[Abstract] Verbal irony, as a widely used figure of speech, has received considerable attention from cognitive psychologists and linguists. The traditional study of verbal irony from rhetorical and aesthetical approaches has been shifted to current cognitive and pragmatic investigation. In this paper, focus will be laid upon the humor feature of verbal irony from the perspective of pragmatics. First, through the comparison of different kinds of definitions of irony, a general idea about what is irony is established. Then, this paper examines the Cooperative Principle (CP for short) of American linguist Grice which put forwards that irony acts as a violation of CP. Last but not the least, with the help of the comparison of the pragmatic functions of English irony and Chinese irony, the humor feature of verbal irony can be well displayed. In English, irony could be used to state one’s negative attitude to something. It could be used as a means to satirize, an approach to politeness, an approach to humor. Chinese irony can be classified into five types from the perspective of pragmatic functions as follows: irony for commendation and derogation, irony for satire, irony for fun, irony for affection and irony for emphasis. The pragmatic functions of irony in both languages are similar.
[Key Words] verbal irony; pragmatic function; humor; English and Chinese ironies 【摘 要】 反语作为一种普遍使用的修辞格，引起了认知心理学家和语言学家的关注。反语探讨的角度从传统的修辞学和美学转向了认知心理学和语用学的探索。本文首先从定义和分类上，对反语进行认知层面上的归纳总结。其次，基于语用学角度略论了反语与合作准则和礼貌准则的关系。反语违反合作准则主要体现在对质量原则的违反上。反语作为一种间接言语，成为礼貌的一种手段。反语准则独立于礼貌准则之外，英语论文，是对礼貌准则的一大补充。此外，反语是言语幽默的一种表现形式。英汉反语的语用功能大致相似，但也存在不少异同。文中对此差异进行归纳总结，从而得知，英语论文网站，反语的幽默属性是其基本属性，在其语用功能中也得到了很好的体现。
【关键词】反语；语用功能；幽默；英汉反语 1. Introduction
Irony is a common linguistic phenomenon in verbal communication. Recent years have seen a mushroom growth of distinctly angled theorizations in this orientation, which nevertheless exhibit strong complementarity. Traditionally, irony is treated as a figure of speech whose intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words uttered. The study of irony in this way belongs to that of rhetoric. American linguist Grice takes irony as one of those figures of speech that flouts the Cooperative Principle (CP for short), especially the Maxim of Quality. Irony interpreted under this pragmatic model conveys the contradiction of what is literally said. Linguists Sperber and Wilson treat irony as an echoic mention while linguist Cuddon states that “At its simplest, verbal irony involves saying what one doesn’t mean.” [1]
In this paper, focus will be laid upon the humor feature of verbal irony from the perspective of pragmatics. First, through the comparison of different kinds of definitions of irony, a general idea about what is irony is established. Secondly, this paper examines Gricean Cooperative Principle which put forwards that irony acts as a violation of CP. Thirdly, with the help of Leech’s idea of irony, the pragmatic function of irony could be better displayed. Finally, the last point is about the pragmatic functions of both English irony and Chinese irony. In a word, irony is one way to produce humor in verbal communication. 2. What is irony
It is difficult to define the word of “irony” which could be understood in various ways. The expansion of its research area may be the direct cause of the diversity of the definition of irony. The following are some definitions of irony from dictionaries. 2.1 Dictionary definitions of irony
1) Expression of one’s meaning by saying the direct opposite of one’s thoughts in order to be emphatic, amusing, sarcastic, etc.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary
2) Use of words which are clearly opposite to one’s meaning, usually either in order to be amusing or to show annoyance (e.g. by saying ‘What charming behaviour’ when someone has been rude.)
Longman Dictionary of English Language &Culture (English-Chinese)
3) Irony is a literary technique that achieves the effect of saying one thing and meaning another through the use of humor or mild sarcasm.
Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
4) The use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning.
Webster English Dictionary
5) Irony is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense. This form of irony is called verbal irony, and differs from the stylistic device of dramatic irony.
English Rhetorical Options
6) Definition of irony from Grolier International Dictionary:
a). An expression or utterance marked by such a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning, for humorous or rhetorical effect.
b). Incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs.
The above definitions, although explained by different experts from different angles, roughly display the nature of irony from both the form and function. Among these definitions, the basic meaning of irony could be found as “saying one thing but meaning another.” The best description of irony, say, the Grolier International Dictionary, takes both the form and function of irony into consideration and gives us a better picture. However, all of these definitions have some shortcomings. First, none of them provides an effective way to identify irony from non-irony. Second, they basically regard irony as a trope or a figure of speech whose literal and connotative meanings are mutually opposed to each other. This traditional understanding has been under challenges by modern research. |
