1st Edition
Characterising Irony A Systematic Approach to Literary and Linguistic Texts
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.
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 assertionsAnalysis 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
Biography
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.
