Results from the analysis of Context Compatibility

Results from the analysis of Polarity

Results of an analysis of the Function Attribute

Results of an analysis of the Assertion Attribute

Results of an analysis of the Participation Attribute

Results of an analysis of the Target Attribute

Results of an analysis of the Signal Attribute

Evaluating the Accessibility Attribute

Simple analysis of three central ironies

Summary and conclusions

5 Towards a systematic and precise analysis of irony candidates

Use of Levinson's Q-, I- and M-principles

Use of Possible Worlds Theory

Analysis of "one of the most exciting conventions"

Analysis of "just as everything was going so well"

Analysis of Mr. Bennet's "you've delighted us long enough"

Implications for central and non-central ironies

6 Clarifying the boundary between irony and non-irony

A clear example of non-irony

Isn't it ironic that…?

Examples characterised by playful negation

Dramatic irony

Examples of Flagrant K-world mismatches in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake

Summary and conclusions

7 Analysis of non-central ironies

Selecting, grouping and analysing non-central irony candidates

Analysis of examples with opposition between implicatures (Group A)

Implications for the status of candidates where there is opposition between implicatures

Analysis of examples with feigned ignorance (Group B)

Considerations of the status of candidates where there is feigned ignorance

Analysis of candidates that are characterised by an irony involving a speech act other than straightforward assertions (Group C)

Implications for the status of candidates that are characterised by an irony focus involving a speech act other than straightforward assertions

Analysis of candidates characterised by playful criticism (Group D)

Implications for the status of candidates characterised by playful criticism

Analysis of candidate with pretended underestimation of the target’s knowledge (Group E)

Implications for the status of candidates characterised by playful criticism

Summary and conclusions

8 Conclusion

Evaluating my approach

Characterising irony

Future studies of irony

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Steven Pattison is an associate professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, where he teaches English. His research and teaching interests include L2 reading; pragmatics, particularly Gricean and (Neo-)Gricean theory; and stylistics, in particular the study of irony in different genres of texts. He is currently researching the intersection of stylistics and cultural analysis of literary texts as a medium for language learning and teaching.