Table Of ContentIrony
Irony is an intriguing topic, central to the study of meaning in
language. This book provides an introduction to the pragmatics
of irony. It surveys key work carried out on irony in a range of
disciplinessuchassemantics,pragmatics,philosophyandliterary
studies, and from a variety of theoretical perspectives including
Grice’s approach,Sperber andWilson’s echoicaccount,and Clark
andGerrig’spretencetheory.Itlooksatanumberofusesofirony
and explores how irony can be misunderstood cross-culturally,
before delving into the key debates on the pragmatics of irony: is
irony always negative? Why do speakers communicate via irony,
and which strategies do they usually employ? How are irony and
sarcasm different? Is irony always funny? To answer these ques-
tions, basic pragmatic notions are introduced and explained.
Thebookincludesmultipleexamplesandactivitiestoenableread-
erstoapplythetheoreticalframeworkstoactualeverydayinstances
ofirony.
joana garmendia is an assistant professor in the Department
of Basque Language and Communication at the University of the
BasqueCountry.SheistheassistantsecretaryofthejournalGOGOA–
theInstituteforLogic,Cognition,LanguageandInformation(ILCLI)
journal, which is devoted to the study of language, knowledge,
communicationandaction–andamemberoftheresearchgroup
‘Language,Action,andThought’oftheILCLI.
KEY TOPICS IN SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS
KeyTopicsinSemanticsandPragmaticsfocusesonthemaintopics
ofstudyinsemanticsandpragmaticstoday.Itconsistsofaccessible
yetchallengingaccountsofthemostimportantissues,conceptsand
phenomenatoconsiderwhenexaminingmeaninginlanguage.Some
topicshavebeenthesubjectofsemanticandpragmaticstudyformany
yearsandarere-examinedinthisseriesinlightofnewdevelopmentsin
thefield;othersareissuesofgrowingimportancethathavenotsofarbeen
givenasustainedtreatment.Writtenbyleadingexpertsanddesignedto
bridgethegapbetweentextbooksandprimaryliterature,thebooksinthis
seriescaneitherbeusedoncoursesandseminarsorasone-stop,succinct
guidestoaparticulartopicforindividualstudentsandresearchers.Each
bookincludesusefulsuggestionsforfurtherreading,discussionquestions
andahelpfulglossary.
AlreadyPublishedintheSeries
MeaningandHumourbyAndrewGoatly
MetaphorbyL.DavidRitchie
ImperativesbyMarkJaryandMikhailKissine
ModificationbyMarcinMorzycki
SemanticsforCountingandMeasuringbySusanRothstein
ForthcomingTitles
Game-TheoreticPragmaticsbyAntonBenz
PragmaticsandthePhilosophyofLanguagebyMitchellGreen
DistributivitybyGeorgeTsoulasandEytanZweig
ImplicaturebyJacquesMoeschlerandSandrineZufferey
ExperimentalPragmaticsbyIraNoveck
SemanticsandPragmaticsinSignLanguagesbyKathrynDavidson
PropositionalLogicbyAllenHazenandJeffreyPelletier
Irony
JOANA GARMENDIA
UniversityoftheBasqueCountry
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA
477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia
314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,
NewDelhi–110025,India
79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107092631
DOI:10.1017/9781316136218
©JoanaGarmendia2018
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2018
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Garmendia,Joana,1978–author.
Title:Irony/JoanaGarmendia.
Description:Cambridge,U.K.;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,[2018]|
Series:Keytopicsinsemanticsandpragmatics
Identifiers:LCCN2017053335|ISBN9781107092631(hardback)
Subjects:LCSH:Irony.|Witandhumor.|Semantics–Research.|Pragmatics–
Research.
Classification:LCCP301.5.I73G272018|DDC809/.918–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017053335
ISBN978-1-107-09263-1Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Amari,aitari.
Etadatorrenari.
Contents
ListofFigures pagexi
Acknowledgements xii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 TypesofIrony 3
1.1.1 SituationalIrony 3
1.1.2 DramaticIrony 6
1.1.3 VerbalIrony 7
1.2 Irony’sSiblings 9
1.3 IronyandRhetoric 11
1.4 IronyandPragmatics 13
1.5 SuggestedReading 16
1.5.1 OverviewsonIrony 16
1.5.2 SituationalIrony 16
1.5.3 Pragmatics 16
2 IronyasOpposition 17
2.1 Grice 18
2.2 Problems 25
2.2.1 ToMakeasiftoSay 26
2.2.2 IronywithNoFlouting 27
2.2.3 Non-DeclarativeIrony 28
2.2.4 ThePointofIrony 29
2.3 SomeDevelopments 31
2.3.1 SpeechActTheory 31
2.3.2 TheAsif-Theory 33
2.3.3 IronyasIndirectNegation 38
vii
viii Contents
2.4 Summary 39
2.5 SuggestedReading 40
2.5.1 Grice 40
2.5.2 Grice’sProblems 40
2.5.3 SomeDevelopments 41
3 IronyasEcho 42
3.1 TheEchoicAccount 42
3.2 Problems 53
3.2.1 Echo 54
3.2.2 Dissociation 57
3.3 SomeDevelopments 59
3.3.1 EchoicReminderTheory 59
3.3.2 Curco´’sProposal 61
3.4 Summary 63
3.5 SuggestedReading 63
3.5.1 SperberandWilson 63
3.5.2 CriticismsoftheEchoicAccount 64
3.5.3 SomeDevelopments 64
4 IronyasPretence 65
4.1 ThePretenceTheory 65
4.2 Problems 71
4.3 PretenceversusEcho 73
4.3.1 InFavourofPretence 74
4.3.2 InFavourofEcho 75
4.3.3 TypesofIrony 78
4.3.4 TypesofVictims 78
4.3.5 TheSpeaker’sToneofVoice 79
4.4 SomeDevelopments 79
4.4.1 Walton,RecanatiandCurrie 79
4.4.2 TheAllusionalPretenceTheory 84
4.5 Summary 86
4.6 SuggestedReading 86
4.6.1 ClarkandGerrig’sPretenceTheory 86
4.6.2 CriticismsofthePretenceTheory 87
4.6.3 SomeDevelopments 87
